I just finished George Orwell's "1984" and I'm not sure what to think of it. I love his other book "Animal Farm", but I'm not so sure about this one.

Things I liked:
-That the book was wriitten so long ago and that many things that were predicted came true with startling accuracy.
-It's a good warning on where things could be going, or how they would have been under totalitarianism. Especially for those of us who live in the United States. A law just passed that gives us no privacy. The goverment is now allowed to monitor all forms of communiction, even without a specific reason.
-It wasn't a soppy 'Average hero suceeds' or 'Happily Ever After" book.
-The fact that it was a future novel (At the time it was written 1984 was a long way off) without being a dorky, stereotypical sci-fi (No offense to sci- fi fans. I'm just not in to that stuff)

Things I didn't like:
-The hopless tone
-Watching the man charector fall in suc a brutal way as to destroy him worse than merely killing him.


So, what did my fellow Menewsha think of "1984" or any of Orwell's other books?




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I saw the film "Animal Farm" at school, and I've been meaning to read 1984 for ages now, I just need to get hold of it in English (we have it in Norwegian at home) and i need to have enough time to plough through it... Too bad I can't say anything real about it, but I really liked Animal Farm, even tho I only saw the film. I think Orwell is good at "predicting" what will happen in the future based on what he sees in his days... I think it's really important that authors use their talent for more than just writing entertainment, but also to help people see the sickness of this world, give people a proper view of the world, and drag them out of denial and ignorance... I don't like the way he world is going, and I think it's important that people see where it might end up, no matter how bad it is....

I tend to think of it as a beginner's guide to Dystopian fiction. A good novel by all means, but everyone reads it at some point in their lives and it's become so picked over by school districts everywhere that there's not much left to it. Just like Huxley's Brave New World.

Ah, I had no idea. I did not read it as a school-oriented book. I read it simply to read it.

I read 1984 a while ago. It really was good, though pessimistic. I liked it and would like to read it again.

You must realize that many things talked about in the book were already happening. Much was based off of how Soviet Russia was, and written as a warning of what was happening there and as a warning to the rest of the western world of what could happen. same with animal farm.

While yes, I do believe there are many of the warnings signs are coming true, i do not truly believe the 1984 path is where we are going. I believe that it's more going the path of Brave new World. Or a mixture of the 2.

You should deffinantly read "Brave new World"

I do know that Akasha, sorry my list above doesn't appear very intelligent, but I've sat in for a discussion on the book. I should have written so above. I find it difficult to collect my thoughts in written form. Speaking is less akward for me x3

I will try "Brave New World". Thank you for the recommendation =D

• I read the book - and Animal Farm. And although I did like this book for being realistic - Animal Farm was more creative and friendly for me. I read it a few days ago slowly so I could catch everything that was going on

1984 is actually a book I purchased quite awhile ago and just haven't had the chance to read yet. I have lots of those. I know I had to read Animal Farm at one point or another during school and I do remember liking it very much. It was different. *runs off to eBay to try and find used cheap copies of Brave New World and Animal Farm*

I've read "1984" not so long ago... About a year, because I stole this book from my best friend for short time, just after she got it on her birthday. *Yeah, that's nice ;d* I've also read "Animal farm" at school. These two books are just specific and I think that everybody should read them. Just to see this horrible reality.

They are scary in some way. Totalitarianism is something so bad and unfortunately there actually are countries, where it is as a structure. It also shows how could be world if we won't accept privacy of people and all those things, that are obvious for most of us... And how it was in some places in the world - especially Soviet Russia (in "Animal farm" mainly, I think) - a few years ago.
Terrific but instructive.

When I read 1984, I found that ultimately I enjoyed the long expositions about the society, how it had come to be, and the theory behind it much more than I enjoyed the story line. It was too pessimistic for me, but it couldn't really have been any other way. The pessimism works in it's favor, in that we have to slowly suffer though everything the way Winston does. I also read Animal Farm, which is equally depressing, but it was more palatable. I think it's shortness, the anthropomorphism, drove home the ideas much more efficiently.

I read Brave New World for school, and enjoyed it well enough. I found the society interesting, the characters less so. My teacher suggested when we were done that Huxley might have done better to simply write an essay against Utilitarianism. Once he had achieved that goal in the story, he seemed to be unsure of how to conclude the characters he had, so he simply threw them down the well, so to speak.

its been a while since i read it but I liked 1984. Which is completely odd for me because its tone was so dull. There were parts I loved like when he found someone to share his happiness with. He really only got to live for a brief period of time which makes me sad. </3
The thing that gets me is everyone was pretty much living a life that wasnt their own. they were fighting an imiginary enemy just so that it felt like they were doing something. Big Brother was a load of bull as well and the ending was the worst part. the tear that smelled of alcohol running down his face and thinking ' I love big brother' the ending just gave no hope for the future </3

and yet i still liked the book. weird.

I liked 1984, but it was really fantastical than realistic. I LIKED the pessimism and the ideas that it brought up. How would you put the world at complete control? How does our speech and our history form our minds to who we are?

It also reminds us how easily history can be manipulated.

However, I much prefer Brave New World to 1984. Huxley's book was much more realistic, and much more scarily true. Medication and test tube babies; most people fell into that mind control just to keep things at a stable level of mentality. And the free for all sex, and abortions without a true choice.

Of course, both endings I think were excellent.

I've attempted several times to read 1984, though much to my own disappointment, I can never bring myself to read it. I'll more than likely attempt to read it again this year, mainly because we're watching the film in Government class. My teacher is rather insane and makes us all stand up as he plays the national anthem for Oceania before starting the movie every day.

I read it once in my junior year of high school. That was several years ago. It wasn't one of my absolute favorites or anything, but I've always been glad that we were forced to read it. It ensures that I understand when someone makes a Big Brother reference (that isn't related to television, anyway) or talks in newspeak.

It's a good book to have in your general literary experience, I think. Whether you like it or not is almost irrelevant, as long as you just read the thing.

I LOVED this book. I actually found it humorous, which most people wouldn't, but that's just because I have that kind of sense of humor. I also finally get the references to Big Brother that is in about every movie EVER. My English teacher gave it to me to read, and I thought it was one of the best books ever and should be in the high school curriculum, although I could imagine how that'd go down, the high schoolers whine enough with Of Mice and Men. :roll:

I loved "1984", but didn't like "Animal Farm". I liked how the book "1984" it makes you think. It disturbs people so much that the topic of a totalitarianism government is a very real issue. It makes people look at their own government and see issues that were raised in the book. I think that people are so disturbed by the book because they realise that it is a very real threat.

Everry time a "reality" show comes on I think about "Big Brother"! Its scary how close Orwell came to defining the loss of our rights!

I hate Orwell’s stuff. Well I should say I hate Animal Farm and 1984 as those the only ones I’ve read. 0.o I would have rather read a 1,000 page history on the Russian Revolution than to have red AF. : / As far as 1984. I just didn’t like it. I didn’t like the style of it, I didn’t like the plot of it. I also hated the whole message of the book being so upfront and in your face all the time. It just made me want to burn that book, and I don’t believe in book burning. : |

I love Orwell's plots. I love his stories. Animal Farm; genius representation. Animals talk and it's much deeper than the common 1000-page "Iraq War and the USA"/etc kind of books.

Yet, I do not like the way he writes. This happens to me sometimes, as I'm sure it happens to other people too; sometimes the plot is great and the writing doesn't appeal to you, and sometimes the writing is great and the plot doesn't appeal to you... Like Eoin...I forget his last name. Like the Artemis Fowl series; I didn't like the plots but I adored the writing style. Very fresh.

I digress. What I meant to say was; Orwell's story-telling might leave place for improvement, but his stories, his plots, his vision are nothing short of brilliant.

• Just a note on the book itself: It was written in 1948. It wasn't called 1984 because that date seemed so far away, but they simply switched the last two numbers.
  
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  Other than that little comment, I don't have a lot to say about the book. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard a lot about it and we've talked about it in English class when we discussed changes in the security systems over the world (like the Patriot Act in America and CCTV in Great-Britain).

I read 1984 in my Junior year of High School and I LOVED it! I don't know if it was the story, the writing, or both that just made me fall in love with it, but I just could not put it down when I was reading it and it's that quality that makes me own it today. I used quite a few Big Brother references in one of my stories and because I have read that story I can see how the world is going now and I'm not happy with the way the U.S. is heading. I have a feeling that it won't be too long before Bush is the new Big Brother. -_-

I'm in the middle of it, and it's compelling >>'
i really want to finish it now, and report back, before i see any spoilers XD.
sometimes i really dislike winston, but what happens in oceania is so...creepy

I thought this book was amazing. It's hard to understand, but I got it right away and was pleased with the message it gave me. Wells is a sci fi writer, but I can classify his stuff as horror, and a good kind of horror. It doesn't leave you laughing, it makes you think. A lot of the stuff in this book is happening right now. Granted, it isn't as extreme, but it's there.

1984 and Animal Farm are 2 of my favorite books.