Originally posted by Domesticated
Catcher In the Rye
So many people have recommended this to me, but I've never gotten around to it.
Why do you think it sucks?
Domesticated
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
So many people have recommended this to me, but I've never gotten around to it.
Why do you think it sucks?
It doesn't 'suck' per se, it's just not worthy of praise in my opinion.
The main character is well written, but the book itself has no decent plot development. It's just some juvenile kid wandering around for a few days and then the book suddenly ends.
Lira
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Newspeak may be hyperbolic or just not be a very plausible idea, but why do you think the whole book stands or falls based on that?
Since the beginning, the book is based on many word plays. War is peace, the ministries, and even Emmanuel Goldstein is not seen or heard - he's most likely a discursive trick created by the Ministry of Truth (an idea that was clearly hinted in the book). Even thoughtcrime seems to flirt with the idea that language is thought (and vice versa).
This would take me ages to develop, but I think you can see where I'm getting at.
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Battle Royale. Not a highbrow film as such, but definitely critically acclaimed. I found it nonsensical, derivative and severely over-rated.
Really!?
That's it, our tastes are diametrically opposed :p
quote:
Originally posted by astroboy
Fair enough.. I read it a LOOONG time ago so can't even remember the specifics found it a fairly accurate representation of the Soviet/North Korean style dictatorships
Yeah but the Soviet Empire collapsed not long after the actual year or 1984, showing how far-fetched the idea of establishing a dictatorship like that for so long and over such a vast territory (and, in my case, the Brazilian dictatorship did end in 1984). North Korea would be more like it... specially because its territory is a lot more manageable.
Oh, why didn't the system send me an e-mail? Thanks for pointing out, I didn't see it.
I've read this and enjoyed it immensely. I'm going to take a look at this book. That introduction I posted actually got me a lot more interested in Merleau-Ponty. I bought my girlfriend "Child Psychology and Pedagogy" and she seems to have liked what she read (plus, in a more childish vain, his posh name soon became a meme, and we'd often blurt it out for no good reason :p).
Have you ever read anything by him?
astroboy
quote:
Originally posted by Domesticated
It doesn't 'suck' per se, it's just not worthy of praise in my opinion.
The main character is well written, but the book itself has no decent plot development. It's just some juvenile kid wandering around for a few days and then the book suddenly ends.
I love this book. I guess I like character-driven films and novels in general, now that I think about it.
astroboy
quote:
Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Huxley vs. Orwell in comic form:
Originally posted by Lira
Since the beginning, the book is based on many word plays. War is peace, the ministries, and even Emmanuel Goldstein is not seen or heard - he's most likely a discursive trick created by the Ministry of Truth (an idea that was clearly hinted in the book). Even thoughtcrime seems to flirt with the idea that language is thought (and vice versa).
It's not really about "wordplay" but about propaganda and all the other ways in which totalitarian states try to deceive their subjects, immunize them against outside influences, control access to information, and turn them against caricatured (or nonexistent) "enemies" in a way that is useful to the leaders of the state. It is also about the contorted and straitjacketed "thought" and "logic" that go into supporting the ideologies that such states are founded on, and the way that all social institutions (educational, artistic, etc.) are bent to go along with it.
I still don't see how it's all that unrealistic in its portrayal of these tendencies. And none of it really requires the notion that "language is thought," even if the novel may go too far in that direction at some points.
Lews
God I hate write an essay on Battle Royale.
Definitely disliked that.
Still need to get around to reading 1984.
Lews
quote:
Originally posted by astroboy
Also I'd be interested to know your opinion of Huxley's A Brave New World.. I found it more relevant than 1984 for some reason.
Love that book.
astroboy
Hitchens on North Korea and 1984:
TranceGiant
Kafka's Castle
Goethe's Faust
American Beauty
Rolling Stones
Jackson Pollock
Minimal Techno
Bjork
EgosXII
oh i thought of one, instead of just defending against other people's hates
barack obama.
GET THE OVER IT.
can't ing believe he won the nobel prize simply for getting elected, like seriously wtf?? he hasn't even done anything!!
ing annoying.
wow he's a good orator, who inspires hope, that's nice, so where the is the revolutionising of the world's last remaining imperial power?? oh, nowhere, ohh, still fighting needless wars, oh still raping third world states, ohh ok, you're democracies hero... :rolleyes:
*cough*
yeah.
agree with the beatles too. boring as imo: i'm sure they were contextually important, but useless these days...
i think the messages that 1984 delievered at the time and deliver now are interesting, the paradoxes and the administration of the regime can be seen as critiques of totalitarianism (obviously), but even can be seen in terms of modern capitalist societies to an extent...
things like the whole big brother is watching and the slogans "war is peace, ignorance is strength and freedom is slavery" still resonate with me at least, in one of those horrible ironic ways :)
