1984

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Summary: Increases its relivance in post 1984 years
Review: This is a spellbinding book. George Orwell has created in this book a society that could very well the most horrific situation any human being could ever find itself in. I loved every aspect of the book: the plot, the characterizations, the future shock, the political and religious allegories and the appropriate bleakness and gloominess that eventually wears you down towards absolute fear of the future.

Though I loved the relationship between Winston Smith and O'Brien and their encounters in Part III of the novel, it was the affair of Winston and Julia that was central to the novel. With these two characters, Orwell gave us two completely identifiable and realistic characters that we like immediately. It was as though the two of them were thrown into a maze of oppression and tried to free themselves, just like any of us today would do. It is here that Orwell gives us the sense of hope that all humans have that good will of course triumph over evil and freedom will come from their slavery. Though it is obvious that they probably won't be succesful in their rebellion of Big Brother, we admire them for being human: to fall in love and to be distinct humans and to have regular thoughts, feelings and memories. In the end, when they are captured by the thought police, seperated, tortured like animals, brainwashed and released back into the collective, it is all the more heartbreaking that they, like human nature, has fallen prey to them enemy: communism. Their final meeting at the end is more heartbreaking in how they know they betrayed each other and have been conformed, resulting in the loss of their love for each other. I don't believe that this was a love story but I thought this relationship served as the means by which the reader would identify their rebellion of the Party and their failure.

To those who felt cheated by this ending, it would have underminded and ruined every theme that Orwell made throughout the book about totaltarianism: a man cannot break free of the state and overcome it if the state can succeed in taking away his individuality and place the state within him. To give the book a pleasing ending would take away the message that communism should be feared; for if Winston could beat the Party, everyone after him can as well. To give him that victory would cheat the audience more.

Above all, 1984 succeeds in how it will always be relevant in todays society. The U.S. now wants to monitor all activity over the mail and internet for security reasons because of Sept. 11. We are at the starting point of a war which may conduct itself over a long period of time. Security cameras are stationed at every corner in downtown london to monitor the activity of the citizens. We have experienced the serious threats and wide spread fears and panics of communism of the 1950s and 1960s and a cold war between captialism and communism which was very close to being an Orwellian Revolution of sorts. It is a great book in not only being entertaining but being insightful. It surpasses horrific masterpiece, it is a warning.

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Summary: The Mother of Dark Prognostication
Review: What simpleton compares "1984" to "Brave New World?"

New World is a simple morality tale about a world forced into conspicuous consumption. Yawn. 1984 is the frightening tale of a future gone awry, and a brutal government well aware of its intention to maintain power at all cost.

We follow Winston, an editor with an odd job, rewriting history. Wiston is forced to "double think" his way through a life he knows is contrived to forever remain stagnant.

As Winston ponders the present, the war weary remains of Oceania's capital, London, he is forced to deal with memories of a very different past - and he fails to reconcile the two.

Orwell's eye is a magic thing. A reporter at heart, his eye for detail in fiction and reportage is awesome. While reading 1984, one feels Orwell IS Winston, in his head and in his world. With any imagination it becomes easy to allow 1984 to become real, and Winston's desperation your own.

Orwell side steps silly sci-fi detail (that dopey Huxley embraces too readily. What is it with all the helicopters in "Brave New World," anyway?)and creates a desperate world that, though written 50 years ago, seems perfectly plausible now.

This chilling masterpiece is a must read for anyone who ponders the delicate balance of power and politics. More so, this dark tome considers the loss of individuality in an increasing global society. At first blush, it is easy to dismiss 1984 as completely off the mark, but after some consideration, one is forced to concede that maybe nothing here is really improbably.

A must read.

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Summary: More than a great novel
Review: 1984 by George Orwell is the frightening classic about the loss of freedom of thought in a totalitarian society. Judging from the luminous exposition of the world of 1984's structure, found in latter bit of part 2, Orwell scholarlily traced the history of organized society to date and decided upon a strictly terrifying and inhumane future. The author's vision of 1984 (conceived in 1949) is a cold, shocking and quite believable one. The Americas and England are united under the banter of Oceania. Big Brother is the godlike icon that leads Oceania. The Party is its governmental body. Anything the party says, any moral it promotes, any record of the past (including who has died or who has ever been born) it keeps is correct. One is monitored by the Party at all times and should not find that uncomfortable. If one shows any sign of unorthodoxy, anything but love and obedience to Big Brother and the Party, he or she must doublethink it, let it submerge into the unconscious and be replaced by more appropriate feelings or else he or she has committed thoughtcrime. With the almost omnipotent Party's stringent regulation of thoughts, 1984's protagonist, Winston Smith, feels like a dead man before the narration even begins. Orwell takes readers along Smith's gloomy, hopeless path of deviation, from scribbling of "Down with Big Brother" in a furtive diary to his falling in love with the spirited, young rebel, Julia to his active mutiny to finally his inevitable detainment and terrifying rehabilitation, a process which takes readers to the black heart of the Party. Not only is 1984 a well paced, masterfully executed narrative, the concepts and principles it explores are awfully universal and still utterly relevant. One could apply Orwell's hypothesis's to both the adulation of figures from the American Revolution and how unquestionable we consider their policies and current events in the U.S. as explained by the exceptional review posted by Jim Brett on October third. 1984 is more than just a superb novel. It is a warning.

Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: this was an excellent book. the plot is great; it has suspence, and lots of other good things like that.

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Summary: 1984 and counting!
Review: Required reading. Unfortunately Orwell was not obvious enough. 1984 was not a prediction of what was to come. Orwell was writing about what already existed. As I read some reviews and talk to "educated" people, I'm amazed at how many believe that Orwell was not talking about America but rather some "evil" empire like Russia, China or Cuba. Wake up Winston! Big Brother has been alive and well for HUNDREDS of years. Could terrorism be our present "outside threat"? It depends on whether outside means inside. Ask Emperor Clinton. Does sex mean sex? Does Is mean is? Newspeak is here to stay. If you'd like to read something clearly written about government and society look for HOW TO SAVE AMERICA AND THE WORLD: The Elimination of Terrorism, Greed and Other Evils. (Available January 2002)

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Summary: Another great book by Orwell...
Review: This is THE most depressing book I have ever read. It's just so hopeless. It actually made me CRY at the end. It's a really good insight into collectivism and totalitarianism. Just an all around good book.

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Summary: Frightening when we see how this is what some plan for us
Review: More relevant than ever over 50 years after it was written.It is more frightening than any Steven King novel because this is where we are heading if we are not vigilant. Too many on the left are still hellbent in plunging us into a worldwide Orwellian nightmare. Just observe their obsessive Orwellism, where aggressors are defenders and defenders are aggressors, where justice is injustice and injustice is justice, where war is peace and peace is war, where freedom fighters are terrorists and terrorists are freedom fighters, and with its total lack of interest in facts and truth. Despite the chilling socio-political warning the book still shows us an endearingly poignant portrayal of humanity and love struggling to survive in totalitarian society which will not stop at anything to stamp out all that is good and compassionate. Next time you hear anyone refer to anything disparagingly as 'borgeois' think of the alternative to love,honour,fair play and all the noble things that some brand 'bourgeois' and therefore plan to destroy

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Summary: Absolutely not for optimists and fairly tale seekers.
Review: If you are looking for a story in which the 'good' always gets their way in slayering the 'evil', then this book is not for you.

With some knowledge of Orwell's critism, political beliefs, views on society, and hatre towards totalism, from having to have read some of his political essays, it seems like Orwell was expressing his outcry towards the world through this chilling, hatefull novel, astonishingly. Kudos to Mr. Orwell for sending his vision out in a 'story' form, in which is more efficient in getting out to the people. I pray that his fear would become the fear of every person in the world, and work together to stay away from it.

Turn "Freedom is Slavery" into Freedom is Liberty, and all shall deserve it.

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Summary: This is where we're headed folks
Review: The ideas in this book are ones that are as appropriate now as when Orwell first wrote them. In this time (2001), we have our "Two Minutes Hate" with Osama bin Laden.

Many of the principles that Orwell writes about (e.g., thought control) are done in a quite blatant way in the book. In the real world of the 20th/21st century they're done, only much more subtly. That way, we don't know they being perpetrated on us.

Here's how 1984 applies to current events:

WAR IS PEACE

The new "War on Terrorism" is being sold as a guarantor or our safety. While this war is being waged, we're to accept permanent war as a fact of life. As the unavoidable slaughter of innocents unfolds overseas, we are told to go back to "living our lives."

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

"Freedom itself was attacked," Bush said. He's right, though here's the twist: Americans are about to lose many of their most cherished freedoms in a frenzy of paranoid legislation. The government wants to tap our phones, read our email and seize our credit card records without court order. Further, it wants authority to detain and deport immigrants without cause or trial. To save freedom, we have to destroy it.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

America's "new war" against terrorism will be fought with unprecedented secrecy, including press restrictions not seen for years, the Pentagon has advised.

When you read this book, you'll be better able to see the signs around you. The world portrayed by Orwell may well come to pass by the end of this century.

Rating:
Summary: Too bad it's coming true...
Review: thanks to right wing Republicans and Christians in this country.
Great book! He was truly a visionary, how he predicted this coming.
Good bye civil liberties!