Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
259 of 288 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The kind of distressing book you NEED to read... , August 7, 2004
Eric Arthur Blair was an important English writer that you probably already know by the pseudonym of George Orwell. He wrote quite a few books, but many believe that his more influential ones were "Animal farm" (1944) and "1984" (1948).In those two books he conveyed, metaphorically and not always obviously, what Soviet Russia meant to him.
I would like to make some comments about the second book, "1984". That book was written near his death, when he was suffering from tuberculosis, what might have had a lot to do with the gloominess that is one of the essential characteristics of "1984". The story is set in London, in a nightmarish 1984 that for Orwell might well have been a possibility, writting as he was many years before that date. Or maybe, he was just trying to warn his contemporaries of the dangers of not opposing the Soviet threat, a threat that involved a new way of life that was in conflict with all that the English held dear.
Orwell tried to depict a totalitarian state, where the truth didn't exist as such, but was merely what the "Big Brother" said it was. Freedom was only total obedience to the Party, and love an alien concept, unless it was love for the Party. The story is told from the point of view of Winston Smith, a functionary of the Ministry of Truth whose work involved the "correction" of all records each time the "Big Brother" decided that the truth had changed. The Party slogan said that "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past", and they applied it constantly by "bringing up to date" the past so as to make it coincide with whatever the Party wanted.
From Winston Smith's point of view, many things that scare us are normal. For example, the omnipresence of the "Big Brother", always watching you, and the "Thought Police" that punishes treacherous thoughts against the Party. The reader feels the inevitability of doom that pervades the book many times, in phrases like "Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you".
Little by little, Winston begins to realize that things are not right, and that they should change. We accompany him in his attempt at subversion, and are unwilling witnesses of what that attempt brings about. This book is marked by hopelessness, but at the same time it is the kind of distressing book we all NEED to read...
Why do we need to read "1984"?. In my opinion, basically for two reasons. To start with, Orwell made in this book many observations that are no more merely fiction, but already things that manage to reduce our freedom. Secondly, and closelly linked to my first reason, this is a book that only gets better with the passing of time, as you can read in it more and more implications. One of Orwell's main reasons for writting this "negative utopia" might have been to warn his readers against communism, but many years after his death and the fall of communism, we can also interpret it as a caution against the excessive power of mass media, or the immoderate power of any government (even those who don't defend communism).
Technological innovation should be at the service of men, and allow them to live better lives, but it can be used against them. I guess that is one of Orwell's lessons, probably the most important one. All in all, I think you can benefit from reading this book. Because of that, I highly recommend it to you :)
Belen Alcat
|
|
|
120 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Big Brother is watching you - read this book and see how!, May 25, 2000
George Orwell's classic was incredibly visionary. It is hardly fathomable that this book was written in 1948. Things that we take for granted today - cameras everywhere we go, phones being tapped, bodies being scanned for weapons remotely - all of these things were described in graphic detail in Orwell's book.Now that we have the Internet and people spying on other people w/ webcams and people purposely setting up their own webcams to let others "anonymously" watch them, you can see how this culture can develop into the Orwellian future described in "1984." If you've heard such phrases as "Big Brother," "Newspeak," and "thought crime" and wondered where these phrases came from, they came from this incredible, vivid and disturbing book. Winston Smith, the main character of the book is a vibrant, thinking man hiding within the plain mindless behavior he has to go through each day to not be considered a thought criminal. Everything is politically correct, children defy their parents (and are encouraged by the government to do so) and everyone pays constant allegiance to "Big Brother" - the government that watches everyone and knows what everyone is doing at all times - watching you shower, watching you having sex, watching you eat, watching you go to the bathroom and ultimately watching you die. This is a must-read for everyone.
|
|
|
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Orwell's chilling work of genius has more than meets the eye, September 13, 2001
Most people read 1984 when in high school; it's an accessible classic, with plenty of shock interest as well as literary value. I'm reviewing 1984 here for those who may already have read it. The overall theme of oppression and the fear of totalitarianism is well known; but there are underlying themes that are interesting reading indeed.For example, the excerpts of "the Book", purported to have been written by the underground resistance under Goldstein (or by the Party itself, if we are to believe O'Brian) is a mouthpiece for his social philosophy. In the fragment of three chapters, the ruling class, middle class and proletariat class (high, middle, low) are pitted in an eternal cycle where the high seek to exlude all others, the middle to achieve high status, and the low to simple create havoc and complete upheaval. Take a look if you haven't read this part of the book carefully. It's mighty interesting. Winston's relationship to O'Brian is also fascinating; the enigmatic O'Brian, Inner Party member and intellectual, has a fatal attraction for Winston--even more so than his passive affair with Julia. And when O'Brian breaks him in the Ministry of Truth, it is as much a surrender of love as it is a brainwashing. The interaction of Winston Smith and his persecutor is a uniquely written relationship. If you haven't re-read 1984 in a while, and especially if you read it when you were young, it's a great book to revisit.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Show more editions and formats
Show fewer editions and formats
by George Orwell
by Ray Bradbury
by Aldous Huxley
by Joseph Heller
by J.D. Salinger
See all Editorial Reviews
