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1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four by: George Orwell

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Rating: - You can't understand the 20th and 21st centuries unless you've read "1984"

Not much point in a plot synopsis-every literate person alive today has absorbed the ideas in "1984" either from the book or it's influence in the wider culture.Big Brother,Room 101,"WAR IS PEACE",the Ministry of Truth,the proles,everlasting world war-this is where they all come from.And "Orwellian"-good as it is,you wouldn't think of the word after reading "The Road To Wigan Pier".
As a satire of totalitarianism,only "Animal Farm" comes close.is it just an attack on Stalinism or on all tyrannies of the modern era,whether of the left or right?I think the latter,but read it yourself and make up your own mind.Along with "The Gulag Archipelago",absolutely essential to understand the 20th century.

Rating: - Grinding novel depicting horrific anti-utopia ideology

1984 Is an ingenious piece of writing, primaraly because of its explanation of the ideology behind the governing power. The plot is good too, though, but if your into read-it-in-a-weekend-page-turners then its not quite as easy going as that! Like I said in the title, I would discribe the narritive as 'grinding'. It is possibly like this to deliberatly mirror the monotonus life of the main character.

Is is relivent? No! It is a thrilling discussion of themes such as love, reality, identity, betrayal, war, etc etc etc the list goes on, but it is not 'relivent'. It is an great exploration of human nature, too, but it still isn't 'relivent' to todays society because no one is forced into the same positions as these characters because no society exists quite like the one under Big Brother. Oh, complain, you conspiritors! "its all real!" No. No it is not.

Anyhow, the book is absoloutly raw with moral and philisophical issues to mull over, debate, discuss, interprite; so I give this book 5 stars therefor. peace out amigos!

Rating: - New Labour Blueprint

I studied 1984 about 25 years for A level and at the time thought that it was a superb piece of literature but I considered the content to be fanciful and more of a metaphorical rather than literal warning of the consequences of a state evolve dystopia. Then along came New Labour in 1997 and I realised that Orwell was indeed able to glimpse the future so much so that you could be forgiven in thinking that New Lab used used 1984 as a blueprint for their assault on the sanctity of the individual and the creation of a dysfunctional society by oppressive state control.
Orwell's nightmare has arrived.

Rating: - A book that really made me think.

Scary stuff...

1984 is the story of Winston Smith, an employee of the Party who is responsible for re-writing the past. Big Brother is watching 24/7 - citizens can be seen and heard at all times and the Thought Police are there to make sure any sign of rebellion is quashed. Everything they do, say and think is recorded. The views and speeches of the government are re-written whenever there is a change in circumstances, so that it would appear that their predictions were always right. People disappear, literally... their existence completely wiped from the records. On the outside Smith is the perfect citizen, yet on the inside he longs for rebellion. When he meets Julia, who feels the same way, they embark on a secret love affair.

So this kind of totalitarianism could never happen, right? Well that's the scary thing, Orwell writes so skillfully that you really can believe that this could happen. It really isn't so absurd as to be impossible. We only have to look at the state of the governments in many countries today to see that this could be the way we are headed.

That aside, the writing in this book was amazing. Orwell is clearly a highly skilled writer and I was engrossed from beginning to end. The description is vivid and the characterisation is excellent. Part 1 of the book was a little slow, however from the beginning of Part 2 I was mesmerised. I love thrillers and parts of this book were definitely full of suspense. It was a real page turner and I devoured Parts 2 and 3.

I liked the sections that Winston read from The Book about the Party's 3 slogans - WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. A lot of the points raised in this section actually made a lot of sense when comparing to today's society and this fascinated me.

A great book that really made me think. Losing a star only for the slowness of the inital section.

Rating: - Great value

Hi,

Baught this DVD as a gift for my Son-in-Law. Speedy delivery and great value.

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