Hear that?
It’s the sound of me surfacing, exhaling, sighing with relief now that I’m finished with George Orwell’s classic distopian novel (the word on the back of our copy is “negative utopia”, but then it was also published — and bought by Hubby — in 1984). It went down like bad medicine; combined with my usual January blues, I was thrust into a funk that was only abated by liberal dosages of 30 Rock.
Now that it’s done, I can look at it at least partially objectively. It is a classic, but a very dated one. It’s very blatantly, obviously a product of World War II.
Let me sum up for those who haven’t read it (so you don’t have to): Winston Smith, 39 years old, is a Party member in Oceania. He works in the Ministry of Truth (the “propaganda” ministry — the ministry names were funny, in a morbid way: Truth is propaganda; Peace is war; Love is the police; Plenty is economic affairs), as a recorder of some sort. He spends his days altering history, making minor corrections in the records of the past whenever someone disappears, or the economic realities come out differently than predicted, or they change with whom they are at war. He is unhappy; partially because he leads an unhappy life, but partially, also, because he questions this history-making. He remembers that things used to be different; he remembers his childhood. And so, he begins rebelling in small ways. He gets a diary, and writes in it. He takes a lover, Julia (Party members aren’t supposed to have sex). And, after what could be weeks or months, they get caught. Winston is tortured, beaten down, electrocuted, re-programmed and sent back into the world.
There’s this one point where O’Brien, the Party member responsible for Winston’s re-programming, goes on about the faults of previous totalitarian regimes: they created martyrs. They killed their enemies, sure after torturing them or humiliating them, but they killed them nonetheless. “Above all,” he tells Winston, “we do not allow the dead to rise up against us. You must stop imagining that posterity will vindicate you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you. You will be lifted clean out of the stream of history.”
Chilling, isn’t it. It’s a dated book, as a mentioned before, and not just because the technology is dated. It’s more than that: we’ve moved past the ideas in the book as a society. I really don’t think this book works as a “warning” any more.
It’s not that there isn’t totalitarian regimes anymore. There is. (I was shocked at how well Orwell depicted Mao and the Cultural Revolution, before it happened. Eerie.) But we’re in a much more global society, a much more capitalistic one (for good or bad). There’s authoritarian countries — China, still, Cuba and Russia under Putin — but they’re not the super-scary places that Orwell was writing about. Saddam Hussein is gone. The only one left, that would fit this book’s description is North Korea. It’s scary, it’s depressing, it’s evil… and yet it’s not the way the world is going. There’s too much information flowing — take the internet — too much capital, there will never be a world like the one Orwell imagined.
But as a political novel, a look at what could-have-been, it it could have been compelling (though depressing) book. Yet, I wasn’t compelled. I was repulsed. Physically sickened. Depressed. It took some talking to Hubby, but I finally hit upon it: Orwell has no hope. There is no way out in this book. There is no hope for a brighter future. This is the way things will be. Accept it, love it, or become run over by it. And I couldn’t. I couldn’t take it.
And so, I suffered through (I should have given up, but I did so want to be part of the discussion, and I can’t do that if I go in and say “I didn’t finish the book.” There’s also the very large chance that most of the other women who come will have not read the book, so somebody had to.), very very grateful for the world we live in today.
The Book Nut 
This is one of these that I only marginally remember reading from high school days. If you remember, I said something in the meme about unknowingly blocking some things out at times. Anyway, I’m curious to see if you’ve read Animal Farm. Animal Farm makes 1984 seem cheerful, in my humble opinion. I *wish* I could forget the trauma that that book caused. I still haven’t quite recovered from that.
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I read Animal Farm in Jr High or High School, but I’ve blocked it out. Can’t remember a thing, except I was very bored by it, and I didn’t do terribly well on the test. I’ve actually read 1984 before, but I successfully blocked it out, too. I guess I have a thing against Orwell. 🙂 I agree: it may take many, many laughs, time, and lots of cake to get me over this trauma. 🙂
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For what it’s worth, I consider <>1984<> to be one of the most important novels of the last 100 years. It’s a political novel–a novelistic realization of a different, admittedly hopeless and horrible, political world–and probably the best “political fantasy” I’ve ever read. That Orwell is one of the greatest essayists of the 20th century certainly doesn’t hurt in the prose department. So everyone should this read book, as bleak as it may be. But then, I study and teach about politics for a living.Incidentally, Becky, you’re right that <>Animal Farm<> <>is<> more depressing than 1984, despite its brevity. In <>1984<> was Orwell trying to create a whole novel out of the logic of totalitarianism, whereas <>Animal Farm<> is explicitly a fable and a warning; if <>1984<> is about the overarching logic of totalitarianism, <>Animal Farm<> is about how Orwell feared totalitarianism was winning in Great Britain <>right then<>. The feeling of betrayal and hopelessness is much more poignant and specific there.
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Orwell tended to see things in black and white. He did not sugar coat pain and misery and totalitarianism.
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I’m part way through 1984 and hope to have it done by the time we discuss it in book club- it’s been years since I read it so I thought I had better refresh… We’re discussing Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld along with this one, and I’m looking forward to comparing the two views of what the future could hold.
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Orwell based 1984 on his experience as a young man working for the British Imperial Police in Burma (now called Myanmar). I recommend a book entitled, Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin. Sadly, the government in Myanmar today is just as much of a police state as it ever was. It’s one of the most oppressive governments on the planet, despite the internet. Recall the recent protests by the country’s monks, who were then imprisoned and martyred in mass numbers. I believe the cautionary message of 1984 is as vital today as ever. The totalitarian tactics used by Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Myanmar, China, and some African countries are examples. Americans especially should join with Thomas Jefferson in swearing upon the altar of God “eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” For those of you who may be interested, Peter Sis has written a children’s book entitled, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. It describes with wonderful artwork what it was like for the author to grow up in the Orwellian Cold-War-era Eastern block country of Czechoslovakia.
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I read this book last year, and in an interesting context. I was taking The Sociology of Warfare with an older professor from Russia, and when we got to the totalitarian regime part, he said that this book best depicted what it was like to live in such a country. So with that kind of endorsement, I realy took to it to heart. I was impressed with the writing-I hated Animal Farm, but I love Orwell’s non-fiction, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I agree that it’s traumatic-fortunately I read it in the fall instead of the dead of winter.
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I listened to 1984 on tapes on a long journey to Utah. It is not a good idea to listen to it in the dark. I found it nightmarish and was sorry we didn’t have something more enjoyable like Great Expectations to listen to. (I know your adversion to Dickens!! But that would have been heaven to 1984.) Whenever I think about government invasion in our privacy, I think about this wretched book and wonder at what point I would have caved in to the torture. I hope I never find out.M.
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