Short & Sweet Treats discussion

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia" -a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions -a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.

The first time I read this was in the actual year of 1984. I think it's high time to read it again. I definitely remember what I thought of it then. I'm curious how I'll look at it now--with a lot less disbelief, that's for sure!

let us know how your perspective has changed since then, Dawn!

Dawn I'm thinking the same thing. Back then i thouggh orwell had a great imagination - now I'm older i see less imagination in the work!

April wrote: "I think Internet technology has progressed a lot faster than he could have predicted, but he did have some interesting insights about government surveillance."

April, the whole field of computing has progressed so fast it amazes me. I saw on tv last week someone in developing a system the is controlled by the users thoughts.Don't know if that would work so well for me - my mind skips around a bit :D

Margo wrote: "April wrote: "I think Internet technology has progressed a lot faster than he could have predicted, but he did have some interesting insights about government surveillance."

April, the whole field of computing has progressed so fast it amazes me. I saw on tv last week someone in developing a system the is controlled by the users thoughts...."

Scary to think they've progressed that far already, Margo. Imagine the implications if they are capable of reading our thoughts. It will start out as a benefit to society in solving crimes, etc., but people will fail to see the slippery slope of willingly handing over information from inside our brain. I feel the paranoia coming out in me. Time to dust off my funny helmet made out of a colander and tin foil. Privacy GONE. Personal freedoms GONE.

Dawn wrote: "Margo wrote: "April wrote: "I think Internet technology has progressed a lot faster than he could have predicted, but he did have some interesting insights about government surveillance."

April, t..."

The film Minority Report springs to mind! If we could be convicted for thinking about strangling someone ......

Great, I'll get the book at weekend :)

I haven't read the book. The Minority Report. Not a huge Tom Cruise fan but the movie was ok.

Karen wrote: " I haven't read the book. The Minority Report. Not a huge Tom Cruise fan but the movie was ok."

Thanks Karen - I didn't realise there was a book. I enjoyed the film. I'm not a big Cruise either. I think Colin Farrell was in it also. Him I like.

I've never read 1984. I seriously plan on trying to fit it in this month.

I just read it for the first time a few months ago. What are you all thinking of it?

Joy wrote: "I just read it for the first time a few months ago. What are you all thinking of it?"

I find Orwell quite hard to read. His ideas were fascinating and translate very well into film but his prose does nothing for me.

I'm a little behind and only started it yesterday. So far, I'm liking it and I can see the influence he had on other stories.

Margo wrote: "Joy wrote: "I just read it for the first time a few months ago. What are you all thinking of it?"

I find Orwell quite hard to read. His ideas were fascinating and translate very well into film but..."
I'm with you on that one Margo, the guy was a genius, but I'm having a hard time getting into the book.

RO *one day I will rule the world* wrote: "Margo wrote: "Joy wrote: "I just read it for the first time a few months ago. What are you all thinking of it?"

I find Orwell quite hard to read. His ideas were fascinating and translate very well..."

RO, I read the book years ago and have not been to reread! Same with animal farm. It's interesting to hear other people have to say about it though. Certainly thought provoking stuff.

I just started reading 1984 last night and today during my lunch break I got to Winston's co-worker's discussion of Newspeak: "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words." I can't remember the last time a book literally gave me a chill like I got reading that.

My copy came this morning and it has SUPER small print. LOL. Should have got the Kindle version.

Hoping to start it this weekend.

Does Newspeak have anything to do with Esperanto? I've noticed some similarities.

Margo wrote: "RO *one day I will rule the world* wrote: "Margo wrote: "Joy wrote: "I just read it for the first time a few months ago. What are you all thinking of it?"

I find Orwell quite hard to read. His ide..."

True, I'll let you know when I get to the end.

When my copy came in the mail, with the forward, appendix, and afterward, it was over 350 pages! The print was so small. I ended up buying the Kindle version so I could make the print bigger and its 662 pages long!

I debated scrapping the whole thing but then I started reading and I'm intrigued. I've read 75 pages so far.

Finished. Here's my short review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished this last night. Wowee!

I read 1984 about 2 years ago and really liked it. This is the review I wrote and posted, first in paperbackswap and then GR. Hope you'll find it interesting:

I happened upon this book by chance in the library. At that time I vaguely knew it has something to do with Big Brother and an Apple ad, but nothing else. I'm glad I read it though. I think my perspective will probably differ somewhat from the typical American (Western) reader's, but I find the book rather amusing, especially the early parts. It reads like a satire to me, and many times I had to chuckle to myself "yeah, that's so true". It's like watching Saturday Night Live where everything is a slightly exaggerated spoof of the real thing. I grew up in a communist country, so I can appreciate a lot of practices mentioned in the book, for example the ever-watchful eyes around you, the banning of true romances, the need for Party-arranged marriage, the practices of unperson (including the act of removing references to someone from text or photos), the de-emphasis of personal feeling, the heavy bureaucracy, the adulation of the paramount leader, etc. (Although truth be told, on the last point the book probably pales compare to the current practice in North Korea). It's scary, it's suffocating, it's depressing, but it's so true. At first I thought that Orwell was so far ahead of his time, since at the time of the publication, there was no Iron Curtain and communist atrocities weren't well-known (or so I thought). But now that I've read more about Stalin's USSR, I realize he got his inspirations from there. Still, pretty insightful book if you've never lived in that system before.

(Many people commented that it's a dystopian society in the future. Well I can tell you that there have been times in history in certain countries where it was very very close to being the reality. You should be thankful you're living in a society where you can afford to think it's way off in the future :)

Apart from the satirical content, I also find one idea very insightful (it's in the content of the little revolt book), and that is the suggestion of a 3-tier society, and how they've been interacting and probably will continue interacting till the end of time. I find it so funny, in fact I laughed out loud when I got there. Here you go, all the revolutionary thinkers and philosophers of the world, thinking their brains off (and at the cost of sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands, and sometimes millions of lives) about how to have a better society. And yet all they do is just to rehash and repeat what Mr Orwell has so clearly described before. It's what come closest to capture TRUTH compared to all the other things you see each day (Michael Moore, Occupy movement, Congress, Wall Street, the North Korean Kim Dynasty, Gengis Khan, the Russian Revolution, the French Revolution, even the American Revolution, and so on). Isn't it amazing?

The last thing I really like about the book is the love story. I love the love story. Some people will see it as cold, bleak, unromantic, bland, etc, but I see it as having everything: warmth, tenderness, playfulness, longing, heart. It's love, period. Especially the girl, she's obviously been described by the author as "the girl of your dream". She's hard to come by, but if you happen to know her, try to grab her heart before it's too late.