It's not often you come across a book that while reading it, you want to go on more and more—you can't put it down. Although such a state in the case of 1984 was not permanent. Just as it is with happiness: you feel happy, or it doesn’t seem to be like that any more, and you don’t understand what you really want.
Thought 2.
Who would have thought that we would live at a time when Orwell's thoughts in the book 1984 would be in resonance with our life and reality!
Thought 3.
Someone told me that 1984 was about the USSR. ‘No, it’s about the US’, as an afterthought added that same someone. Sadly it is very much like our time and reminds in a way of our life. It is deeply and overwhelmingly sad.
Thought 4.
Frankly speaking, my possibilities to fully express all the considerations about 1984 and the emerging parallels, associations and all kinds of allusions are somewhat limited (and am I ready to do it at all…) The two reasons for this are: (1) the policy of the platform on which the site is hosted does not imply a possibility of conducting any political activity, however, it should be clearly noted that I do not seek to be a ‘navalny’ at all, I do not aspire. My interests lie in completely different planes, on which, in fact, I concentrate my efforts and thoughts; (2) the policy of the platform (one such and large), where I am myself hosted already. To add to this, I was not so sure at all that this modest local printing shop of mine wouldn’t be closed even before being opened) when my website saw the publication of my (resonant, of course) short story Elections, from the Before series, where the word Trump sounds (Oh my God! He said it after all!)
Thought 5.
It is no less surprising to read the following lines in 1984:
‘The strategy that all three powers are following, or pretend to themselves that they are following, is the same. The plan is, by a combination of fighting, bargaining, and well-timed strokes of treachery, to acquire a ring of bases completely encircling one or other of the rival states, and then to sign a pact of friendship with that rival and remain on peaceful terms for so many years as to lull suspicion to sleep. During this time rockets loaded with atomic bombs can be assembled at all the strategic spots; finally they will all be fired simultaneously, with effects so devastating as to make retaliation impossible. It will then be time to sign a pact of friendship with the remaining world-power, in preparation for another attack.’
This is an excerpt from the Book by Goldstein (in 1984 it's like a dream in a dream...)—one of the main enemies of Oceania, the state where the main character Winston lives. Doesn’t it remind you of anything?
In this connection, I would (modestly) quote myself:
‘How complicated everything is with us. How uneven and nonlinear everything is. If only it were possible to draw simple and clear lines and put all the dots where they belong’, The Beginning, the novel (unfinished and still being worked on), chapter 4: ‘A new friend’.
This is a quote.
‘Individually, no member of the Party owns anything, except petty personal belongings. Collectively, the Party owns everything in Oceania, because it controls everything, and disposes of the products as it thinks fit.’
IP: Any comments here would be absolutely extra at all, due to obvious ideas and whichever possible parallels.
A quote.
‘The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and the film and the radio carried the process further. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end. Every citizen, or at least every citizen important enough to be worth watching, could be kept for twenty-four hours a day under the eyes of the police and in the sound of official propaganda, with all other channels of communication closed. The possibility of enforcing not only complete obedience to the will of the State, but complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects, now existed for the first time.’
IP: Let's make a completely simple semantic replacement of the development of television for the development of communication networks, i.e. the Internet—and what do we get?
One more quote.
‘Those whose attitude towards the war is most nearly rational are the subject peoples of the disputed territories. To these people the war is simply a continuous calamity which sweeps to and fro over their bodies like a tidal wave. Which side is winning is a matter of complete indifference to them. They are aware that a change of overlordship means simply that they will be doing the same work as before for new masters who treat them in the same manner as the old ones. The slightly more favoured workers whom we call the proles are only intermittently conscious of the war. When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but when left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods that the war is happening.’
And another one.
‘The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture.
It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another’.
Thought again. No 6.
There is some strange feeling experienced here—you don’t want to read, and at the same time it’s interesting and is going easy. Maybe because it reminds of something and you want to know how similar everything really is…
Thought 7.
‘Wine was a thing he had read and dreamed about’ (this is a quote), a blitz survey with a list of creepy things (and this is mine, just not a literal thought) and incredible suffering and meanness (including: 'If, for example, it would somehow serve our interests to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face—are you prepared to do that?’), and an apparent ease with which the protagonist keeps answering all the time ‘yes... yes... yes…’, but for some reason, though uncertain, but still answers ‘no’ to the question if he were ready to part with the newly acquired lady of the heart, who even before their first meeting had used such a strong word love—all this causes a feeling of confusion, great confusion and misunderstanding of motives...
The Russian soul is a big mystery. That's what they say. A person is a tangle of contradictions and delusions caused by endless manipulations, whether by external and accidental circumstances or, on the contrary, by deliberate actions of those who believe themselves to be right so much that they are ready to preach to others. I'll tell you.
A quote.
‘It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grammes. Syme, too—in some more complex way, involving doublethink, Syme swallowed it. Was he, then, ALONE in the possession of a memory?’
A quote.
‘As for the third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a categorical pledge were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.’
A quote.
‘In the Two Minutes Hate he could not help sharing in the general delirium, but this sub-human chanting of B-B!...B-B! always filled him with horror. Of course he chanted with the rest: it was impossible to do otherwise. To dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, was an instinctive reaction. But there was a space of a couple of seconds during which the expression of his eyes might conceivably have betrayed him.’
Thought 8. The last one.
I wonder one more thing. To what extent the author’s thoughts reflected in words on paper (a screen, in modern interpretation) mirror them as personalities—it is interesting and useful to look into the eyes of a person, look at his face and see (or fail to see) a reflection of the ideas that he narrates in his works about. I remember the face of Dickens, whom I liked so much (not the face, but the Club Papers); I also checked on Orwell's face (both, by the way, are British)—I haven't seen anything special or repulsive (except that a photo of the second one reminded me of Dalí to some extent with the insane gaze... but this parallel in pattern recognition might have come to mind because of the moustache). But how strange, if you think about it, everything is arranged in someone’s head if one gets to create such a dark, profound, grave and sad novel like 1984.
No more thoughts as for now.
PS. The book is, of course, amazing. Maybe it's because I'm reading it now, or maybe it really is one of those that affects the world at least somehow…