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Linking into my thread here – http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1638 How many people here have read 1984 by George Orwell, and what did they think of it?
If you haven’t read it, I recommend doing so. It is one of the best novels about social control and totalitarianism.
I read a long time ago, but my daughter recently read it for a class in high school so we had some discussion about it. Similar to another book I loved Atlas Shrugged it points out how easily people can be lead to accept the reality they are given or taught as the best course regardless of the facts that surround them. Whole generations of individuals or groups can be manipulated into mindless automatons and it is always portrayed as the most correct and absolute path to truth and prosperity. When diversity of thought is silenced intellectual bondage issues. Another book by Orwell Animal Farm was along the same type of story line but in a much more satirical format.
I read it and I also saw the movie. It’s a good book. The movie was pretty good too, with it’s last line “I love you”, which is left ambiguous to the audience as to its meaning….whether the main character loves his lost love, or whether he loves Big Brother after brainwashing….. Great books. One could actually put Huxley’s, A Brave New World into this same category. And maybe even The Giver. All four have a common moral, and should/are required reading for most high school students.
Interesting enough – I was reading Animal Farm the day I met my wife. It was in my back pocket, and she commented on it as it was one of her memorable reads – we talked about it for awhile and the rest is history.
Which film are you talking about SD? (just asking as there is more than one, one with John Hurt, and a more famous version) The mistake many people make is that 1984 is purely about Stalinism. It’s not. It’s also about the modern world and the media. The world is divided into what are effectively a Soviet/Russian block (Eurasia), a Chinese one (Eastasia), and an American/British type NATO one (Oceania). These are perpetually making war on one another, and breaking and forming alliances with one another. So Ingsoc is partly a criticism of the Britain Orwell found himself in, when he wrote it in 19*48* (geddit?)
Because it is a political novel, it’s difficult to get past that for the purposes of this board. However, it does describe certain unhealthy thought processes, forms of repression, historical revision and so on which people might relate to. I’d mainly recommend it as an antidote to repressive tendencies you might encounter within yourself, or around you.
Brilliant book! A must read for every human being IMHO. I’ve also read Atlas Shrugged, and Animal Farm. All of them were wonderful. My next dystopia is “Brave New World” which is sort of the opposite of 1984. My conclusion is that virtually all religions/groups/organizations have elements of totalitarian regimes and cult-like mind control mechanisms (because they are proven in unifying the group). In fact, sports teams, when analyzed from a cult perspective, are notoriously manipulative and authoritarian. I believe, however, that the differences lie in the degree to which these techniques are employed.
Clearly there is a difference between the USSR and the U.S. today, despite the fact that some elements of our economy are nearly socialized. Likewise, there is a difference between David Koresh’s clan and the LDS church. Where the situation gets particularly sticky is when we only accept the in-group reasoning for our chosen tribe. That is, I think most of us look at Scientology with a healthy amount of suspicion. But we ignore or otherwise justify similar aspects in our own group. There are many who view Mormonism and Scientology in the same manipulative vein.
Much prefer “The Fountainhead” to “Atlas Shrugged”, but I do rate Ayn Rand much as a writer.
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