Has the warning came to late?
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1984 is George Orwell's frightening view of the (inevitable) future.
In 1984 George Orwell describes a society ruled by a figure (who may or may not exist) called Big Brother. Big Brother (head of a party called ingsoc) is in control of every aspect of life in Oceana (the new name for Britain). Ingsoc is an oppressive regime based on propoganda, war, lies and fear mongering. Ingsoc's maintain's it's control through it's all seeing and all hearing telescreens and it's highly efficient emotion seeking thought police who's mission it is to seek out enemies of big brother.
This book is abnormally good and should be seen as a warning to future generations about totalitarean governments and oppression. With Bush and his regime in power and Britain becoming more and more like a police state, has the warning came to late?
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Is this the future?
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The introduction to this edition of 1984 proposes that because the year has passed and the world has not turned into Orwell's nightmare the book has lost its edge. On reading the novel this is clearly not the case! This is book is about the potential for the future not about 1984. I first read this book at school some 10 years ago now and on re-reading it becomes apparent that indeed some of Orwell's predicitions have come true in that time, the introduction of the lottery for instance. I highly recommend this book for anyone. It seems pure fantasy but makes you think and wonder. It makes you wonder could it be possible or indeed is it already happening.
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1984 is a critique of the excesses of the left and right.
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1984 is an attack on the totalitarianism of Stalinism and the extreme versions of Capitalism. Like Kafka's, 'The Trial' preceding it, and Albert Camus', 'The Outsider' following it; 1984 is the portrayal of an individual refusing to accept a cold and bureaucratic world. When Winston Smith writes in 'small, clumsy letters' the date, 'April 4th 1984', he commits his first act of rebellion and condemns himself to death. As soon as Winston rebels however, he finds an attachment with his fellow human being; eventually developing into a triumvirate consisting of: Julia, O'Brien and himself. Julia is 'about twenty-seven', 'swift' and 'athletic,' and Winston conducts an intense and passionate relationship with her. O'Brien is a member of the oligarchic Inner Party. He is heavy-built, with a brutal face; yet courteous and intelligent. England has been renamed, 'Airstrip One' and is part of the 'Oceanic' bloc which also includes: the Americas, Australasia and South Africa. Oceania is a society of acute mass paranoia, an ascetic society that attempts to repress sexual desire and a society of poverty and isolation. Winston belongs to the Outer Party and works in the Records Department, effectively contributing to the falsification of the past. The world of 1984 is replete with contradictions: the concept of Doublethink - that you can believe in one thing while still believing in its opposite, and blackwhite - where a party member is willing to believe black is white if the Party demands it. 'The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.' Julia has slept with 'dozens' of men but is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, and a society based on the collective has a leader who is a man-alone. O'Brien invites Winston to join the Brotherhood: an organisation based on the writings of the 'earliest defiler of the Party's purity,' - Emmanuel Goldstein. The book systemises Winston's thought and helps him believe he is not mad. Winston agrees to a rebellion with no limits. O'Brien asks, ' If for example, it would somehow serve our interests to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face - are you prepared to do that? Winston replies, 'Yes.' Even though the ruling party has no distinction between thought and deed, we should. Winston does not commit an atrocious act and is thus morally superior to O'Brien. Like Kaliayev in Camus' 'The Just', he may be unable to carry-out the inhumane. He doesn't smash Julia's skull when he thinks she is spying on him and when she falls, 'a curious emotion stir(s) in Winston's heart': He sees the enemy but he also sees a human being. The love story in 1984 has been highly underatted and can be argued to be it's guiding thread. It is certainly one of the most tragic love affairs in English Literature. When they betray each other and their love ceases to exist, there is nothing more melancholic and poignant than the rhyme: 'Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me.' The destruction of books, the diminution of language and the inability to write anything down are massive crimes for Orwell. It must be painful for Orwell to have Syme state: 'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.' How can they change the lines of Kipling? Even Syme cannot do it. Orwell may have been slightly naïve to write 1984 at the beginning of the cold war. It can easily be and has been interpreted by conservative critics as a polemic against socialism. Orwell never meant this and he stated not long after the work was published that it was a critique of the excesses of both the left and right. Orwell was a democratic socialist and fought Franco in the Spanish Civil War to prove it. Orwell never renounced socialism and the humanity of his novels show it. 1984 has a beauty and simplicity of prose. It has a clarity of thought and pervades feeling. Winston is one of the great hereos of the novel and like Joseph K and Mersault, refuses to lie. Unlike Joseph K and Mersault however, he is forced to submit. Much of the language of 1984 has entered the modern lexicon: Big Brother, Sex and Thought crime, Doublethink etc. Some of it's insights tell the story of present day society. The book is pessimistic, belies hope and leaves nothing to the individual will, but it is without doubt one of the greatest novels of last century and Orwell one of it's finest writers.
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