REVIEW #53: 1984 by George Orwell, No spoilers, not that it matters, ha

Join me in my spite for this absolutely brilliant work of art? fiction? reality? Double Think your way into obedience. Slavery is Freedom! God is Power! Big Brother is Watching! 2 + 2 really can equal 5.

[@SteveTalksBooks]

Such a wonderful book

[@denofthewyrd]

I hate this book too.😂 Rarely have I been so wound up reading a novel... Such a bleak masterpiece.

[@MacScarfield]

To be fair to Orwell, in the late 1940s when the novel was published, with Stalin ruling half of Europe, Moscow-aligned Communist Parties on the rise in Free Western Europe and Mao about to take over China, his fear for a totalitarian future was not at all unfounded. But yeah, I share your fear that some do view it as an instruction rather than a warning (might add Xi Jinping in China, with suppressing Hong Kong and the Uighur are definitely having a boot in their face😔). But for most of the West, I think Aldous Huxley hit the nail better with his “Brave New World”, of how people can give up their freedom for mere convenience and willingly choose ignorance… Another interesting Dystopian story, is John Brunner’s “Stand on Zanzibar”: While his fears over overpopulation is in hindsight similarly overrated as Orwell’s fear of Authoritarianism, like Orwell hitting the nail on the surveillance society, I feel Brunner is scarily relevant on the issue of political violence!
Can recommend checking out the lectures by the late Professor Hans Rosling, which definitely gives hope for the future: Dystopia is not a given thing!
PS: While impossible to know for sure, one of the interesting theories I have heard about “1984”, is that Britain/“Airstrip 1” is actually a sort of impoverished country akin North Korea, that lies to its own populace about its greatness and world power and uses the wars (real or staged) to exploit them.
Cheers!

[@thefantasythinker]

Oh, the North Korean angle is interesting. Yes, I definitely think Orwell had Russia and China in mind and I think he was genuinely worried about them. Thanks for watching!

[@DoubleDietz]

Another great review. Thanks!

[@thefantasythinker]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

Some excellent doublespeak review 🙃🙃

[@thefantasythinker]

I don't know what you're talking about. That wasn't me 😁

[@liviajelliot]

An incredible review--you really need to do audiobook voices! That said, I think you hit all the key points within 1984. Double-think is such an incredibly complex concept and, as you said, a reflection of its era that, somehow, never stops being relevant--regardless of when one reads it. "Some use it as a playbook" and I think it's because he captured key aspects of totalitarianism so well that it seems to be a manual. The best review of 1984 I have watched, honestly!

[@thefantasythinker]

@@liviajelliot WOW thanks so much!

[@MichaelBLive]

Lots of memories around this book despite not ever actually reading it all the way through.

[@thefantasythinker]

ah, those wretched days of high school, ha