1984

Rating:
Summary: Strong Good
Review: What can I say about this book that has not been said many times by people that are way more respected than me. This is a look at psychology as well as polotics. This novel reveals the strenghts' of human spirit as well as the weakness' of the human mind. Orwell wrote this book as a warning. Educate yourself, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A nightmarish look into totalitarian regimes
Review: The year 1984 is gone but the portrait George Orwell gives of the control a totalitarian regime exerts on the daily life of its citizens is not. Think about the actual dictatorships regimes in North Korea, Irak and Cuba and you have an idea of the portrait given by Orwell. In 1984 the world is divided in three super-powers, each one of them exerting total control of the lives of its inhabitants via all the means avaiable, turning the lives of them into real nightmares. The mechanisms of control are the total repudiation of love and its demonstrations between human beings, the incentive to finger-pointing, specially among family members, etc... The politics is based upon a permanent state of war againt external enemies, with alliances alternating themselves almost in a mechanical way. Thus, power has to be exerted with its utmost potency. A sci-fi still valid many years after 1984 and the fall of the Iron Curtain. A real classic.

Rating:
Summary: A disturbing look into the human mind...
Review: Imagine a world when every human being is under constant scrutiny...constant surveillance, by an unknown master. Everything, your thoughts, your emoticions, and even your past can be altered to fit an unknown diety's liking. Welcome to the mind of Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) in "1984"

From page one...the reader is captivated. He is introduced to Winston, and is granted access to his thoughts through a third-person narrarator. While walking down the street, he sees a giant poster with an unknown man reading "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." He sees a beautiful woman, and we are sucked into Winston's bizzare fantasies. He wants to rape her, and torture her, for no apparent reason but for the fact that she is "beautiful, and he can't have her." Disturbed? It gets worse...

In this brave new world, there is no individual. Free thought is obliterated, and all means of human satisfaction are (or are being) eliminated. Only "approved" literature may be read...and the news (and even history) is being knowingly altered by men and women whose sole purpose is to deceive the masses. A new language is being developed, which basically just dumbs down the English language to prevent people from truly expressing their emotions. After all, if they are surpressed for long enough, they will disappear. Sex is an act of pure duty, not of love. You have sex to reproduce...you get no pleasure out of it. This world has no place for love, because love is an emotion.

Thought manipulation is used to control the very fabric of the universe. This book is rich in metaphysics (the study of ultimate reality), and is similar to "The Matrix" in a sense. If I say to you "I can fly." You say to me, "I believe it". We come to the mutual agreement that I can fly. I believe I can fly, so I do. The person sees this, and I "flew" without leaving the ground. In order to gain the full loyalty of the masses...the lines between reality and fiction must be blurred...and eventually obliterated.

A full review of this book would be longer than the actual story. A man cannot express, in one lifetime and with a limited imagination, every idea that is given to us by this modern-day Nostradomis. George Orwell was one of the greatest geniuses, and most disturbed men to ever live. This story takes us into a world of fear that no nightmare can compare to. Alarming, disturbing, yet surprisingly realistic, this book may leave you in a feeling of utter hopelessness. A friend of mine said he wished "he was dead" after reading this book. A temporary but severe state of depression may very well overtake the reader upon the completion of "1984." Be forewarned, this is not a book for the light-hearted. However, it will stretch your imagination to a breaking point. It will leave you in a state of enlightenment that you will never return from, and you know what? You won't ever regret it...

Rating:
Summary: Every Bit as Great as you've heard
Review: Mark Twain said a classic is a book that everyone talks about and no one reads. I hope that cannot be said about 1984. I was assigned this book back in high school, and with apologies to Mr. Johnson, I read the Cliffs Notes instead. But since I am unable to discard a book, especially a classic, I have spent the ensuing years having it stare me back in the face. While the totalitarian warnings are well known and the 1984 terminology is widely used, I just couldn't believe how gripping the whole thing is. The main character, Winston Smith is no abstraction. He's easy to identify with. Suddenly totalitarianism isn't some far off gulag or death camp, but the horrors of a man alone.

The thoughts and details are slowly revealed in a way that you can really root for Winston. As he learns more about a world he scarcely remembers as ever being different, you hope that he is about to change everything. What does happen is a pretty good secret considering how much has already been written about this book. I've read other Orwell books since High School, but I'll admit that I was scared of 1984's classic nature. I shouldn't have been. Orwell was always easy to understand. His insistence on using straightforward language to convey complex issues makes the book easy to follow. Now, I regret that I will never have the pleasure of reading it again for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: WICKED BOOK!!!
Review: One word for this book. HAUNTING!!! This book and what is has to say will stick with you. HAUNTING literature at its finest and I would even be interested in reading books about the history and notes about the philosophical and social concerns of the author that compelled him to write this work aside from the plot. There is much said in this book about the idea of moral superiority, eco social class wars, history, power and even conditions of mass contentment versus revolution and insurrection and the how human nature negatively affects production in a totalitarian society. Even the limits of reason as a weapon in the face of cunning yet evil fanaticism. Fascinating and I even learn some general 20th Century philosophy and alot of good new vocabulary words if you are to proud to look them up. I recommend this book and wish to tell the reader that they can`t go wrong here. Read it in a few days. Very haunting./ Thanks George Orwell.

Rating:
Summary: Over the Top
Review: I read this book for the first time after noting all the comparisons various friends and journalists have made between the system of government in the book and the system into which American government is evolving.
But the book lacks subtlety and hits readers over the head with the details of tyranny. No doubt, Orwell writes this way to underscore the dangers of complete trust in government, but I find the plot to be so far fetched as to be unbelievable. NO form of government could ever gather the resources or achieve the efficiency needed to monitor each individual in the way the Party does. Wouldn't a more realistic cautionary tale be more effective and entertaining?

Rating:
Summary: Hackneyed but prophetic
Review: The power of Orwell's writing comes from the ideas expressed therein, not from the characterization or the quality of the writing. Orwell's characters in this novel are crafted of the finest cardboard, the writing is crafted of the finest of didactic lead, but the ideas therein are important -- because they are prophetic of what 2004 could be, and what 2003 may be becoming, if the current leadership of our country has its way.

Rating:
Summary: One of the "best", and most enduring, of the distopias.
Review: Written in 1949, this book has become such a part of the culture that even people who've never heard of it (if there are any such) would recognize the terms "doublethink" and "thoughtcrime", among others that this book introduced to the lexicon. The truly scary thing is not that there are noticeable similarities between our political culture and the culture portrayed in this book, but rather the even closer similarities between that culture and our corporate culture.

After all, in the corporate world, as in the "Oceana" of this book, the "proles" (common laborers) can pretty much think and say what they want, although it IS possible for individuals to go too far. But if one wants a comfortable life in an office job, one not only has to watch what one says, but how one says it, and what one can be demonstrated to think. If one is caught in the "thoughtcrime" of being insufficiently enthusiastic about one's company, or showing doubts about whether what it's doing is right or not, one will surely be "disappeared"; one's co-workers will show up one day and simply not find you there, and if anyone is foolish enough to ask what happened, they will simply be told, in a tone of voice that brooks no further questions, "s/he is no longer with the department". If the offense was serious enough, that person will never work in as high-level a position again, anywhere. They won't have been taken off and tortured; they will simply have been exiled to the status of common laborer, where they're no longer dangerous.

Also, if you doubt the existence of "doublethink", consider that corporations want honest, trustworthy employees, but heaven help the employee who speaks his/her mind (even quietly, on his/her own time) if it disagrees with corporate policy.

The real world may be more subtle than the novel, but truth is no less truth for being subtle.

Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: Many readers have trouble digesting books that are commonly accepted as classics. Books written many years ago often times fail to resonate with the modern reader. 1984, a book more than 50 years old, is a true classic that anyone can enjoy.

Unlike many accepted classics, this is not regal, dry, stuffy, nor thick. 1984 is mostly a light read, with some exception towards the end when Winston starts repeating from 'the book' to Julia. Other than that, words generally flow down the pages, and you quickly find yourself engrossed by the story, such that it becomes hard to put down...and hard to stomach at the same time.

Orwell creates a world that is both absurdly terrifying yet strangely familiar. Strangely familiar because of what we see happening right now in our present day history. Orwell proclaimed that he did not think 1984 would happen, but that it could happen. If he were still alive today, he would be no less convinced that it could happen.

Today, reality does not give us leadership which is this draconian. 1984 presents a possible reality; a reality that is an extreme case of government gone bad. While I don't see this as our eventual fate, I enjoy the eye-opening approach Orwell takes in creating this story to make his point.

The result of his foreboding is eye-opening and fear-inducing. Those familiar with Animal Farm will recognize his ability to paint a very nefarious, yet realistic, scenario in which leaders of any societal order strive to exclude. Those not familiar with Orwell are in for a treat and should read Animal Farm in addition to this.

This review is being written in early 2003. At the moment, US politicians are attempting to create legislation which will enable federal agents to track every electronic move that people make. In light of that, this book is a required read. Disregarding that, this book is still a required read.

While I do not think this book represents a potential reality, it does highlight the danger of losing one's freedom to think independently. And in that vein, Orwell forces you to ask questions about the core of humanity and just how far things could possibly go.

In perusing some of the 821 reviews of this book, I don't think it's fair to say that this is the best book ever written, or even one of the top 10 for that matter. It is a good book, and one that I highly recommend. But I cannot in good faith call it one of the best ever.

The only issue I might have is that Orwell does assume that the average person is so mentally broke that he could allow this to ever happen. I don't know if this was his aim, or if it's to proclaim this *would* happen if the upper echelon got their way. Then again, in the day and age of media-fed TV junkies, perhaps he was more right than he could possibly have known.

A very good book and certainly worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Now more than ever
Review: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

With these 3 contradictory statements, Orwell perfectly summarizes the inevitable end of all freedoms for mankind.

I have read this masterpiece over 10 times and each time I glean some new thoughts on the pitfalls of living in what we affectionately call "society." During my last three readings of this novel, I approached the book looking for parallels between Orwell's 1984 and our 2002.

The first reading I approached it from the right wing perspective and was horrified at how large and intrusive the government has become over my short lifetime. The second reading, I approached from the leftist viewpoint and found myself frightened by the encroachments on civil liberties and personal freedoms over the past several decades. In my most recent reading, I approached it from a stateless viewpoint (read anarchist) and found myself mentally replacing Emmanuel Goldstein and the Brotherhood with Osama bin Laden and al Quaida (note: this is not an endorsement of either OBL or Al Quaida, rather it is just a means to see how a government can puff up an enemy to the point he becomes all purpose ... e.g. Those anti-drug Superbowl ads were they claimed that smoking a joint promoted terrorism).

In a nutshell, I am saying that 1984 transcends political leanings and begs the question: Does trusting your wellbeing to your fellow man serve your best interests?

The answer is a resounding "no."

In 1949, Orwell's three contradictory statements could have rang hallow with many readers, but in a world where the peacekeepers are those with the military power to coerce peacefulness, where people spend their freedoms for perceived security (see Patriot Act) and where a simple perusal of television's primetime lineup can prove that no premium is placed on intelligence; one can see how 1984 is more prophetic now than it was in 1949.