Book Discussion: 1984 by George Orwell

[AchrisK]

So are you people reading this? I am just past the beginning of Part 2.

I am really enjoying it. More later.

 

[Dak]

One thing that caught my attention the first time I read it was the relative un-healthiness of [everything] with the exception of the countryside.

 

[AchrisK]

Totally. When he is describing how everything is dirty and greasy and dented and falling apart, and how the people all have that [I forget how he described it] look. It's so oppressive.

 

[False Joe]

Most depressing end to a book ever.
Srsly.

 

[AchrisK]

I haven't finished, and I have never read it before, so DON'T EFF IT UP FOR ME!!!

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

I profoundly disagree with one particular aspect of his view and vision of this sort of society, but at the same time, I'm not positive if it's a part of the message or viewpoint or rather just a host/result to something else, showing the bigger picture. Other than that, obvious classic of dystopian storytelling, which is one of my very favorite types..

 

[Dak]

What is it you disagree with? He is obviously painting the entire existence as futile and "devolving".

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

Not going to bite.

 

[Dak]

That wasn't bait....

 

[King Richard]

Never read this book, should I?

 

[AchrisK]

My first time, and I think it's worth the read so far. I am about 1/3 through. Good writing and a compelling story so far. I have no idea of the outcome of the book. None.

 

[Vossyrus]

I read this book a few years back, in school. I usually don't care for the books you're given to read, but this one wasn't bad at all.

 

[Einherjar86]

Never read this book, should I?

It's a classic, and one of the best dystopian novels ever written. George Orwell was fascinated with language as a means to oppression, and you can tell by the way he creates new words like "double-think" and "Newspeak" for the book. Language can be a powerful tool in controlling a population, and 1984 deals with that in part. Of course, there's also much more to it.

 

[The Heartbreak Kid]

At the end of the book George Orwell has an erection so hard, his heart explodes and he dies.

 

[AchrisK]

I think the phrase that caught me off guard the most to this point was "Facecrime". I was like

 

[AchrisK]

I like this section a lot:

His mother’s memory tore at his heart because she had died loving him, when he was too young and selfish to love her in return, and because somehow, he did not remember how, she had sacrificed herself to a conception of loyalty that was private and unalterable. Such things, he saw, could not happen today. Today there were fear, hatred, and pain, but no dignity of emotion, no deep or complex sorrows. All this he seemed to see in the large eyes of his mother and his sister, looking up at him through the green water, hundreds of fathoms down and still sinking.

 

[Death Aflame]

It's a classic, and one of the best dystopian novels ever written. George Orwell was fascinated with language as a means to oppression, and you can tell by the way he creates new words like "double-think" and "Newspeak" for the book. Language can be a powerful tool in controlling a population, and 1984 deals with that in part. Of course, there's also much more to it.

I have never read the book, but it seems like my bag. Does he deal with the concept of hegemony at all? (i.e. control through consent in the Gramscian sense)

 

[Zephyrus]

Brave New World is better.

 

[genocide roach]

i read this for school my senior year. its a creepy book, and once you read it and understand it, you start to see some of the things happening in our society.

once you finish this, you gotta read slaughter house 5. my favorite sci fi book
~gR~

 

[Vossyrus]

Brave New World is better.

I've read that one as well but I personally liked 1984 better.