1984

Rating:
Summary: The classic work on totalitariansim
Review: With the exception of "Animal Farm," it would be hard to think of a work of satire in the English language that is as powerful as "1984" (actually "Nineteen Eighty Four"). Whereas the Whig-Tory squabbles that make up the background of "Gulliver's Travels," are mostly forgotten now, the totalitarian essence of Airstrip One still haunts the imagination of the First World. No other major novel this century has produced so many memorable terms. Not simply fantasies of universal surveillance, but also "Newspeak," "Doublethink," "the Ministry of Truth," "Sex Crime" "Thoughtcrime," "Two Minute Hate," "Memory Hole," "Room 101," "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever." Indeed, not since Dickens has there been such a novelist so much on the popular consciousness.

Since there are already several hundred reviews in praise of this book, I will devote the rest of this review to providing some reservations. It is often said that Orwell is a master analyst of totalitarianism. Dead wrong, in my view. On the Nazi side of the Molotov-Ribbentrop symbiosis, Orwell has rather little to say. There is no systematic analysis of Nazism, no evaluation of Nazi terror, and, in retrospect most damning of all, no real appreciation of the singular importance of the Holocaust. A look at "Revenge is Sour", which opens up the fourth volume of Orwell's collected journalism, reveals his limitations dramatically. However just and liberal his opposition to revenge is, Orwell's account fails because he has never had any experience which could make him understand those feelings. It is like reading a denunciation of pornography from a cardinal who has been blind from birth.

What is most powerful in Orwell's account is his satire on Communist dishonesty. (About Nazi irrationalism and fanaticism he has little to say.) Why Oceania commits the barbarisms it does is more open to question. Rather oddly, given his frequent skepticism about Progressive pieties, Orwell appears to believe that a growing economy would be in itself sufficient to provide the goods and services a just society needs. Since the three world states wish to prevent that, they encourage endless war which wastes any surplus, and which supports their own regimes by permanent war psychosis. The result is an endless stagnation, and a horrifying stability which could last forever.
Now an economic slowdown was clearly a problem with the Soviet Union in the last decades of its life, but equally clearly it was not intended to be that way. More importantly, the worst Communist atrocities, Collectivization and the Great Leap Forward were attempts to radically change society. Soviet Stalinism was a society that went through every sort of radical change imaginable. It was not a society whose crimes were rooted in stasis.

Other objections. England no longer exists, there is only "Airstrip One." Orwell set his nightmare world in England to challenge his countrymen's complacency. But arguably he reinforced it by showing that it could only occur in an England which was already dead. It was perhaps this aspect that appealed to Czeslaw Milosz and other Polish exiles who viewed their own country as an innocent swamped and threatened by Russian aggression imposing a thoroughly UnPolish society. While this view had a great deal of truth to it, the fact that the former Communists have won two free presidential elections in a whole, suggests that it is not the whole truth. Viewing totalitarianism as a deracinated purging of authentic local traditions has obvious limits. Clearly the Axis countries were militantly nationalist, and it is clear that Communist regimes could not have survived in China, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea without successfully appealing to some aspects of nationalism and national culture. All Communist countries appealed to local traditions (has there ever been any kind of regime that did not?), and Orwell should have taken this into account. Likewise romantic love is viewed as Winston's salvation, yet Claudia Koonz, Geoff Eley have pointed out how Nazism gained strength from its appeal to conventional ideas of family. And Richard Stites has pointed out that Stalin's policy cannot simply be viewed as anti-family.

Another weakness of the book is its view of Stalinism as one based on intellectuals. While it could be said of Lenin's dictatorship that the government was dominated by intellectuals, one could not really apply that term to Beria, Zhadanov, or Molotov. Too much concentration on the sins of a Heidegger distracts one from the far greater crimes of the Wehrmacht and I.G. Farben. But the greatest weakness of the book is O'Brien. O'Brien's lust for power is so deranged as to be pyschotic. That he lives only for others to suffer tells us nothing about how torturers work. (It does not help the book that Orwell cannot tell the metaphysical difference between a statement such as "Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939." and "2+2=4". The first is a historical fact, the second is a tautology. It would be evil to try to torture people to deny the first, madness the second.) In his portrait Orwell reveals his inability to understand such a personality. Indeed, such a person could not really be human at all. Surely in the name of all that is humane and tolerated, he must be extirpated, like a demon. Arendt's concept of the banality of evil or Sartre's view of the anti-Semite have their limitations, but they tell us more than Orwell does, as does, from the inside as it were, Celine's own later novels.

Rating:
Summary: Facinating yet Disturbing
Review: George Orewll's 1984 is truly captivating however extremely disturbing. It's a story about a cold heartless society and the eradication of, by our standards, the normal human.
With it's first copyright in 1949 it's written as an extremely pessimistic view of the future. The novel examines a socialist empire and the way they can control mankind, the future, and the past.
The book revolves around a middle aged, middle class, although extremely intelligent man. Winston Smith works as part of the government changing the past. He is constantly watched and allowed no emotions other than hate and fear. The party controls every aspect of life.
Winston can vaguely remember his childhood before Big Brother and the Party began controlling everything. He still maintains early 20th century morals and ideals of what life should be about. The book covers his rebellion against the party.
1984 is well written for the most part, however there are some parts that you have to fight to get through. For example at one point Winston obtains an anti party book, Orwell then goes into long chapters that are excerpts from this "book." These are long dry passages, that contain information that has already been reveled to the reader through indirect methods.
Overall I think that this book is a good book to read. It will improve your appreciation of life today.

Rating:
Summary: Facinating yet Disturbing
Review: George Orewll's 1984 is truly captivating however extremely disturbing. It's a story about a cold heartless society and the eradication of, by our standards, the normal human.
With it's first [edition] in 1949 it's written as an extremely pessimistic view of the future. The novel examines a socialist empire and the way they can control mankind, the future, and the past.
The book revolves around a middle aged, middle class, although extremely intelligent man. Winston Smith works as part of the government changing the past. He is constantly watched and allowed no emotions other than hate and fear. The party controls every aspect of life.
Winston can vaguely remember his childhood before Big Brother and the Party began controlling everything. He still maintains early 20th century morals and ideals of what life should be about. The book covers his rebellion against the party.
1984 is well written for the most part, however there are some parts that you have to fight to get through. For example at one point Winston obtains an anti party book, Orwell then goes into long chapters that are excerpts from this "book." These are long dry passages, that contain information that has already been reveled to the reader through indirect methods.
Overall I think that this book is a good book to read. It will improve your appreciation of life today.

Rating:
Summary: Down With Big Brother - a review of 1984
Review: I think that George Orwell's 1984 is one of the most interesting works of literature I have ever read. Orwell uses this interesting story to warn people about the dangers of a socialist government, and the extremes that it could go to if it went in that direction. In this extreme example of totalitarianism, the government can watch your every move, control the past, and even restrict what you think. He uses superb insight, and makes it really interesting by going deep into the psyche of the main chatacter, Winston Smith. I greatly enjoyed my reading experience with this novel. I would definately reccomend this book to anyone who wants a novel that will make them think, and who is not afraid to question their opinions about the truth. If you are looking for a quick read that wont make you look to deep, dont try this one. This is one of those books where you have to take rests and comprehend what youre reading, especially at the end. The beginning of the book was a little slow, and a bit repetitive, but towards the end it really picks up and gets very interesting. Once I got into the last 50 pages, I absolutley could not put it down. The last part of the book was packed full of suspense and action, even if the end was a little depressing. The story, about a man and the woman he loves who are trying to rebel against their oppressive government, gives you glimmers of hope throughout the novel. Sometimes you truly believe that they can overcome the oppression of a government that doesn't let them feel normal human emotions or think for themselves. However, in the end I was left with a slight feeling of despair and lonliness. Even so, I am very glad that I read this book. No other book I have ever read has made me think more about what our perception of truth really is, or a government's ability to take away mans right to think and act like an individual person. This book brings up so many interesting issues, and it makes you ask yourself questions that you usually wouldn't think about. If something happens a certain way, but there's no records of it, and noone remembers it that way, did it really happen like that? Can a government take away a persons right, or ability to think for themselves? Is it possible to change history by changing the documents? Read this book and decide for yourself!

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: this is a powerful book and a must read for everybody. while some may say this book was written to criticize the corrupted Soviet empire, that is not true. Animal Farm was written for that purpose. this book was instead written to warn the free world of totalitarianism, something that could easily happen anywhere in the world, even in democracies like the US, or England, the setting of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Big Brother sees everything
Review: To me, Big Brother has to be the scariest fictional villain I have ever encountered. His "picture" is everywhere you look and it appears as though he is always watching you. Everyone believes in him but you don't know if he is an actual entity or just an omnipotent idea. This is the trouble the Winston Smith faces in "1984," a chilling novel by Orson Wells.

Those who believe in Big Brother do so religiously while those who don't are stuck in poverty on the fringe of society. Winston believes there is a way to topple Big Brother and the answer lies in the non-beliving masses. The problem is that they have no idea what their situation. Winston must find a way to organize these people while avoiding detection from the Thought Police.

Mind control is rampant, people disappear, and "history" can be changed with one slip of paper in "1984." The scariest part of this novel is that, in the information age we live in, there is the possibility that someone is always watching you. This novel is a must read for a society that hopes to avoid the level of big government that could lead to the situation contained within.

Rating:
Summary: Ain't the future scary?
Review: THe Party dominate all aspects of life and Big Brother is everywhere with cameras and microphones. Winston Smith is the central character whose diary gives him away along with his affair with Julia. Both are brainwashed into thinking The Party is always right, despite evidence to the contary and Winston ends up staing his love for Big Brother- the "victory over himself". O'Brien is Winston's nemesis in breaking him down and is a most interesting characther. ...

Rating:
Summary: personal recommendation: "1984" by George Orwell
Review: "1984" is a model of George Orwell's idea of Totalitarianism and in my opinion he wrote it to show people how a political system can suppress individual freedom. Orwell wants to warn people for the future by showing them what society could become if Totalitarianism became true.
When I read this book it was very horrifying to me realizing that almost all people, except Winston Smith and Julia, are brainwashed by the Party. They believe everything the Party tells them for example Oceania is at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. But one day the situation changes and Oceania is at war with Eastasia and Eurasia is their partner. The Party tells its people that they are always at war with Eastasia and people don't remember that this isn't true! This is incredible for me.
To my mind Winston is a sort of hero because he is aware of the danger that he gets into trouble with the Party. He knows from the very beginning that his diary will be found and later will be used against him. He also knows that his love affair with Julia is an act of revolution because sex is just allowed to produce "new material" for the Party. But I also think Winston is some kind of naive because he opens his mind to O'Brien before he is sure that O'Brien is also against the Party.
A very interesting character of the book, I think, is O'Brien because the reader only gets to know Winston's opinion about him and till the end the reader isn't sure if O'Brien is an enemy or a friend of Winston. For me O'Brien plays his "role" perfectly, with the result, that Winston is reintegrated into the Party.
The Party invents a new official language of Oceania called Newspeak and by the year 2050 this language will superset Oldspeak (=common English). I think one reason of developing this language is to make old books, which are written before the era of the Party, unreadable. It's vocabulary is so constructed that it gives an exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning. This is done by the invention of new words but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words.
Orwell also describes the bad living conditions under which people have to live at that time. The Party wants to make them concentrating on the Party and not on their own pleasure.
The reader really sees how the life of a Party member is dictated from his birth to his death.
I recognized that Orwell divides the Superstates in the book according to their division in the Cold War. Oceania stands for the United States of America, Eurasia for Russia and Eastasia for China. The "Golden Country" is another symbol which can be compared with the old European landscape.
While reading the book I asked myself who Big Brother is and I came to the conclusion that Big Brother, whose picture is everywhere, stands for all dictators that have ever existed. Orwell has certainly been thinking of Russian leader Joseph Stalin, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. But I think too that for Orwell Big Brother could be a religious figure like God who sees and knows everything but never appears in person. For members of the Inner Party Big Brother is a leader who they can use to scare people and to explain their doings.
In my opinion George Orwell wants to show with the book "1984" that there exists no chance that all people can become equal. There are always some people who have more power than the others because those have for example to rule the country or to make laws. It's very important that people don't trust their leader blindly and forget to think with their own minds. Therefore they must surely get the right education and the historical knowledge to become aware of the parallels in the past and to notice if something goes into the wrong way.
Even a person who has such a big personality as Winston Smith, can be manipulated and influenced easily by drugs and torture. For me the sentence "I love Big Brother" at the end of the book is very impressive and shocking because you feel that it isn't a sentence he says for fun, no, this is his new opinion after being brainwashed. The book shows to me clearly that nobody can resist such cruelty and that a society only needs one person to give violence and Totalitarianism a chance. There are always people who want to control every move and thought to get maximum power which lies unfortunately in the human nature.
I also think that the actuality of Big Brother isn't to deny because today we have computers and the internet which give us the possibility of looking into the private life of each person. There are a lot of people who are interesting in watching such, in my opinion, boring films.
For the future I can imagine that there will be cameras and microphones at a lot of places. So even if you want to go to the doctor or get a new job you will have to give detailed information about your person and nobody will be able to have secrets anymore.
I liked reading this book very much because it is written very exciting. I couldn't stop reading because I wanted to know how the story would end. I was very surprised about the ending because I didn't think that Winston could be changed and reintegrated into the Party.
I can recommend this novel and satire to everyone because I believe it's very important to become aware of what in our surroundings happens and how easily people can be manipulated and influenced without noticing it. For me it is possible that the story, told in this book, happens in real life again because there are many people who want to get power and look only after their personal benefit.

Rating:
Summary: A prophecy of things to come...
Review: "1984", by George Orwell, is a harrowing tale of the dismal future. The year is 1984 and the government has taken over every aspect of Joe Anybody's life. Through the use of an advanced television, called a telescreen, the government keeps a close eye on each and every citizen of Oceania, one of three world powers. If anyone does something that makes them seem "unorthodox" or unique, the Thought Police quickly show up and capture that person, torturing him and then erasing his name from any record it may have been in, thereby erasing his existence. In this way the government controls all of history. Any record or document not in compliance with the government's philosophy or ideals quickly receives an alteration to rectify the "mistake." The future is bleak and getting worse by the day.

To call this book a "classic" would not do it justice. This is the best book I have ever read, for numerous reasons. First, George Orwell writes masterfully, with words that flow like water through your mind; his complete grasp of the written word creates a profound impact on the reader which makes the book exceptionally hard to put down. Second, the questions the book forces you to consider hit with the force of a sledgehammer: what is truth? Can it possibly be attained? These questions haunt your every moment in between reading sessions with this book. The final reason that this is the best book I have ever read is the messages the book conveys. The government should not rule people's lives, censorship is a thing more destructive than most people realize, and to be forgotten is a fate far worse than death. This book made me think more than any other book I have ever read.

Although I may speak highly of it, this book may not be for everyone. It is for every person who believes the government should not have more control over people's lives than it now does, it is for every person who questions whether the information the government feeds us on a daily basis is true or not, and it is for every person who has the mental capacity to grasp the idea that the past may not exist the way you think it does. If you want to read an astounding book that makes you rethink what you now know about the world you live in, by all means read this book. If you want to remain complacent and ignorant about what the government could become, then don't read it. The choice is yours.

Rating:
Summary: Frightening...
Review: I feel relatively uneasy about saying something negative for such a classic as 1984. But, learning the book's lesson about what the world would be like if one's individuality were lost, I'll say what I truly feel. I think this book is slow and depressing. In fact, the only reason that I kept reading on was because of the introduction of Julia in the story. I found her character intriguing. Why was she put there? Who is she? Can her motives be trusted? It was only after I read the story, that I realized she was created by the author for the sole purpose of being used as a barometer for Winston's (the protagonist in the story) individuality. What Julia means to Winston is an indication of how much Winston has lost of himself. His ability to think and remember the past.

In 1984, the world is divided into 3 superpowers. Winston belongs to the Ingsoc Party (a contraction of [Eng]lish [Soc]ialism) where to have thoughts in opposition or in deviance with propaganda meant capture and subsequent brainwashing by the Thought Police. Everyone in the Party is watched and monitored by telescreens (two-way TVs that broadcast as well as receive) and hidden microphones. A new language called Newspeak is a rapidly decreasing subset of English created to make the expression of rebellious thought an impossiblity. On top of this, all books and works of literature were being rewritten in Newspeak and their essential meaning contorted to serve the purposes of the Party.

If George Orwell's vision of the future haunts you, then his objective was achieved. His main goal in writing this book was to both set a mood and give a warning. The mood he sets is for what an extreme Socialist state would look like twenty years from the time he wrote the story. His warning is of what would happen if Socialism were perverted by the ruling class where power becomes an end and not just the means.

The ideas presented in this book are powerful and well thought-out. However, the story itself is dull and uneventful. If you like a story that you can read and reflect on afterwards, this is your book. If you like faster-paced stories, pass on this one.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):
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L (Language) - 3 (humorless, basic English dialogue)
E (Erotica) - 0.5 (go Julia go)
A (Action) - 0 (n/a - goes hand in hand with the story being dull)
P (Plot) - 3 (dull story, good vision)