Nineteen Eighty-Four

Title: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Author: George Orwell
Published: Kindle edition is from 2013, book from 1949.
Genre: Dystopia
Pages: 668 (book version is ~270)


Wow. Um. I spent most of yesterday (Sunday) just sitting on the sofa, reading this. I still haven't completely gotten over my aversion for classics, but the fact that I was completely hooked to 1984 from the start might help with that.

The world of 1984 is divided into three large states, Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia, constantly at war with each other. Winston Smith, our main man, is a worker for the Ministry of Truth in Oceania's Airstrip One (former Great Britain). His job is to rewrite history: to change articles in the Times to match the day's Party views, to wipe out mentions of people the Party doesn't like anymore, and to update text depending on who Oceania happens to be in war with at the moment. Like all other Outer Party (middle-class) members, Winston is under constant surveillance through telescreens, living under the threat of the Thought police. Still, he hates the Party and Big Brother, and is sure that there was a past world that doesn't change, no matter what the Party wants him to write. And if there was a different world in the past, it's possible to change it again for the better, right?

This is one of those books where there's so much material... there's so many themes, there are the terms Orwell created for the book that are in use these days, the effect the book has had, there's the differences and scary similarities to the world we live in right now etc etc. But it's all been said better, I'm sure, than what I'm capable of. Definitely a book worth reading.


On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette packet - everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.

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"Orwell was almost exactly wrong in a strange way. He thought the world would end with Big Brother watching us, but it ended with us watching Big Brother."
               - Alan Moore, 2007