Spread your lips and make a fart noise.

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Originally posted by iammesol l didn't read much of that, but yeah. 1984 pwned.

It's an idea book. Everyone likes it because it is full of interesting ideas. It's nothing special to read- I found Orwell's prose and narrative techniques quite dull. Ironically enough, his style is quite conformist to literary norms. I also never understood why the prophetic dreams are in there- they're like something out of Shakespeare.

My favourite quote from 1984 is "The best books are the ones that tell you what you already know". I think this sums up why 1984 is very popular. People find relevance in its ideas of police states, constant surveillence and media manipulation, but really it's just repeating ideas that everyone already has in their minds.

This has nothing to do with the opening post, really. I just wanted to throw in a bit of literary criticism, because 1984 seems to be the classic "let's talk about ideas from books" text.

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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles That's true in a sense. I was thinking particularly of balance between different human tendencies, and the way totalitarian societies try to take certain human tendencies (typically violence and hate, but in the case of Brave New World a heedless search for pleasure) and turn them up to the max while ignoring or suppressing others.

Yeah, and that is what I am saying as well - even within the realms of human nature and socialization, we are in a constant state of consuming one another. The rich consume the poor, the strong consume the weak - it's all a process. I am a big fan of the many poor consuming the few rich. That excites me.

It's still something we cannot seem to change though - it is just another component of our nature; This cycle. And that is a sort of balance, in some sense. Or perhaps balance is only an eventuality - we shall see. Or we shall not. We don't really live that long, I suppose.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I found Orwell's prose and narrative techniques quite dull. Ironically enough, his style is quite conformist to literary norms.

I really must agree. But then again, one could claim that Orwell did it intentionally, as the lack of vivid imagery paints a very hazy, gray landscape - and the things he does go through with describing in colour are intended to stand out; take the red sashes worn by the anti-sex members, for example. But this sure is convenient for Orwell.

However, the excerpts from Goldstein's book stand out to me as very interesting. Perhaps it's just me, but I found the book within a book the most appealing part of the story.

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Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J It's an idea book. Everyone likes it because it is full of interesting ideas. It's nothing special to read- I found Orwell's prose and narrative techniques quite dull.

Yeah, Orwell certainly isn't the best dramatic or stylistic writer. His characterization is pretty good, but the plot and prose are very ordinary. The point of the novel is to express certain ideas. These ideas may seem pretty obvious now, but we have to remember that Orwell was writing before the full extent of what had been happening with the Soviet Union had become clear.

The mediocre prose and plotting was why Nabokov classed it as "topical trash," meaning less-than-excellent art used to make ideological points. And I guess he can get away with saying that, since he was probably one of the best writers in English (certainly stylistically).

Good read MrJiveBoJingles. Interesting comparison between those books. If you have read it, how would you compare any of these books to the likes of "The Giver"? I recall that book sharing a lot of similarities with 1984. Though, it's been quite a few years since I've read it, so I can't do the comparison myself.

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Originally posted by cmay119 Good read MrJiveBoJingles. Interesting comparison between those books. If you have read it, how would you compare any of these books to the likes of "The Giver"? I recall that book sharing a lot of similarities with 1984. Though, it's been quite a few years since I've read it, so I can't do the comparison myself.

I read that one, or at least part of it, but I am in the same boat: years and years, probably at least ten, have passed since I last picked it up.