Careful now, Big Brother is watching!!!!
1984 – The blurb
‘Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past’
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.
Big Brother
Did you know George Orwell isn’t really called George Orwell? He was born Eric Arthur Blair.
I had lived most of my adult life convinced I had already read 1984 but upon trying to remember exactly when I had I became unsure. Was it just that I knew the phrase Big Brother is watching? I picked up a copy and gave it a brief skim. I could remember the name Julia but not main character Winston. I knew it was set in a totalitarian society but couldn’t remember the thought police. This wasn’t enough, I needed to [re]read.
Room 101
I’m pleased I did as reading it I discovered things I definitely hadn’t read before – the origin of room 101! Did anyone else shudder at that section? You could see how the world 1984 is set in came about. Post World War 2, everything in such awry, everyone desperate for stability. The thought of someone stepping in and offering that, then abusing that power is easily imaginable. Never a truer phrase has been spoken than ‘Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.’ This phrase is poked at and prodded by Orwell throughout 1984. Winston certainly makes a point when he notes Comrade Ogilvy is as real to people today as Julius Caesar.
Proles and animals are free
My continuing thought (and I’m so pleased I’m allowed them, I wouldn’t last a month in 1984) was why doesn’t Winston join the Proles? Aren’t they basically us at present? What is so good about life in the Outer/Inner Party. They all seem to live life either in fear or totally brainwashed. Having recently read Brave New World I obviously drew comparisons to the two worlds. The benefit of Huxley’s being that his alternative reality offered copious drugs and free sex to keep its occupants happy. I’m not sure what Orwell’s inhabitants gained other than fake coffee and horrible gin.
I struggled to like Winston. It was the chapter about his mother and the chocolate that did it for me. Overall his varicous ulcer itching, Victory Gin drinking left me un-enthused. I also really didn’t get the (at least the start) of his love affair with Julia. Would you really declare you loved somebody that you had never spoken to before? I would liked to have seen things from Julia’s point of view, especially her experiences towards the end of the book. Understanding why Julia made her initial declaration would probably have helped with my acceptance of them as a couple overall.
Class, women and race
Interesting points were made by Orwell when Winston read ‘The Book’ – the permanent division of society into 3 groups: High, Middle and Low. However I found these parts quite dry and confess I did resort to skim reading. Class was a constant theme in 1984, as were women and race “In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won”
It wasn’t all dry though and there were some moments of beautiful observations “It had never occurred to him before that the body of a woman of fifty, blown up to monstrous dimensions by childbearing, then hardened, roughened by work till it was course in the grain like an over-ripe turnip, could be beautiful. But it was so….It bore the same relation to the body of a girl as the rose-hip to the rose. Why should the fruit be held inferior to the flower?”
A hard year
I liked 1984 but didn’t love it. I’m pleased I’ve finally read it but certainly won’t be rushing to re (re?) read it. 2020 has without doubt been a hard year so far but let’s be positive, it could have been 1984!
