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i don't enjoy worldbuilding done this way (book inside the book was the worst thing to happen to me personally). let's stop with the villain monologues @ 1984 & fahrenheit 451. unfortunately the mc was terrible enough that i did not care much for his fate ;; and i think it was a loss for the story that he didn't have to die. boring choice. also couldn't suspend my disbelief about torture having this kind of effect
— Oct 14, 2025 07:09AM
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Sep 16, 2025 07:26PM
Winston/O'Brien is the toxic & evil inverse of Winston/Julia...
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oh agreed, but they at least had chemistry TT winston/julia seemed plenty toxic too (still not over how she just brushed him telling her he wanted to rape and kill her aside), at least from winston's side. had he been less misogynistic maybe things would have ended differently
eh, since the government is actively working to make romantic/familial relationships as awful and shallow as possible, so that Big Brother is everyone's One True Love, even without Winston's rape fantasies, I don't think W/J had any chance
let's blame the government on him being forced to become a sapiosexual... it's not like i wanted them to have one (although they could have been horrible people together, that might seem desirable to some). i meant it more like, maybe if winston had been more appreciative of, well, other people in general but julia specifically it would have affected his behaviour in a way that his story would have played out differently (and that i would have felt sorry for him). idk he wasn't a very convincingly human character to me, which is maybe why orwell said it was a satire (but i'm also not willing to dig into this statement, at the end of the day i think there might be better books about surveillance states out there). while i know it's human to possess the capacity to become this hateful, and his character was meant to show the effects such a system might have on a person, it all just fell flat for me with the ending; he feels like a caricature and it makes me unwilling to engage with any deeper themes in all seriousness because it doesn't quite reflect on him...? and i think characters like him can be written in a way that makes them feel human so it opens the door to connecting their behaviour and choices to one's own vulnerability and susceptibility to propaganda or general -isms better, but this was clearly not wanted by orwell, idk. sorry both for rambling, and that it's been too long since i finished this one so my thoughts on it might not be very coherent anymore ;;
Honestly, I last read 1984 when I was maybe ...15 years old? So for me it's been an eternity, and your reflections are more fresh than mine 😊 I now want to reread it just to see whether I find Winston convincing or not
