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A review by bookswithleesh
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
5.0
Doubleplusgood! 1984 is a book I think everyone should read in their lifetime! Prophetic to say the least..
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This was another book I read for a student I was tutoring a few years ago. I have read it a number of times since then and each time I’ve learnt something new from it.
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1984 is a cautionary tale - Orwell’s social commentary on truth and freedom, on totalitarianism and the mutability of the past by tyrannical governments.
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The book follows the protagonist, Winston Smith, who is dedicated to uncovering the real, unvarnished past in a society which is committed to eroding it. I loved the dynamic between Julia and Winston and how we see Julia as an activist only for things that impact her life directly or in that moment (sound familiar? Hello performative allyship!). As Winston says, “you’re only a radical from the waist down”.
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It’s not an easy read - its didactic and can be slow in parts, particularly the extracts from Goldstein’s book. But it honestly deserves all the hype it gets and then some.
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“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
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"For, if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away."
.
This was another book I read for a student I was tutoring a few years ago. I have read it a number of times since then and each time I’ve learnt something new from it.
.
1984 is a cautionary tale - Orwell’s social commentary on truth and freedom, on totalitarianism and the mutability of the past by tyrannical governments.
.
The book follows the protagonist, Winston Smith, who is dedicated to uncovering the real, unvarnished past in a society which is committed to eroding it. I loved the dynamic between Julia and Winston and how we see Julia as an activist only for things that impact her life directly or in that moment (sound familiar? Hello performative allyship!). As Winston says, “you’re only a radical from the waist down”.
.
It’s not an easy read - its didactic and can be slow in parts, particularly the extracts from Goldstein’s book. But it honestly deserves all the hype it gets and then some.
.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
.
"For, if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away."