Book review: "1984", by George Orwell

Synopsis: Written in 1948, it describes the life of Winston Smith, a 39-year-old government worker who lives in Orwell's vision of London in 1984- a distopia where everything is spied upon and controlled by the government, known simply as The Party, and with overall control in the hands of "Big Brother". Winston works for "The department of truth", where he's in charge of editing history to conform to the version that Big Brother desires, keeping the public ignorant that they are being oppressed, and channeling all negative feelings and anger towards irrelevant outside sources, and away from The Party. Slowly, Winston starts to rebel against the system, and conspires to bring it down from the inside...

Review: A terrifyingly accurate prediction of the future (which is now the past and the present!), this book has been referenced multiple times since it was written, and has become as much part of our society as the governmental tricks-of-the-trade that it deplores. The media control, the "Two minute hate" (in which citizens are shown a daily video of Emmanuel Goldstein, Big Brother's elusive enemy, in order to persuade them to focus their anger on him, rather than rebel against their true oppressor), the state of constant war which the state perpetuates in order to produce for the economy, only to have the products disappear in a cloud of smoke, or sink to the bottom of the ocean rather than being given back to the people... these are all realities that we are living today in the 21st century. This isn't meant to be a political rant, but it's impossible to review this book without mentioning them. It is also impossible to read 1984 without stopping frequently to look up and murmur "Oh, my God..." to yourself, and you realize that you've witnessed a method of The Party that very day.

On the one hand, it's tempting for me to write the following: "Had people believed that this future was possible back in 1948, no doubt some (if not many) would have tried to have it banned. It's only the fact that it was well ahead of it's time that it wasn't subject to a book burning". However, this is only the half truth, as there are clear and obvious references to both Hitler and Stalin's regimes throughout, therefore making it as much of a historical analysis as a gloomy futuristic fore-telling. As I'm sure many political thinkers at the time observed, though, the wheel of history revolves by it's very nature and design, and it was only a matter of time before the memories of those terrible times started to fade, and the attitudes of oppression, lying and scape-goating could creep their way back into the public sphere (I'm looking at you, Thatcher and the post-1982 British Establishment!).

These apocalyptic predictions, and the frequent eye-opening insights which challenge the reader to review their own political conscience, combined with Orwell's consistently engaging tempo and page-turning writing style make for a simply fantastic read. As I've always thought of Orwell (and as 1984 proves)- his writing style was so ahead of his time that you could be forgiven for thinking that this book had been written within the last decade. He recognizes the modern reader's lust for a constantly moving story-line (especially applicable to the post-WW2 generations, who are famously more attracted to instant gratification than their predecessors). In this way, as you're reading 1984, you start to realize that as you rush down the white-water river of the story-line, buzzing with the excitement of getting soaked and trying to avoid the rocks, that you are also collecting valuable philosophical and political insights along the way. Seldom can a writer achieve both- either he lumbers along the river in a steam-boat, pausing frequently to ponder existence and genuinely taking his time about life, or he goes down the hill as fast as he can on a toboggan, believing that every second counts in order to get the reader to the end as quickly as possible, and therefore skipping huge areas for literary insights. Orwell, as mentioned, strikes a balance, and does both, therefore appealing both to the philosopher and the story-junkie within me.

As my closing, I have to share with you a segment, which I think of as a direct route to the message of 1984: 

"Did I not tell you just now that we are different from the persecutors of the past? We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him...

... By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how much they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean".

Orwell is saying that, no matter how small your protest, how minute your resistance, as long as you have the words "I don't love Big Brother" or (in plainer terms), "I am not happy with the way things are" written on your heart, then Big Brother can never truly destroy you. On the other hand, no matter how grand your gestures, or how many people may think that you are rebelling, as long as you have the mantra "I love Big Brother", or "I am content for things to stay the same, as I am benefiting from them" chanting in your soul, then your actions are mute, and you are a slave to The Party.

Read this book, and when you've finished, see how differently you look at the world.

Score: 9/10