Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - 1984

So this was actually my second read of this book, the first having been around 10 years ago. Just as I did the previous read through, I was struck by just how much of this book is relevant to our world today. This is one of the books that I will keep coming back to again and again throughout my lifetime.
The book itself is a somewhat dramatised (hopefully) version of Stalin's Russia/Nazi Germany. It has so many layers to it, and I', still not convinces I've worked out just how deep the 'Party' goes in their propaganda, gaslighting, and plotting against its own citizens.
This is an incredibly well planned out (or perhaps the word is researched) and realised world, where even the bits that are fiction could very easily be real. That, I think, is the true terror of this book: How easily society could go from even today's status, to that found in this book. Thus, Orwell's intention to have this book serve as a warning was fully realised.

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cupcake23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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ninnicannotspell's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The book as a story for enjoyment is a 0/5 star but the message within is 5/5 stars. Complicated book that I love to hate.

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misscaroline09's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

4.5 stars for the last third of the book, 0-2 stars for the first two thirds.

You can read a quick character overview of 3 people (Winston, Julia, and O’Brien), then skip like 18 chapters to Part 3 of the book, and probably get far more out of it than you would if you read the whole thing.

The first two parts of the book have the potential to be interesting, but then basically nothing happens for most of it and also I hate everyone. I normally like characters with their personalities, but these people are just insufferable. I tried to justify it by saying to myself, “They’re intentionally written this way in order to show how horrible the world is.” But I could only get so far with that thought process before I started to dread reading any more.

Winston straight up talks about [trigger warning, not even gonna say it] and murdering Julia numerous times, then they just laugh it off. Hullo? Also he’s just generally self righteous and spends most of his time stroking is own ego. I swear, there’s one chapter (that’s unnecessarily long) where he just reads stuff that he agrees with, then stops and goes, “Hm, I’m so smart!” then continues reading, like BRUV. PLEASE. Also that chapter is basically a book inside a book, author, why T-T

Julia’s whole character is very “r/MenWritingWomen.” She has no character of her own really, she’s just a body for him to sleep with and a manic pixie dream girl.

O’Brien is the only character I actually found enjoyable. He makes you both comfortable and fearful at the same time. 10/10, I appreciated how he was written.

There were things about this book I did like, and even things about the characters I was into, but they were so few and far between that by the time I got to part 3, I wanted to pry my eyes out. Thankfully, at that point, things started to pick up and the author finally said what he wanted to say. If I ever read this again (unlikely), I’m just gonna skip to the end and I recommend you do the same.

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saraverboom's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I finally picked up 1984 after postponing it for years, and I’m glad I did postpone it because the story seems more relevant to me now that it probably would have a couple of years ago.

In case anyone here doesn't know what the story is about (which I doubt, but just in case), here's a short summary.

Winston lives in a totalitarian state where love is illegal, history is being rewritten each day to fit the current narrative of the governing party, where thinking could literally be a criminal act, and where someone is always watching you. In this lonely society, Winston starts to doubt Big Brother (the government) and he starts taking risks while looking for companionship, a rebel organisation that might or might not exist, and basically for the meaning of life in a world where family and love don’t have a place.

Orwell’s mastery of world building is clear from the start. He eloquently describes what the everyday life looks like in his dystopian society, which makes it easy to get into the story quickly and envision everything that is described.

Another thing that became unmistakably clear, is that the protagonist (or, arguably, Orwell himself) hated women. Winston, the protagonist of the story, admits wanting to rape, hurt and murder a woman he ends up having sexual relations with and eventually develops some sort of warm feelings for. I’m no expert on George Orwell’s work or his personal life for that matter, so I can’t say whether these misogynist views are his own or just his character’s, but I was shocked at the way women are depicted as weak, immoral beings and mostly just as sexual objects. The protagonist shows his incel energy by disliking women just because he can’t seem to establish relationships with them easily. Winston proves to be an unreliable character as we follow his thoughts and actions throughout the story. He’s unlikable and not very wise, but his flaws lead to interesting developments.

Power is an important theme in this book. The Party exercises its power over the behaviour as well as the thoughts of its constituents. There is no freedom whatsoever in this society; not even freedom of thought. The Party controls everything, including Time. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

In my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of this book, was the development of Newspeak; the official language in Oceania. As a language student I enjoyed reading the Principles of Newspeak in the appendix. The role of language in controlling people’s thoughts, is interesting to say the least. Newspeak is a language that is being altered everyday to eradicate certain vocabulary that might lead to rebellion. The idea here is that, by getting rid of certain words, you get rid of the possibility to think about these words too, which in turn means you can control people’s thoughts by controlling their language. Here’s a passage from the appendix that explains it better than I can:

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever.”

To me, this proves that there’s actual power in language and I find that both very intriguing and dangerous, but as long as the 2024 lexicon is limited to words such as ‘situationship’, ‘delulu’, and ‘rizz’, I’m not too worried.

I could go on and on about this book and I really think I’m in need of a book discussion, as this book covers so many interesting themes. It's not a secret that this book has aged very well, but it still amazes me that Orwell wrote this story about 75 years ago and yet it's still relevant today.

Looking at the world today (in 2024) it's hard not to compare current events to events happening in Orwell’s 1984. At the beginning of this review, I wrote that the book is more relevant to me today than it would have been a couple of years ago. Just look at the recent pandemic and all the conspiracy theories it has produced; had I not lived through these polarising times, I might not have found this story half as convincing as I find it now. I, having only ever known democracy, never having seen war, would not have believed this dystopian society as conceivable as I find it today, constantly seeing videos and images of Palestinians suffering under repressive regime in their occupied land. Truths are easily bended these days, so much so that victims are easily villainised and villains are to be applauded. I suppose this isn’t a new development, but since the coming of social media, it’s become easier to share truths and lies with the masses. As the influence of social media grows, the ability to think for oneself seems to be waning, which is exactly what Orwell tried to warn us about. The lesson we can learn from 1984 is to be cautious of governments attempting to gain too much control over their people, and to defend democracy at all costs. I suppose that this lesson can be applied to social media as well. For all its faults, I find 1984 to be a book everyone should read to learn this lesson.

Thank you for reading this somewhat messy and very lengthy review. Do let me know if you agree with me or if you have a different opinion. Like I said: I'm in need of a good discussion about this book!

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hayley_cook2's review against another edition

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Red Scare drivel... You read the book the main character is reading for 50 pages.

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andoriachan's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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