1984 by George Orwell

1984 is a very good read. Here is another that is similar. It can be downloaded or read at:
http://www.skrewdriver.net/turnerintro.html
Be forewarned though, the F.B.I. considers this a hate book, (all the more reason to read it. If the feds hate it, it has to have something going for it).

 

1984 is the best book i've ever read, but i haven't read a lot of books... I think it's much better than Brave New World. I couldn't stop reading 1984, but with Brave New World i had to force myself to continue reading it...

 

This book was great. This definitely was talking about now, hence the Patriot Act. Scary thought but true. Uh oh let me get out my journal & conspire.

 

George Orwell is a genius...I love all of his books especiall 1984..i keep reading probably every year!

Brave new world by Huxley is good and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a pretty good story along similar lines. In We everyones name's are replaced by numbers, D-503 (the main character) is aroused from his acceptance of the system and the book charts his transformation from conformity to radical action leading ultimately to his defeat! It's pretty good stuff.

I'm having a russian literature phase at the mo'...I'm getting quite into Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Some of his books are amazing and his own life story is remarkable.

 

Orwell practically predicted the patriot acts and lies of the government.

 

I have to read this book of George Orwell for school. Has anybody read it? If so, how is it?

 

I'm actually reading it right now.. well, in between trying to get caught up in Cold Mountain, which we're reading for english.

But I love it so far, it's an excellent book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

Life wasn't like the book then, but the real question is:

IS LIFE LIKE THE BOOK NOW?

 

Great book, its kind of scary comparing how Orwell's view of how things would turn out with society today, because they are many similarities.....

 

I still need to read 1984. Oh well, I've got to go and get some text books for my cource tommorow so I'll try and see if I can find it anywhere.

 

What is this book about? We've got it in the other room, and I'll be sure to read it, but can anyone give me a description?

 

I've come to the conclusion that my school's selected reading blows out the ass. There's no way in hell they'd let us read that. I doubt we even have it in our library.

 

Although 1984 is a great book, and should be on everyone's must read list..(especially these days, living in the Ashcroft era)...I found it a bit too stark, and blatant portrayal of a not~so~farfetched scenario. I'm of a mind that the usurping of our civil rights, and personal liberties will be done in a much more insidious way, by a cast of characters so nefarious as to be dripping with slime...a lot like the present administration.


For my $$$, "Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley paints a much more accurate picture of a world not sooooo farfetched, and therefore, much more likely...in fact, i believe it's actually in full engage mode as we speak!

Soma, anyone?

 

what is more scary is that some people watch a tv show called "big brother" and find it entertaining.

yeah brave new world was good. there was a crap movie made of it once...

 

i read it a while back

when i finished it, i felt kinda empty because of what happens to winston. its a great book, youll always remeber it because of its significane.

 

(from amazon.com)

"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere."


The year is 1984; the scene is London, largest population center of Airstrip One.

Airstrip One is part of the vast political entity Oceania, which is eternally at war with one of two other vast entities, Eurasia and Eastasia. At any moment, depending upon current alignments, all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston Smith knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant "correction" of such records. "'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization that alienates each individual from his fellows and deprives him of every liberating human pursuit from reasoned inquiry to sexual passion. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime--in 1984, George Orwell created a whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world, the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big Brother is always looking for his chance.

 

excellant book, scared me into caring when i was in 8th grade. Sadly enough i live in the state thats goin big brother the fastest. Utah, they are implementing some scary shit, this one thing,(and seriously get this name) The Matrix, is started to be brought into play here, its this system to keep track of people, to much room for the abuse of power. And of course GW did us all one hug step towards a n Orwelllian nightmare with the patriot act. gives me the creeps, makes me want to move somewhere else and never come back. And that whole microchip shit that they do to pets, and are not starting to use on prisoners and want to use on civilians a chip implanted in your hand that is like a credit card/ drivers license/ all personal info and criminal record. scary scary stuff.

 

Honestly? It's enlightening. It's already happened. The Internet exists. Anyone who knows HOW can see what I just typed.

 

Do a search for "MattInVegas" to see what I mean.

 

The whole genre of science fiction is scary because its all coming so true. I mean, in books its often exagerated but still, its all happening. I found 1984 a lot like Farenheit 451, in the sense that whats coming about is a sort of want for monoculture. Its really quite upsetting.