John Wiswell's Reviews > 1984
1984
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1984 is not a particularly good novel, but it is a very good essay. On the novel front, the characters are bland and you only care about them because of the awful things they live through. As a novel all the political exposition is heavyhanded, and the message completely overrides any sense of storytelling. As an essay, the points it makes can be earthshaking. It seems everyone who has so much as gotten a parking ticket thinks he lives in a 1984-dystopia. Every administration that reaches for power, injures civil liberties or collaborates too much with media is accused of playing Big Brother. These are the successes of 1984's paranoia, far outliving its original intent as a battery against where Communism was going (Orwell was a severely disappointed Marxist), and while people who compare their leaders to Big Brother are usually overreaching themselves and speak far away from Orwell's intent and vision, it is a useful catchcloth for dissent. Like so many immortalized books with a social vision, 1984's actual substance is so thin that its ideologies and fear-mongering aspects can be stretched and skewed to suit the readers. If you'd like a better sense of the real world and Orwell's intents, rather than third-hand interpretations of his fiction, then his Homage to Catalonia is highly recommended.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2005
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Finished Reading
August 12, 2007
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Ann
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rated it 3 stars
Mar 15, 2009 05:15PM
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![Melissa Christensen](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1250132378p1/49574.jpg)
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![Katy](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
I am loathe to give up on a classic work of literature (or at least one that has been deemed classic) but after 100 pages, skimming ahead and finding no signs of improvement, I fear I'm going to have to put this one aside~~at best, it should have been a short story.
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
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![Julia](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![Julia](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
![Julia](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
http://orwell.ru/library/articles/As_...
Beyond that, I agree that mechanisms like Big Brother exist in the text to coerce and convince the reader to certain. That's why I dismiss much of the book as an essay, if not simply as propaganda, rather than as a successful novel. The story exists to make points about our world rather than for itself, and so has little life to it. I took little from O'Brien's survival because he was never much of a person to begin with. One can defend this, as a previous commenter did, as the result of living in totalitarian society, but that purposefully mutes the fiction and does a poorer job of depicting life under such an iron fist as writers like Solzhenitsyn did, though they had the advantage of actually living in one.
![Julia Rubin](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1654329992p1/5594763.jpg)
![Titilope](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
Thanks to the bland characters, the book itself became bland, I felt like Orwell was just dictating his views through the means of a 'novel'. He had great ideas, such as Big Brother, the different ministries, but I found myself thinking, what was the point of it all?
I personally think, his biggest mistake was making Winston his main character, surely he could have concocted a much more entertaining character, and a way more entertaining story. Instead of pairing dull as dishwater Winston, with pointless Julia, in an attempt to create an epic romance, when instead, all it did was make wish for their death and the end of the novel.
Even the ending was disappointing, as they both survived.
![Julia Rubin](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1654329992p1/5594763.jpg)
![Titilope](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
The relationship between Julia and Winston did nothing for me; whether, as you put it, as a dangerous affair with questionable motives, or as an epic romance. It bored the heck out of me.
![Natlover](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
![Levi](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
Personally, I do think a comparison of 1984 and Brave New World should be made, if only to see the differences between a truly farcical, but much more scary dystopia (Brave New World) and a creepy, banal dystopia (1984).
![Waltznmatildah](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
The scene where him and the girlfriend (I admit it's been a long time since I read this novel) are lying in the field - Jim describing the bird and the utter freedom of it all? That image sticks with me years later.
Sometimes politics and passion can mingle; perhaps it's because I hold many of the same convictions I interpret in his writing.
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
![Chipper](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1267825289p1/3383393.jpg)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
![leong kar nim](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_25x33-8a3530ed95c3dbef8bf215b080559b09.png)
I am re-reading it after the recent media attention on Kim Jong Il's death. North Korea comes closest to the dystopian society described in the book.
![Regan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1307204004p1/5538907.jpg)
The parts that most interested me were the "excerpts" from The Book and the appendix on New Speak. It's required reading for cultural literacy these days, but I just wish I cared more about what was happening to the main characters.
I've often argued that I believe it's an author's responsibility to make us interested in their characters and to make us want to read on. That doesn't mean that the characters have to be likeable or even that we like them. Unfortunately in 1984, as Titilope pointed out, mainly we find ourselves hoping they'll hurry up and get it over with.
![Brian](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_25x33-8a3530ed95c3dbef8bf215b080559b09.png)
I agree that people often misapply the ideas from works like these to feed their particular agendas. Many times, those people have not even bothered to read the book.
I enjoy sci-fi that commits to a theme and carries it through to its extreme. If you think this work is an exaggeration of what humanity is capable of creating then you are uninformed about communist Russia, communist China, and the North Korean regime.
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
Now, since you enjoy SciFi taken to "extremes," I can understand why the book would still appeal to you. Hysterical fiction has an audience. Personally, I require some appealing application of extremity to be wooed. The contrast with Orwell's own non-fiction on what happened in Europe after the war has the sort of rigor and dimensionality that his fiction lacks. But that is nuanced, not blindly extreme.
As for displaying that, "human desires and necessities of freedom, love and companionship can and will emerge in even the most oppressive circumstances," the book does a wretched with each of those items, keeping them muted and monotonous, which is not just my observation, but one above defensive-commenters have actually claimed was a merit. Insofar as Orwell made a bland man be attracted to a bland woman in a rote manner that only set up for tragedy that made way for even more satire, all he did was manipulate some very obvious features of life.
![Katie](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1336159603p1/9184342.jpg)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
![Katie](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1336159603p1/9184342.jpg)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
Yes Tim, giving your propaganda narrative can increase marketability. It's not something I'm particularly inclined to praise.
![Katie](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1336159603p1/9184342.jpg)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
I gave you the benefit of the doubt until now, Katie. Given that you've only added the book to your shelves rather than read it, in your last comment have simply insulted my intelligence, and are exhibiting a deliberate misunderstand of words, I'm skeptical of your objections. Just in case you're actually misunderstanding us, here are three links to definitions of "propaganda":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda
"Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position."
http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...
"information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc."
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio...
"the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person" OR "ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect"
The novel sacrifices characterization and plot at almost every turn in order to preach at a world view. It was written not to entertain, but to argue a position. This is what I discussed in the above review and in comments directly above yours.
You're welcome to partake in informed discourse, but if you reply like that again, I am simply going to ignore you as a troll.
![Levi](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![John Wiswell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1442531848p1/147818.jpg)
I think it's a much healthier point of view to see the real world as having some traits reminiscent of 1984 and Brave New World rather than one or the other. Also, Fahrenheit 451 and other dystopias. It's easy to see where the concerns of their authors came from.
![Andrew Skretvedt](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1479729616p1/1984278.jpg)
![John Bendhiem](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1339432726p1/10145478.jpg)
![Regan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1307204004p1/5538907.jpg)
I can't speak for others, but my lack of appreciation for the characters isn't that they're average, everyday people. It's that I think they're flatly written, average everyday people. It's not that I don't care about "regular" people at all, it's that Orwell has done nothing in the character development to make me care about these particular people.
It's one of writing's great challenges: To craft average people and make readers care about them.
![John Bendhiem](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1339432726p1/10145478.jpg)
![John Bendhiem](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1339432726p1/10145478.jpg)
![Matthew](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1340116503p1/10329681.jpg)
![Casey Hollingshead](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_25x33-8a3530ed95c3dbef8bf215b080559b09.png)