I was going to reply...only to read the topic and realize that I already had. xD Well at least I didn't write the same comment again...lol

It was written in 1948 or around it so he changed the numbers around. This is one of my favorite books that i had to read in school.

I enjoyed reading both 1984 and Animal Farm but I have to agree in liking Brave New World even more though because it seemed more likely to happen ...

I don't know about that 1984 from a historical viewpoint and what was going on during the time it was written could have in some aspects happend. It voiced some of the fears of the future.

I really liked the book 1984, but i haven't read animal farm yet ( i want to though, i just need the time.)

I read that book years ago and really liked it. I also read Animal Farm but I like them both for different reasons.

Back in the 40s 1984 seemed so futuristic. XD

One of the things about the book that interests me now is the way language was evolving. It sort of reminds me in a way of internet speak now. The bad kind. The kind where only other people who type like that can really understand each other. And how they expect us to think it's normal.
Maybe I'm going off in an odd direction but it's been reminding me of that lately. o.o

I didn't like Animal Farm at all. It was just to childish, I guess. I'm not sure how to describe it. I guess it just wasn't for me. I really liked 1984 though. I haven't read it in a little of course, since 9th grade, I think. It was cool though and it really did predict what was going to happen nowadays. I need to get it so that I can read it again.

I just read it in the past week.
I didn't mind the hopeless tone, personally. Yes, it's depressing, but not every story should have an optimistic tone. The book was a statement, not solely for entertainment. As you said, a warning. So the hopeless tone was appropriate.

Another thing that I liked was how imperfect Julia was. Though she was the love interest, it was quite obvious that she was ignorant, apathetic towards things that should have been important, and, basically a slut. As Winston called her "only a rebel from the waist down."

One thing I didn't like was how long the book (not 1984. "Goldstein"'s book.) was. It wasn't very long, but it was a bit repetitive and a bit boring. It could have been worded in much briefer and equally understandable terms.

Sho - Animal Farm was childish? Do you have any idea what the entire thing was a metaphor for?

I liked it. I admit it was kind of depressing, but it was really, really interesting. George Orwell also wrote Animal Farm. I liked that one, too. Animal Farm was not childish. The animal characters simply symbolized things. If you only look at the very, very surface of it, I suppose you might almost sort of be able to think it was childish, but it's not too hard to understand the symbolism and the complexity of the ideas in the novel.

I love 1984, Orwell is such a great writer. My philosophy teacher introduced it to our class (we were discussing the topic "the power of words" - I know huh? pretty lame), and I decided to grab the school library's copy of it. It's so interesting, I couldn't put it down.

I've read 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World. I loved all of them. Sure they're all rather pessimistic but thats part of there 'we're all doomed' charm. :)

The only part that freaked me out was the 'rats will eat your face off' bit.

So I read that a long time ago when I was a freshman in highschool and I have to agree on some compnents. 1984 was a very depressing book. But that was one of his main points, he wanted to convey what is at risk if we lose our constutiontal rights and conform to a 'big brother' type of government.
However depressive it may be I still rank it as one of the best reads of my life. Im 19. Ive read over 4 thousand books in my lifetime. 1984 is one of my top ten. Thats saying somthing.

Originally Posted by Sho-Shonojo

I didn't like Animal Farm at all. It was just to childish, I guess. I'm not sure how to describe it. I guess it just wasn't for me. I really liked 1984 though. I haven't read it in a little of course, since 9th grade, I think. It was cool though and it really did predict what was going to happen nowadays. I need to get it so that I can read it again.

Animal farm was childish for a reason though! It was simplistic because, one it was in the view point of farm animals. And for another reason because it was a very simplistic way of letting an experienced or even inexperienced reader learn about communisim and how easily it can get out of hand. The way it happened WAS simplistic. It was a warning about how things like that arent always manelevont or planned out, somtimes they just happen because of circumstance.

This is one of my favourite books ever. I think I actually have two or three copies laying around my apartment, not including my audio version, just so I can have spares. I never really found the plot too depressing, maybe because like most people I first read it in high school and that amount of depression seemed normal to me. Also, really, people's stories don't generally end happily, especially under totalitarian governments. At the time, I felt it reflected my life as it was, going to a run down school that people mistook for a prison when driving by it, controlled by people who threatened to send me to a psychiatric hospital, in part because I didn't love them so much. Really, looking at it from that point of view one can view the family as a totalitarian government.

Now, I consider it a warning to the people not to let it get that far. Unfortunately, that amount of slavery will come with the pleasurable trappings of Brave New World, and will be hard for people to resist. Bread and circuses and all that. It's enough to make one bang one's head against the wall. If one were not metaphorically doing that anyway.

I love the writing. I have long loved British writing, but this so so bleak and so well described. The characters seem real. It is easily one of my favourite books. And I do take ironic amusement in picking points of dystopian novels out of the world I see around me.

I have to say, 1984 was damn near the only required reading I did in school that I actually enjoyed AS required reading. I'm picky as hell with books (and any other form of entertainment really), and being forced to read something usually kills it for me. Yet this was not the case for 1984. If that doesn't say something, I don't know what does. I want to reread it on my own time sometime - I'll probably end up liking it even more.

It...terrified me, really. Because it just seemed so relevant...so real. And given how long it's been around, it lead me to wonder...are people just paranoid, or are things really right on the brink of getting that far? Is every step we take just one step closer to that? With Bush's domestic spying policies, I don't doubt it. I doubt it'll actually reach that point in my lifetime...but every time I hear about "heightened security," I can't help but think of 1984. Scary thing right there. o_o

Personally, I loved the bleak feel to it. It just felt so much more real that way. Honestly, if it had been happier, I wouldn't have liked it half as much. But as it stands, it's by far one of my favorites.

The breaking of the main character in 1984 was, in my opinion, a vital part of the novel. If he had been killed it would have given the reader hope that there was a quick and easy freedom from such a world in that way, but by brutally crushing him and molding him in a new shape, it showed the true horror that is Totalitarianism.

For the hopeless and downtrodden characters, death would have been a release and there would be regular suicides. With the threat of the Ministry of Justice, however, there's something worse than death of the body to fear: death of the self, which is something that American culture highly values. To destroy individuality and free thought is to destroy America, in a sense.

At least that's what I got from the book.

I read 1984 many, many years ago. I remember in general what it was about, but not the specifics.

As I think about it now, it seems to me that the movie Brazil was very 1984, Orwell-ish.

The ending was the best part about that book. It took me by surprise, shocked me and totally made sense. :0

When he believed.. a part of my heart broke for him.

And that's what makes 1984 a masterpiece, in my opinion.