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Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > 1984
1984
by
by
Newspeaking ones way towards manufacturing consent with optional mutilating death by torture after brainwashing, because these pesky citizens just don´t get to the core of the fact that Ingsocs War is peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is strength police is based on hard, serious humanities such as politics, economics, and sociology.
It´s just reality
The irony lies in the fact that it just seems like the nightmarish tale of a forever dictatorship for the privileged people living in Western, brave new world, pseudo democracies, while it´s painful reality for billions of people. The severity may vary, but there are so many regions and states out there in the world where the „I should be silent to avoid secret torture prisons and internment aka death camps“ thought is a part of daily life, an epigenetic standard nutrition kids are born with.
One character struggling makes it even more intense
Orwells´choice to just focus on one storyline and the backstory makes it so compelling, while the dismal and depressing atmosphere pulls the reader into big brothers surveillance state with its secret police and euphemistic ministries.
Checklisting how much has become real.
Even in democratic countries, there is
vast control of information, media, and the consensus of which economic and political doctrines are dogmas that mustn´t be criticized or doubted.
Permanent warmongering with, especially the US, invading or supporting war parties. This is combined with
Discrediting even not radical, just progressive, alternative political parties, NGOs, and citizen movements that are too defiant. Good old Divide and rule style. Just swallow it, democracy is dead, but at least progressive, critical voices are just ignored and not killed. Thanks to the
Military industrial complex public private partnershipping the last drop out of dysfunctional, intentionally destroyed distributional justice and eco social market economy.
A great problem that emerges from the corporations controlling all democratic European and the US governments, probably the Asian, South American ones, Australia, etc. too, is that they actively promote any kind of authoritarian leadership in countries they have economic interests in, thereby actively helping in spreading Big Brother. Exaggeration? Sadly a clear nope, read Chomsky, Klein, Colin Crouch, Ziegler, Shiva Vandana, etc., all the critical, unheard voices denouncing neoliberalism, neoconservatism, neocolonialism, and globalization. Or call me a leftist conspiracist and trust politicians and journalists, far more easygoing. I should really consider to stop committing thoughtcrimes.
As if any ethical, democratic Western government (or a conglomerate of all of them) would go full economic warfare mode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economi...
and unleash fictional entities like, let´s just for fun call them, world building mode activated, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organisation, who exploit all weak and poor members while brave new worlding its own population. Or let´s get even more ridiculous and call a fictional superpower United States of Eurasia who loves to step over the final border of actively promoting wars for just economic and geopolitical reasons to directly smash democracies to breed more big brothers since, let´s pick any number, 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...
I just love the uchronia and alternative history genre, it´s both so dark and ironic.
Similar stuff
This is added to my review of Brave new world too.
Besides the 2 behemoths, Karel Capeks´
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
dark, disturbing masterpiece is possibly one of the best dystopian terror pieces. It´s focusing on the role of big money and industry, of innocence turned into the same evil it suffers, was written in 1936 and satirizes Germans, Japanese, Russians, societies, ideologies, and economy in general and is a timeless memorial against political and economic terrorism and extremism of any kind.
Aldous Huxley was Orwells´ college professor and they definitively inspired and mentally inseminated another to form these brave new worlds.
Zamyatin Yevgenys´ We is another, historical extremely interesting piece, although just not as famous and fancy as the others, kind of the same problem as with the underappreciated Capek.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
An extremely difficult to read one is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
which comes very close to Huxleys´ ideas, but is much darker.
Some more dark and/ or satiric tones:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
A similar idea by the master of philosophical, satirical sci-fi, the great, unique Lem:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Subjectively, I do find it much more attractive that we wealthy Westerners live in friendly Brave new worlds with fringe pseudo democracy and not in Orwellian or Capekian horror visions as many other poor people around the world do.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
It´s just reality
The irony lies in the fact that it just seems like the nightmarish tale of a forever dictatorship for the privileged people living in Western, brave new world, pseudo democracies, while it´s painful reality for billions of people. The severity may vary, but there are so many regions and states out there in the world where the „I should be silent to avoid secret torture prisons and internment aka death camps“ thought is a part of daily life, an epigenetic standard nutrition kids are born with.
One character struggling makes it even more intense
Orwells´choice to just focus on one storyline and the backstory makes it so compelling, while the dismal and depressing atmosphere pulls the reader into big brothers surveillance state with its secret police and euphemistic ministries.
Checklisting how much has become real.
Even in democratic countries, there is
vast control of information, media, and the consensus of which economic and political doctrines are dogmas that mustn´t be criticized or doubted.
Permanent warmongering with, especially the US, invading or supporting war parties. This is combined with
Discrediting even not radical, just progressive, alternative political parties, NGOs, and citizen movements that are too defiant. Good old Divide and rule style. Just swallow it, democracy is dead, but at least progressive, critical voices are just ignored and not killed. Thanks to the
Military industrial complex public private partnershipping the last drop out of dysfunctional, intentionally destroyed distributional justice and eco social market economy.
A great problem that emerges from the corporations controlling all democratic European and the US governments, probably the Asian, South American ones, Australia, etc. too, is that they actively promote any kind of authoritarian leadership in countries they have economic interests in, thereby actively helping in spreading Big Brother. Exaggeration? Sadly a clear nope, read Chomsky, Klein, Colin Crouch, Ziegler, Shiva Vandana, etc., all the critical, unheard voices denouncing neoliberalism, neoconservatism, neocolonialism, and globalization. Or call me a leftist conspiracist and trust politicians and journalists, far more easygoing. I should really consider to stop committing thoughtcrimes.
As if any ethical, democratic Western government (or a conglomerate of all of them) would go full economic warfare mode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economi...
and unleash fictional entities like, let´s just for fun call them, world building mode activated, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organisation, who exploit all weak and poor members while brave new worlding its own population. Or let´s get even more ridiculous and call a fictional superpower United States of Eurasia who loves to step over the final border of actively promoting wars for just economic and geopolitical reasons to directly smash democracies to breed more big brothers since, let´s pick any number, 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...
I just love the uchronia and alternative history genre, it´s both so dark and ironic.
Similar stuff
This is added to my review of Brave new world too.
Besides the 2 behemoths, Karel Capeks´
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
dark, disturbing masterpiece is possibly one of the best dystopian terror pieces. It´s focusing on the role of big money and industry, of innocence turned into the same evil it suffers, was written in 1936 and satirizes Germans, Japanese, Russians, societies, ideologies, and economy in general and is a timeless memorial against political and economic terrorism and extremism of any kind.
Aldous Huxley was Orwells´ college professor and they definitively inspired and mentally inseminated another to form these brave new worlds.
Zamyatin Yevgenys´ We is another, historical extremely interesting piece, although just not as famous and fancy as the others, kind of the same problem as with the underappreciated Capek.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
An extremely difficult to read one is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
which comes very close to Huxleys´ ideas, but is much darker.
Some more dark and/ or satiric tones:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
A similar idea by the master of philosophical, satirical sci-fi, the great, unique Lem:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Subjectively, I do find it much more attractive that we wealthy Westerners live in friendly Brave new worlds with fringe pseudo democracy and not in Orwellian or Capekian horror visions as many other poor people around the world do.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
February 11, 2022
– Shelved
(Mass Market Paperback Edition)
February 11, 2022
– Shelved
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message 1:
by
Lizz
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Feb 11, 2022 10:42PM
I love how we all are feeling that boot on our faces today. We’ve always been at war with Eurasia…
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Lizz wrote: "I love how we all are feeling that boot on our faces today. We’ve always been at war with Eurasia…"And how that boot tries to be smooth and brutal at the same time, perfect carrot and stick, flavored with sweet, sweet cooptation, style, our BDSM end of history.
"We’ve always been at war with Eurasia…"
Everyone is at war with everyone since the first humans evolved for always economic reasons, it´s just more sophisticated today with mostly outsourced suffering and killing. Our current system will be seen as the worst atrocity of all time by future historians.
You should committing thoughtcrime before Big Brother comes for you!
Fantastic review of this classic Mario!
Pat wrote: "You should committing thoughtcrime before Big Brother comes for you!"I already stopped talking about anything too progressive and not mainstream with my fictional meatspace friends and will in the future preemptively censor all my reviews for the glory of neoliberal world domination.
Hail to the glorious Milton Friedman, turbocapitalism is the best governmental form ever!
Beverly wrote: "Fantastic review of this classic Mario!"Thanks, great to hear that you could get something useful out of it.
This is certainly a book for many rereads spread over time :) Great review!
7jane wrote: "This is certainly a book for many rereads spread over time :) Great review!"Thanks!
I guess some outstanding works subjective impressions evolve over time with increasing or decreasing wiseness aka good or bad aging.
Cecily wrote: "Sadly true."I´m coming closer and closer to prefer avoiding reality, because it´s just a total downer.
Excellent review, those are actual my thoughts!
Your check listing paragraph was great! Well, your whole review but that hit the truth spot. Fabulous review. I hope people read this with an open mind and not troll you. I have trouble talking about the obvious with ppl. It’s always the conspiracy theorist mentality they take against you even when it is slapping them in their face. But please don’t censor yourself!
Great review! I gave it three stars because as a novel it wasn’t great, but given the ideas in it, and how much of it is coming true, I might have to re-read it. The methods are somewhat different but just as effective: if we say it enough times it becomes true and once it is true, it has never been different. There always have to be a war, but it does not have to be another country. It can be anyone “other”: different in skin tone, religion, gender, or gender identity; may be an immigrant or simply anyone with different views. Gone are the days when conservatives and liberals were friends and could discuss ideas together. Gone are the days of shared truth - or even facts.
Mario the lone bookwolf wrote: "Cecily wrote: "Sadly true."I´m coming closer and closer to prefer avoiding reality, because it´s just a total downer."
Me too.
Vigasia wrote: "Excellent review, those are actual my thoughts!"Thanks, voluntary and random mind cooptation rocks the house!
Karina wrote: "Your check listing paragraph was great! Well, your whole review but that hit the truth spot. Fabulous review. I hope people read this with an open mind and not troll you. I have trouble talking abo..."Thanks, great that you liked my dark list.
"I hope people read this with an open mind and not troll you"
Thanks again, but it´s not as if I would care about other people's opinions, feelings, or stuff.
"It’s always the conspiracy theorist mentality they take against you even when it is slapping them in their face. But please don’t censor yourself"
Completely correct, they hate getting their faked reality smashed. Just too weak to handle the truth. Better call us leftist nazi conspiracy weirdos, that´s easy.
Marta wrote: "Great review! I gave it three stars because as a novel it wasn’t great, but given the ideas in it, and how much of it is coming true, I might have to re-read it. The methods are somewhat different ..."Have fun with the reread, especially regarding what has become true.
" if we say it enough times it becomes true and once it is true, it has never been different.!"
That´s the core of all our media, fake fringe democracy, and totally bigoted society in general. All just ridiculous, not worth ones time to consume it or participate.
Great comment, I totally agree with everything.
I will have to track down and read one of these books that you speak so highly of.
Joe wrote: "I will have to track down and read one of these books that you speak so highly of."Take Lem or Capek, they´re the most fun to consume.
Intelligent review Mario, you've made some great points. Will be interesting to see how the West's full economic warfare mode will go vs Russia. Bit different though as (a) Russia isn't a small weak country and (b) One could argue, the west isn't in full economic warfare mode - when still buying energy from them. I gave this book 5 stars too - it's brilliant
Mark wrote: "Intelligent review Mario, you've made some great points. Will be interesting to see how the West's full economic warfare mode will go vs Russia. Bit different though as (a) Russia isn't a small wea..."Thank you!
"Will be interesting to see how the West's full economic warfare mode will go vs Russia"
It is succeeding and will. The real change in the closer future is that India, China, and united Africa and Latin America will generate so much economic warfare capacity that they´ll be equal battle combatants for the current superpowers. So they´ll have to change their sick neocolonial neoliberal neoconservative world domination madness.
"(a) Russia isn't a small weak country and (b) One could argue, the west isn't in full economic warfare mode - when still buying energy from them"
Their economic output is nothing compared to Asia, EU, and US, it´s like 1 vs something between 20 and 100 ( Russia vs the US, EU, and allies)
I can see your review on my page, but it is not showing on the list.I would not see too much into it, your review has a lot of words that a filter looking for objectionable content might find. As far as what words you cannot put into your name, I can see why Goodreads would not be a valid first name. I ran a game once and we had a list of words you could not use in your name - it saved a lot of admin work.
Marta wrote: "I can see your review on my page, but it is not showing on the list.I would not see too much into it, your review has a lot of words that a filter looking for objectionable content might find. As..."
My solution is to stop reviewing anything that's nasty like Chomsky, Paul Hawken, Silvia Federici, Bill McKibben, Colin Crouch, Klein, William McDonough, Jessica Valenti, Henry David Thoreau, John Perkins, Steward Brand, Rebecca Solnit, George Monbiot, Kendi Ibram X, Yanis Varoufakis, Shiva Vandana, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ziegler, Davis Angela Y, Rachel Carson, Brittney Cooper, Kristof Nicholas D.
Just the ones with economic context, as long as it´s just about any racism, sexism, without digging too deep it might be ok.
And no more too critical thoughts in my fiction reviews, I´ve learned my lesson.
As said, I´ve lost some reviews over the years they simply deleted without informing me. When I asked, they said that I did something evil and that their algorithms deleted my bad stuff and that they´ve no influence to control their almighty AI.
Now they´re more subtle, I don´t even know how many of my reviews are shown in my shelve, review list, and (just for me) at the books page. For everyone else, the review doesn´t exist.
The whole potential extent of this thing is incredible, just think about what this means. However, I´m now off the game, I will censor myself and avoid any dangerous, wrong words. That´s the last time I´m speaking up, just wanting to see how they react, if ever.
Marta wrote: "I can see your review on my page, but it is not showing on the list.I would not see too much into it, your review has a lot of words that a filter looking for objectionable content might find. As..."
"As far as what words you cannot put into your name, I can see why Goodreads would not be a valid first name. I ran a game once and we had a list of words you could not use in your name - it saved a lot of admin work."
The same auto censor function as with the review, evil and wrong words are not allowed. But at least one is informed that it´s not posted.
Your review contains sentences that are essentially a list of words that might indicate political rant and not a review. They probably have some algorithm ranking the number of such words compared to the entire review. I have seen a lot of trolling on works especially of politicians. I recently recall looking up my review on Hillary Clinton’s “What happened”. Originally it was flooded by trolls who have not read it spewing hateful comments. Now it has actual reviews. So there is a reason for these algorithms.
I have lost a lot of book reviews, simply deleted, or Not-a-booked, or hidden by GR. I recently got two relisted but some are gone forever. I have 810 votes and 220 comments on one review that the author objected to because it was about her spamming, so that is hidden unless you know the link (on my profile, not writing it here). Check out this and see how many books have been hidden, but some of the books are not books - colouring books, magazine articles, journals etc. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
I don't always agree with your opinions at all, but I am always interested in reading them. As Noa Baum says,
Being able to imagine and understand their point of view does not mean I have to adopt it. It does, however open the possibility that, eventually, adding another's point of view may challenge my opinions or perhaps reveal misconceptions, but I don't have to change or replace it in the moment. Listening to another's story is not a declaration of defeat.
Marta wrote: "Your review contains sentences that are essentially a list of words that might indicate political rant and not a review. They probably have some algorithm ranking the number of such words compared ...""They probably have some algorithm ranking the number of such words compared to the entire review."
As you say, predictive AI policing does the job. It would be somewhat fair if the reviewer would be warned, informed, or anything which should easily automatically possible before hiding or deleting the review.
"I have seen a lot of trolling on works especially of politicians. I recently recall looking up my review on Hillary Clinton’s “What happened”. Originally it was flooded by trolls who have not read it spewing hateful comments. Now it has actual reviews. So there is a reason for these algorithms."
The algorithms don´t differentiate, that´s absolutely unacceptable regarding any open conversation, freedom of speech, etc.
But I´ve found my solution by being silent from now on, reducing the amount of effort I put in reviews because they could be hidden or deleted at any moment, and avoid too many evil, loaded political or economic words. Or direct criticism of any nowadays topic in general, just satire anymore.
I´ve already cleaned up my rant in this review and will continue cooptation.
Hey, suddenly the review is suddenly back again at the main page of the book after I´ve written mails, played with my nickname, and made angry general updates....
Petra: Hiatus due to a mouthful of black spiders wrote: "I have lost a lot of book reviews, simply deleted, or Not-a-booked, or hidden by GR. I recently got two relisted but some are gone forever. I have 810 votes and 220 comments on one review that the ..."That´s just freaking creepy, and that all the commentators are pranked too is the icing on the censory cake. But as I said in my comment above:
"But I´ve found my solution by being silent from now on, reducing the amount of effort I put in reviews because they could be hidden or deleted at any moment, and avoid too many evil, loaded political or economic words. Or direct criticism of any nowadays topic in general, just satire anymore.
I´ve already cleaned up my rant in this review and will continue cooptation."
Thanks for being tolerant, as said, in the future, I´ll try to be so neutral, vacuous, and avoid dangerous terminology that no algorithm can take offense.
Hey, suddenly the review is suddenly back again at the main page of the book after I´ve written mails, played with my nickname, and made angry general updates....
