Nineteen Eighty-Four
What an excellent book.
People will look at this book and say that it's a warning against totalitarianism. I will say that, yes, they are right. Yet if you look further into this book, there is an even more fundamental warning (at least I think so).
It seems to me that Winston was defeated by Big Brother at the end because he tried to 'come to grips' and 'understand' what was happening. It's a vicious little circle, trying to comprehend what cannot be comprehended. It's also frightening for this very same reason.
Sometimes there simply is no 'answer'. Even then, O'Brien tells Winston that it's about power, pure and simple. That was the only motivation, if it could be called that. To a certain extent, you can't compete with that. The square peg in a round hole syndrome.
Reading the book, I was gripped by the logic of O'Brien's rationale for the existence of Big Brother and the excuse for totalitarianism. I felt sorry for Winston because every attempt at logically trying to circumvent O'Brien's attacks met with failure. Yet Winston was RIGHT. Everyone who reads this book or watches the movie K NOWS this. Yet any attempt to logically prove our correctness is often countered. That is why polemics is such an infantile game.
I'm currently reading Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East". Every page reminds of George Orwell's messages. Melissa, you asked by do we continue to believe lies? Kim suggests it's not the role of government to micro-manage. Of course, the answers (and the questions) fall within the same spectrum, variations on a theme, so to speak.
There is no logic to any of this besides the logic created for it. The logic is it's own world, man-made and obviously so. Within the walls, it's a risk to conceive trying to breach them yet....
People will look at this book and say that it's a warning against totalitarianism. I will say that, yes, they are right. Yet if you look further into this book, there is an even more fundamental warning (at least I think so).
It seems to me that Winston was defeated by Big Brother at the end because he tried to 'come to grips' and 'understand' what was happening. It's a vicious little circle, trying to comprehend what cannot be comprehended. It's also frightening for this very same reason.
Sometimes there simply is no 'answer'. Even then, O'Brien tells Winston that it's about power, pure and simple. That was the only motivation, if it could be called that. To a certain extent, you can't compete with that. The square peg in a round hole syndrome.
Reading the book, I was gripped by the logic of O'Brien's rationale for the existence of Big Brother and the excuse for totalitarianism. I felt sorry for Winston because every attempt at logically trying to circumvent O'Brien's attacks met with failure. Yet Winston was RIGHT. Everyone who reads this book or watches the movie K NOWS this. Yet any attempt to logically prove our correctness is often countered. That is why polemics is such an infantile game.
I'm currently reading Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East". Every page reminds of George Orwell's messages. Melissa, you asked by do we continue to believe lies? Kim suggests it's not the role of government to micro-manage. Of course, the answers (and the questions) fall within the same spectrum, variations on a theme, so to speak.
There is no logic to any of this besides the logic created for it. The logic is it's own world, man-made and obviously so. Within the walls, it's a risk to conceive trying to breach them yet....
posted by sleiman @ 9:51 PM
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