I've just begun reading 1984 by George Orwell, and it's one of the most interesting books I've ever come across.
*WARNING: LONG POST*
It takes place in London in 1984, but a dystopian "future" London(this book was written in the 1940's), Britain has been renamed to Airstrip 1, and it is part of a country called Oceania.
The main character is a man named Winston Smith, he's a average man, he works at the Ministry of Truth, a giant concrete pyramid building towering over the rest of London, on the building there is three lines of text, "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH", the slogan of the Minstry. There are three more ministries that make up the authoritarian government of 1984, all of them are also housed in similar concrete pyramid buildings, the Ministry of Peace, which deals with war, the Minsitry of Love, which deals with law and order, and the Ministry of Truth with entertainment, media, and other things, and the Ministry of Plenty which deals with economic affairs, according to the Ministries themselves(their names are actually pretty ironic, and the opposite of what they do and represent).Their names in "Newspeak": Minipax, Miniluv, Minitrue, and Miniplenty
Newspeak is basically a simplified form of English without the vocabulary to express dissent, if people do not have the vocabulary to express revolutionary thought, no revolution against the government will take place.
The country is run by a man who is simply known as "Big Brother", and the ruling party is known as "Ingsoc", which is newspeak for "English Socialism"
The baisc premise of 1984, is that, there is no objective truth, the truth is whatever the party says. Winston's job and the job of countless others in his department of the Ministry of Truth is to alter past newspapers and other documents to fit what the party and big brother think/want now.
For example, if a person goes against the state, that person is "vaporized", their are killed, and every record and reference to them is destroyed, they never existed.
If Big Brother or the Party makes a prediction that turns out to be wrong, all documents of that prediction are altered to fit what actually happened, and that's what it always was. The "past" doesn't exist, what happened is what the Party says happened.
Another example is this: In the Book, Oceania is at war with Eurasia, and allied with Eastasia, but just a few years ago they were allied with Eurasia and fighting against East Asia, but every document, newspaper, and person says otherwise.
In every room of every building in Oceania, there is a telescreen which watches the people inside the room 24/7. Hearing everything and seeing everything, although sometimes the telescreen cannot see you if one is standing is certain parts and corners of the room.
Everywhere there are posters, with a drawing of Big Brother, and the words "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" beneath the drawing, to remind them of the constant surveillance.
And as I mentioned earlier, the irony of the names of the Ministries: The Ministry of Truth deals with lies and covering up the past and what really happened, the Ministry of Peace deals with war, the Ministry of Plenty starvation, and the Minsitry of Love, torture.
These contradictions are not accidental, they are a deliberate excersize in "doublethink", a Newspeak term that means when one must accept two contradictory answers as true, usually the truth of the party(what the part said happened) and one's own memories/opinions.
Those who go against the party or what they say are "thought criminals" and are arrested in the middle of the night by the "thought police"
Overall this is a very interesting book, I would heavily reccomend it
*WARNING: LONG POST*
It takes place in London in 1984, but a dystopian "future" London(this book was written in the 1940's), Britain has been renamed to Airstrip 1, and it is part of a country called Oceania.
The main character is a man named Winston Smith, he's a average man, he works at the Ministry of Truth, a giant concrete pyramid building towering over the rest of London, on the building there is three lines of text, "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH", the slogan of the Minstry. There are three more ministries that make up the authoritarian government of 1984, all of them are also housed in similar concrete pyramid buildings, the Ministry of Peace, which deals with war, the Minsitry of Love, which deals with law and order, and the Ministry of Truth with entertainment, media, and other things, and the Ministry of Plenty which deals with economic affairs, according to the Ministries themselves(their names are actually pretty ironic, and the opposite of what they do and represent).Their names in "Newspeak": Minipax, Miniluv, Minitrue, and Miniplenty
Newspeak is basically a simplified form of English without the vocabulary to express dissent, if people do not have the vocabulary to express revolutionary thought, no revolution against the government will take place.
The country is run by a man who is simply known as "Big Brother", and the ruling party is known as "Ingsoc", which is newspeak for "English Socialism"
The baisc premise of 1984, is that, there is no objective truth, the truth is whatever the party says. Winston's job and the job of countless others in his department of the Ministry of Truth is to alter past newspapers and other documents to fit what the party and big brother think/want now.
For example, if a person goes against the state, that person is "vaporized", their are killed, and every record and reference to them is destroyed, they never existed.
If Big Brother or the Party makes a prediction that turns out to be wrong, all documents of that prediction are altered to fit what actually happened, and that's what it always was. The "past" doesn't exist, what happened is what the Party says happened.
Another example is this: In the Book, Oceania is at war with Eurasia, and allied with Eastasia, but just a few years ago they were allied with Eurasia and fighting against East Asia, but every document, newspaper, and person says otherwise.
In every room of every building in Oceania, there is a telescreen which watches the people inside the room 24/7. Hearing everything and seeing everything, although sometimes the telescreen cannot see you if one is standing is certain parts and corners of the room.
Everywhere there are posters, with a drawing of Big Brother, and the words "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" beneath the drawing, to remind them of the constant surveillance.
And as I mentioned earlier, the irony of the names of the Ministries: The Ministry of Truth deals with lies and covering up the past and what really happened, the Ministry of Peace deals with war, the Ministry of Plenty starvation, and the Minsitry of Love, torture.
These contradictions are not accidental, they are a deliberate excersize in "doublethink", a Newspeak term that means when one must accept two contradictory answers as true, usually the truth of the party(what the part said happened) and one's own memories/opinions.
Those who go against the party or what they say are "thought criminals" and are arrested in the middle of the night by the "thought police"
Overall this is a very interesting book, I would heavily reccomend it
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