1984

Rating:
Summary: 2+2=1984
Review: Terrifying Totalitarian Dystopia. 1984 is not a book. It is a muscle that grips the attention unrelentingly from first to last like a vice, rearranging your consciousness and perception. I pick this book up and cannot believe it is so light. Because, to read it is like the feeling Winston gets when he looks at the pyramidal headquarters of The Party: "It's too big. It can never be destroyed!"

Orwell, more than any historian, made the greatest stain on the memory of Stalin with this book. 1984 poses the terrifying proposition of what would happen if insane leadership were not deposed as happened in Soviet Russia. It is also a euphoric, exhilarating plea for individuality. The right to think differently, the right to act differently. The simple, basic, human right to be an individual. Is there a more salient point to be made? I doubt it.

Rating:
Summary: Nightmarish
Review: George Orwell's "1984" is the greatest work of fiction I have ever read. Upon finishing, I felt as though prior to reading "1984", I had missed-out on enormous amounts of alliteration and analytical thinking. This book literally blows your doors off. A magnanimous piece of literature, such as this, can be analyzed and perceived in various lights and subject matter, but for me, "1984" is a commentary on human nature attempting to freely function in modern civilized society. The end result, in this novel, is that it cannot happen.

Oceania is a conglomeration of the Americas, the United Kingdom, and the Southern tip of Africa. Oceania is ruled by "The Party" and is constantly at battle with two other conglomerations of nations, namely EurAsia and EastAsia. The leader of Oceania is "Big Brother" and his face is plastered throughout the nation with the ominous caption "Big Brother is Watching You". This is not a joke. Life in Oceania is run like a boot camp and patrons must work, perform physical exercises, and maintain a moral conscious that adheres to The Party's strict parameters. Orwell's work to create this Anti-Utopian society of "1984" is where the deep analytical thinking and metaphorical alliterations that we use today, were spawned, fifty years ago.

The Party is the system and the Party runs the system but the Party is not necessarily the reason for the system. The reason why I found "1984" such a terrifying novel is that "The Party's" mantra of Peace, Freedom, and Strength are not a rallying cry of revolution or inalienable rights in a constitution, but they serve as a necessary evil to keep humanity civilized in its daily existence as a society. Fortunately "1984" is only a work of fiction, but to not read it would be an act of ThoughtCrime.

Rating:
Summary: What a way to interpret life
Review: i thought the book 1984 was the most well written book ever

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reminder To Keep An Open-Mind!
Review: I read this book many years ago and have re-read it several times. This is a must-read for all who would dare to close their minds for it describes the end result of a dictatorial society in which no-one is allowed to think, speak or publish freely. The "Thought Police" will punish anyone trying to do so! It is an exciting storyline with a profound message. Yet, despite all our freedoms there are not many such thoughtful, newly written books on the store shelves these days. I would therefore, like to sincerely recommend one that issued recently. It too reminds us to keep an open mind and lend an ear to our global ecological mess. It is a sharp 21st century social critique in the form of an exciting, fun and enlightening science-fiction, entitled, "ACCUSED BY FACET-EYES" (C.B. DON) --- and just like "1984", it too makes one stop to ponder about our many thoughtless human actions...but thank goodness that we have the freedom to do so!

Rating:
Summary: Today's world
Review: I was reading many of the reviews on this book ( I usually start with the lowest ratings as they often have something to say other than "I just loved it" then move to the fours stars and down ) and was amazed not by the number of poor responseses ( there are long sretches of boredom associated with this book ) but with the reasoning. Anyone who thinks this an unrealistic depiction of the possible future ( or of the present ) is living in a cute little fantasy world. Sure we don't have two way T.V. monitors in our living room ordering us to do knee bends, but at least in the book those monitoring devices weren't always monitored. The odds where, given human limits when the book was written, that the observers were observing others. Now the computer can record everything. This does change things a little. In orwells world if you were naughty you might be seen so they can stop you, now if you are suspected of having been naughty your phone records, bank transactions, hardrive, medical records, etc, can be pulled up in a day. The level of propaganda is just as bad as Orwell predicted ( notice that while a (very) few media outlets have commented on the reasons that the U.S. is a world pariah the only thing the governmnt has to say is that the bad guys are evil and hate us. I guess it is just the nature of bad guys to hate as opposed to reaacting to real greivences) and the attempt to limit free speech have become absurd ( I think some guy in the news awhile back got in trouble for using the world "niggerdly" because, with no entomological connection, it 'sounded kinda like' a disfavored word ( remember to buy your lady trinkets instead of jewelry this year)). And if you don't think our prisons are as bad as depicted in the book read any of the reports put out by any of the non-US NGO's that look in to such things. Consider all the recent restirction on civil liberties in response to the terrorist attact. The Justice department "needs" these new powers to protect us from the immediate threat but they had a hissy fit over a five year sunset cluase. Why? If the threat still existed the bill could be renewed, if it was passed it would have to be overturned. Hardly seems like they were acting in good faith.
So, read 1984, read the "patriot act," ignore what the conspiracy nuts say, ignore what the government says, and see what the staus of your rights, freedom, and privacy are now. ( you will also find that you can be hauled in to prison with no real reason or recourse so you better not complain too loudly if you don't like what you find)

Rating:
Summary: An Omen?
Review: I read this book with the expectations that it was gonna make me think, and it did. The overall theme that of an oppresive society in the "future" was both thought-provoking and entertaining. People say that this book has no relevence today because of the fall of Hitler and Stalin, but I say it means more now than ever before. You just need to think of it in the opposite context. Let me explain. Today, we have a wealth of information, some say too much. That is the point. Since we as people have so much at our fingertips, it gets pretty easy for most to spend all day looking at meaningless junk and buying things that they don't need. There is where an oppressive gov't takes over by giving us freedom to look and buy, they take away our freedom of privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. And that is why this book is so important today, because we may be on the brink of a "1984" ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: Great book with a deeper meaning.
Review: Yes, this book is simple to understand by anyone. You do not need to be a philosopher or literature student. This book illustrates Orwell's vision of what would happen if humanity saught a utopian society. This is a book not of the pleasure and perfection we usually think about with utopian literature. It is the anti-utopia. This book will allow you to see humanity in it's true light.

Orwell uses the ideals of 'the party', 'big brother' or a governmental power to illustrate his point on socialism. What ever Orwells means are, the fact remains that we can replace his governmental control with that of any particular group, and their need for complete power. It is the great agenda conspiracy. He makes his point. What I gather from the deeper meaning of this book is that humanity has an agenda. To gain power and create the world they wish it to be. Power is to be a God. This is the type of book that can be stripped down and analzyed page by page philosophically.

The book is about a man named Winston. It is about his struggles to survive the world he exists in. A world where individuality, religion, unorthodoxy, love, compassion, and free thought are crimes punishable by torture and death. The party and big brother are all people in this world are to live for. They are not to live for themselves or their fellow humans. Hate is taught, war is life, the people are simply cogs in the party machine. They are worse than slaves, they are objects in the party's main goal...power.

Rating:
Summary: Brave New 1984
Review: There are only a few books that I believe should be on the required list for any student; this is one of them.

1984 represents the world that we most feared; it is a world where pain is synonymous with living, and illusion is synonymous with progress.

This book is designed to scare everyone who reads it into imagining a world where there is no such thing as personal freedom, there is no private property, and the ability to love is a crime against society.

Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's, this was the staple vision of what we considered to be the future of Western Europe and Asia. It is this horrific vision of an all-comsuming and controlling State apparatus that keeps the reader thankful for what freedoms we do enjoy.

Orwell elegantly argues that the true danger of the world is that people can be easily manipulated, controlled, and ultimately defeated in the struggle for individuality. Like its counterpart, Brave New World (by Huxley), Orwell creates a world in which individuality is not only lost, but humanity forgets that we ever had the capacity for it.

Orwell masterfully describes every detail of this world, with the greatest care to the cold, and impersonal touch of opression. His arguments are both compelling and smattering of intense nuggets of rhetorical flavor; once you begin this book, you will not want to stop. Moreover, you will feel compelled to continue as you are drawn into the intense world of helplessness and despair that every fiber of your being will rage against. I urge any interested reader to dig into this book, and to finish it in one sitting if possible.

Rating:
Summary: Let's not pat ourselves on the back that this didn't happen.
Review: I had 1984 ruined for me because I was FORCED to read it for school. Looking back, it is a truly great book. Like many of the enduring works of Science Fiction, its lasting popularity rests in the powerful archetpyes and metaphors it tapps into. Big Brother, The Two-Minutes Hate, Room 101 are all here. What's scary is how some of this seems to be coming true - but Big Brother isn't so much the government as it is Corporations. Just try getting away from a viewscreen nowadays. Also, we watch the TV, but the TV also watches US. Advertisers, the Internet, and MTV control us more thoroughly than the Government could ever hope to espire to. Instead of telling us "We are at war with East Asia. We have ALWAYS been at war with East Asia!" they tell us what our values are, what music we listen to, what movies we watch, etc. "We listen to Britney Spears! We have ALWAYS listened to Britney Spears." Orwell would've been so proud.

Rating:
Summary: 1984 Is The King Of All Distopia Novels
Review: A powerful political statement... and a frightening glimse into a different world that might some day exist. 1984 is passed but the message grows stronger as it sinks farther into the past. You won't be able to put it down. As well written as Catcher In The Rye.