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emma's Reviews > Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell (Penguin Clothbound Classics)
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emma's review
bookshelves: non-ya, sci-fi, classics, 3-and-a-half-stars, reviewed, dystopian, to-buy
Feb 27, 2020
bookshelves: non-ya, sci-fi, classics, 3-and-a-half-stars, reviewed, dystopian, to-buy
i'm not making any point in particular...just that if you have any intention of reading a book about totalitarianism and apocalyptic government, written by a man who believed in democratic socialism as the solution...well, now might be a good time.
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full review
I had been meaning to read this book for a long time, but I finally did it based on a friend’s (hi Dario) insistence. It took me way longer than expected to finish it, and once I managed, said friend requested (in all caps) a text-message review. Here is that unaltered review for your perusal.
Message 1: I THOUGHT IT WAS MOSTLY A VESSEL FOR A CERTAIN LINE OF THINKING
Message 2: WHICH WAS CARRIED ACROSS IN GOLDSTEIN’S BOOK AND O’BRIEN’S DIALOGUE AT THE END
Message 3: AND WHILE THOSE PASSAGES WERE SMART AND WORTHY OF PUBLICATION, THEY ULTIMATELY WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE EFFECTIVE AS AN ESSAY
Message 4: BUT NOWHERE CLOSE TO AS MANY PEOPLE WOULD HAVE READ IT AS AN ESSAY
Message 5: anyway in the end i thought much of it was unnecessary but overall it’s a deeply impressive work
Message 6: i was lowkey astonished at how long the goldstein “passages” were
Message 7: but some of the ideas there were remarkable
Message 8: i found myself skimming at some points, and then i was mad at myself for skimming bc it’s like the whole point of the book, and then i was mad at the author for conveying the most important ideas in such a lazy way
Fin.
In conclusion, yes, I am the type of nightmare-person who responds to texts by breaking up sentiments into dozens of messages.
Sorry.
Bottom line: This was good but I wish it had been one or two political opinion papers instead! Sorry again!
----
full review
I had been meaning to read this book for a long time, but I finally did it based on a friend’s (hi Dario) insistence. It took me way longer than expected to finish it, and once I managed, said friend requested (in all caps) a text-message review. Here is that unaltered review for your perusal.
Message 1: I THOUGHT IT WAS MOSTLY A VESSEL FOR A CERTAIN LINE OF THINKING
Message 2: WHICH WAS CARRIED ACROSS IN GOLDSTEIN’S BOOK AND O’BRIEN’S DIALOGUE AT THE END
Message 3: AND WHILE THOSE PASSAGES WERE SMART AND WORTHY OF PUBLICATION, THEY ULTIMATELY WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE EFFECTIVE AS AN ESSAY
Message 4: BUT NOWHERE CLOSE TO AS MANY PEOPLE WOULD HAVE READ IT AS AN ESSAY
Message 5: anyway in the end i thought much of it was unnecessary but overall it’s a deeply impressive work
Message 6: i was lowkey astonished at how long the goldstein “passages” were
Message 7: but some of the ideas there were remarkable
Message 8: i found myself skimming at some points, and then i was mad at myself for skimming bc it’s like the whole point of the book, and then i was mad at the author for conveying the most important ideas in such a lazy way
Fin.
In conclusion, yes, I am the type of nightmare-person who responds to texts by breaking up sentiments into dozens of messages.
Sorry.
Bottom line: This was good but I wish it had been one or two political opinion papers instead! Sorry again!
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Reading Progress
February 27, 2020
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Started Reading
February 27, 2020
– Shelved
March 2, 2020
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Finished Reading
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message 1:
by
Caitlin
(new)
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rated it 3 stars
Apr 03, 2020 12:44AM
I thought the same. I spoke to one of my teachers about it, and apparently Orwell was convinced he was going to die, so he just... never edited it. 1984 as we know it is a first draft.
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Excellent review, Emma.
Caitlin wrote: "I thought the same. I spoke to one of my teachers about it, and apparently Orwell was convinced he was going to die, so he just... never edited it. 1984 as we know it is a first draft."that is FASCINATING. and makes a lot of sense.
Paritoshika wrote: "Excellent review, Emma."thank you very much!!
This changed the way that I looked at ideologies and changed the way I looked at leadership. Cynical, scathing, and not without its flaws, this is still a stark, haunting glimpse at what could be.
omgie you spoke facts ngl,,,cough no implications whatsoever though cough
Looking for more recent reviews, glad to see this one, in world where the implications are much like but not as they seem, or quite what they seem, or something.
Currently Reading and it's so chilling
“nowhere close to as many people would have read it as an essay” good point. I found myself struggling to get through this book thinking that it would have been much better had he’d condensed all his good ideas into an essay rather than stretch them out into a novel format but as u pointed out, most ppl including myself would not have heard about it let alone read it, had it been an essay.
you got that right:... George Orwell along with his peers who wrote books about authoritarian "future gov'ts" which include Aldous Huxley and the very brilliant Huxley family (Thomas Huxley) were not only peers: they knew one another and communicated by letter or for all I know in person. And yes they were social Democrats. I was born in Germany (YEARS AGO) as the daughter of a ww2 Army, and my mother was German: I found out that just about EVERYONE was a Social Democrat .. and even leaned towards communism, my own mother did not.. she was from the meritocratic of the old Germany back when the monarchy (Wilhelm) and the English Monarchy, of course are related. So I read all of those books,, all of Aldous Huxley's works and George Orwell.. we all did (I am a baby boomer).. it was part of the conversation back when folks were both in HIgh school and University. Back to WINSTON.. just his story alone gives one pause. Keep in mind the backdrop of those author's mentioned was in fact WW1, (remember) and then moved directly into WW2,, Wiemar Republic (briefly) and HUGE population immigration because of "REGIME" change... by violence whether it be fiat, a dictator or monarch. Even the Russian authors, (Doestoevky. eg_ were familiar w/ tyranny and fascism. These men were educated and had studied the fall of Rome, Plato, the Greeks, so.. I consider reading these books part of understanding the rise and fall of Civilizations. and we are getting close ,, again. As a Christian,, and many of those authors were sort of secular humanists... and see the world through a dystopian lens. Anyway.. I didn't come on to talk about that. Have a great EASTER. HE IS RISEN, no matter what the naysayers do or say. :)
Thank you emma!I just finished the book earlier this week and had the same thought that the whole novel was just a vehicle for Goldstein's Book. I'm actually astonished that I had to scroll so far to see an opinion I agreed with even amongst so many positive reviews.
Happy reading!
I pretty much skipped all the Goldstein passages because I just couldn’t get through them.
Now I’m concerned I missed the whole plot lmao
Great review, but I personally disagree with the "it would have been better if condensed into an essay". Eric Blair (the person behind the pseudonym) wrote many essays and particularly excelled in argumentative critiques. He also worked for the BBC during the Second World War (look for self-insertion with Winston's job!) to produce propaganda (which for the record, he absolutely hated the job, and what's even more ironic is that they have a statue outside of the building of him). I believe he chose to write in the form of a novel for a specific reason, to reach a wider audience. Allowing the reader to grow close to Winston also allows the issues presented in the novel and the higher-order thinking questions posed to be more intricately assessed due to tension and emotional value. The book in itself is an essay you just have to dissect it correctly.
