Freya’s Reviews > 1984 > Status Update

This part reminds me of Ishmael. Hard to focus on it.

Does the rest of the world still maintain true history? Does anyone ever leave or enter England? I believe there is no war, the Party is bombing itself. So what is the rest of the world like?

I wish he didn’t refer to Julia as a girl, now knowing that she is 26 years old. He now seems to believe that she is smart, but still thinks most other women are stupid.

Ok things are starting to happen. Now that he knows she likes him, he suddenly thinks she might be a person. “Incel” sounds like newspeak. I wonder if the location she told him to meet him at is a secret base for a resistance group!

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command” (69).

The ways in which The Party rewrites history and makes up statistics constantly does remind me of how hard it is to know if the news you are seeing today is true. But at least we still have this book.

I am bothered by the way women are described so far. I hope that is addressed.

Seems like he does this exercise routine every day and yet still has trouble touching his toes?

“…one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the party depended” (22).

We may have our inciting incident. Winston has, through his diary entries, realized that he is against the Party. He has committed a thoughtcrime and now is a dead man.

This book is an iconic classic, I’m ready to find out that many cultural references come from it. Such as, already, Big Brother.