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A review by chlhill
1984 by George Orwell
3.75
Can’t find a way to track the newer Andrew Garfield audio version so putting my review for that under here!
First off,,, the voice acting and full dramatization was incredible. It’s always a huge treat to listen to these audio books. I’m obsessed with both the Andrew’s and they did not disappoint. I will say this version is abridged the biggest difference I noticed was Goldstiens book was cut- I missed the politics/class criticism of it but I got a more general sense of the character’s plot instead which I enjoyed.
Story wise- I definitely got it and enjoyed it much more compared to when I read it for 9th grade. I had just read the likes of divergent and hunger games where we get a victory in the end so I remember hating that Winston ends up where he starts- now I can appreciate it. The ending drives home that the individual can not overthrow the cult collective because the individual is inherently selfish or he at least prefers to hope that someone/thing else will save the day. It also demonstrates that there are fates worse than death that feel safe.
On Julia, I want to think on it more and also read Julia by Sandra Newman to solidify what I think, but I still think Orwell handled her character poorly, she’s more used as a plot devise for Winston since their insta-love and her love of him is never fully developed/explained even though love- familiar, romantic, and sexual is a key point Orwell tries to push as a weapon against Big brother. That said, I loved the criticism of the woman’s role as mother, girl, and woman. We see it through Winston’s eyes and he never understands his privallge as man in this society- he wants more chocolate and dooms his mom and sister, he resents his wife as she does not like sex even though that was stripped from her by big brother. (I love how Julia defends her in this) And we see how mother and daughter are turned against eachother through the distressed neighbor- a young woman is the most valuable while the mother is expendable.
On the dystopia and how it relates to our reality- I think it very much does in the age of social media and our constant state of war and military funding. However instead of having an ominous big brother and a United America versus anyone else, I feel we have an in house Goldstein vs Brother fight in America with the Rep v Dem. Made me realize (especially with the recent overwhelming bipartisan support of tik tok ban) that they actually want us fighting, want us to have a perpetual enemy so they can control our hate rather than try to smother our love. I love that assertion that the hope lies in the lower class who knows how bad it is and still has that compassion, also the criticism that the middle class (Winston) won’t take responsibility because they are too comfortable and think the lower class will do it despite the lower class not actually having the resources to do anything about it. (It’s no wonder that district 12 doesn’t survive the rebellion).
That said, to continue with my HG comparison, I think our society will take a much more lax approach to thought control- the districts were allowed to know (some) history that wasn’t patriotic, and complain about the government, even break some rules, but Snow didn’t care because he still had them controlled by fear, hope and most importantly, inaction. At the end of the day, I don’t think America cares enough about our individual thoughts to police that when they control us enough already (name an uncorrupted politician) We won’t go as far as to actually believe 2+2 is 5 but do we fact check that Facebook article, do we seek out the events in history they don’t teach?
That said- ‘cancel culture’, or getting hate comments for being hateful on the internet is not government control or thought police, it’s the healthy social consequences of being a bad person.
I will critique Orwell’s pointed use of the word comrade. It’s just silly that Orwell writes a book that’s soooo anti government thought control and then decides to word vomit anti communist propaganda, you know, the propaganda that was shoved down the throats of the west with the rise of Stalin leading to the red scare McCarthyism and the Cold War. But,,, I would like to remain in the thought that this book is not a ‘what if communism took over’ horror novel (which it probably was intended to be) and continue to use it as a critique on late stage capitalism and facist bipartisan republics.
To wrap this up- cool analysis theory, multiple times Winston remembers things that will happen later in the novel- ‘the only hope is the proles’ the bells song, and O’Brien saying we’ll meet. I wonder if Winston had rebelled and been rehabilitated before many times maybe because the party has him forget it, so maybe in the end 1984 is a messed up dystopian groundhogs day???
First off,,, the voice acting and full dramatization was incredible. It’s always a huge treat to listen to these audio books. I’m obsessed with both the Andrew’s and they did not disappoint. I will say this version is abridged the biggest difference I noticed was Goldstiens book was cut- I missed the politics/class criticism of it but I got a more general sense of the character’s plot instead which I enjoyed.
Story wise- I definitely got it and enjoyed it much more compared to when I read it for 9th grade. I had just read the likes of divergent and hunger games where we get a victory in the end so I remember hating that Winston ends up where he starts- now I can appreciate it. The ending drives home that the individual can not overthrow the cult collective because the individual is inherently selfish or he at least prefers to hope that someone/thing else will save the day. It also demonstrates that there are fates worse than death that feel safe.
On Julia, I want to think on it more and also read Julia by Sandra Newman to solidify what I think, but I still think Orwell handled her character poorly, she’s more used as a plot devise for Winston since their insta-love and her love of him is never fully developed/explained even though love- familiar, romantic, and sexual is a key point Orwell tries to push as a weapon against Big brother. That said, I loved the criticism of the woman’s role as mother, girl, and woman. We see it through Winston’s eyes and he never understands his privallge as man in this society- he wants more chocolate and dooms his mom and sister, he resents his wife as she does not like sex even though that was stripped from her by big brother. (I love how Julia defends her in this) And we see how mother and daughter are turned against eachother through the distressed neighbor- a young woman is the most valuable while the mother is expendable.
On the dystopia and how it relates to our reality- I think it very much does in the age of social media and our constant state of war and military funding. However instead of having an ominous big brother and a United America versus anyone else, I feel we have an in house Goldstein vs Brother fight in America with the Rep v Dem. Made me realize (especially with the recent overwhelming bipartisan support of tik tok ban) that they actually want us fighting, want us to have a perpetual enemy so they can control our hate rather than try to smother our love. I love that assertion that the hope lies in the lower class who knows how bad it is and still has that compassion, also the criticism that the middle class (Winston) won’t take responsibility because they are too comfortable and think the lower class will do it despite the lower class not actually having the resources to do anything about it. (It’s no wonder that district 12 doesn’t survive the rebellion).
That said, to continue with my HG comparison, I think our society will take a much more lax approach to thought control- the districts were allowed to know (some) history that wasn’t patriotic, and complain about the government, even break some rules, but Snow didn’t care because he still had them controlled by fear, hope and most importantly, inaction. At the end of the day, I don’t think America cares enough about our individual thoughts to police that when they control us enough already (name an uncorrupted politician) We won’t go as far as to actually believe 2+2 is 5 but do we fact check that Facebook article, do we seek out the events in history they don’t teach?
That said- ‘cancel culture’, or getting hate comments for being hateful on the internet is not government control or thought police, it’s the healthy social consequences of being a bad person.
I will critique Orwell’s pointed use of the word comrade. It’s just silly that Orwell writes a book that’s soooo anti government thought control and then decides to word vomit anti communist propaganda, you know, the propaganda that was shoved down the throats of the west with the rise of Stalin leading to the red scare McCarthyism and the Cold War. But,,, I would like to remain in the thought that this book is not a ‘what if communism took over’ horror novel (which it probably was intended to be) and continue to use it as a critique on late stage capitalism and facist bipartisan republics.
To wrap this up- cool analysis theory, multiple times Winston remembers things that will happen later in the novel- ‘the only hope is the proles’ the bells song, and O’Brien saying we’ll meet. I wonder if Winston had rebelled and been rehabilitated before many times maybe because the party has him forget it, so maybe in the end 1984 is a messed up dystopian groundhogs day???