22 Years Ago (Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell)

Name: a-true-ben

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Product:	Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
Date:	29.10.06 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A classic read

Disadvantages: Only if you think the warning no longer applicable

I'll assume most people will have heard of Orwell's 1984 - even if you have only the vaguest idea what it's about, certain phrases such as Big Brother and Room 101 have become parts of our popular culture (generally for the worse of TV). The fact that the book itself may be described as literature, however, means I reckon far fewer have actually read it unless given the chance/forced to at school. Certainly that was the case for me, until this summer when I decided to put that right.

1984 was Orwell's final novel, written in 1948 (he simply transposed the last two digits to set his dystopian vision in the not-so-distant future). It's actually amazing that it now seems to long ago and, particularly since the end of the Cold War, I have to say this makes the book rather less frightening. One has to remember the world Orwell wrote in had lived through two recent World Wars, and that even after the fall of the Nazis, Stalin looked just as dangerous a threat.

A full history isn't given - for reasons that soon become apparent, it would be problematic for anyone as soon as 1984 to trace their recent past - but it seems the world is now divided into three super-powers: Oceania (roughly, the English speaking world: USA, UK, Australasia and South Africa), Eurasia (continental Europe, as far east as Russia, under some kind of neo-Bolshevist regime) and Eastasia (centred around China and Mongolia). For the day-to-day life of most citizens, however, this war is not a 'real' one - there is no longer the mass mobilisation of troops - it merely means more years of rationing, authoritarian Party rule and sacrifices 'for the war effort'.

Our main character, from whose eyes we see the society of Oceania c.1984 (even dates are uncertain) is an Outer Party member called Winston Smith. He works in the, ironically named, Ministry of Truth, falsifying historical records for propaganda purposes. It is a job, however, that makes him acutely aware of the differences between what happened and what is reported later. It inspires him to wonder whether life is really better under the watchful eyes of Big Brother and Ingsoc (English Socialism).

I can't say much more than that following a significant period of Winston's life allows us to see his changing understanding of and attitude to his society. If I was to say much more about the plot, I'd risk giving away too much - for, while there certainly is a story, there's not much to it: it's quite slow-moving, so not a lot happens, and consequently even the back cover comes close to giving away too much.

While it is the story that drives events through the book, it is really the description of this nightmare future society that captures the interest for me, and I imagine most readers. After all, many of the characters aren't particularly developed, and Winston is a not particularly interesting man-on-the-street - how much he differs from other Party members, we never really know.

Anyone that's read much of Orwell's other work will have some idea what to expect. In Homage to Catalonia he recounts his time in the Spanish Civil War, fighting for the Communists against Franco's forces. In Animal Farm - in many respects, a children's version of 1984 - he describes a farm in which the animals overthrow the humans only for their new masters, the pigs, to become just as bad. There are many parallels to be drawn between these two works, e.g. Snowball and Goldstein, which is hardly coincidence, since both are probably modelled on Trotsky. Certainly the idea of revolutionaries abandoning their ideas and becoming the new oppressors is a recurring theme. So too, anyone that's read Orwell's essay on 'Politics and the English Language' - in which he complains of stale metaphors and phrases deadening not just the language but the thinking behind it - will recognise that this is precisely the objective of Newspeak - to render 'thoughtcrime' impossible.

(An appendix at the end of the book explains the principles of Newspeak, helping the reader understand the occasional Party message - e.g. 'Times report doubleplusungood refs unpersons' - but the necessary details are expounded in the text, via the lexicographer Syme).

Theoretically perhaps, a totalitarian regime need not be wholly bad. At least the all-powerful rulers of Plato's Republic or Huxley's Brave New World are, at least ostensibly, dedicated to the happiness of their charges. 1984, however, presents a far bleaker vision - the rulers want power for its own sake and the proletarian masses are oppressed not out of necessity but to preserve a hierarchical, privileged society. While ideology plays a part - loyalty to Big Brother and the war effort - order is maintained by a mix of brainwashing (through manipulating the past and public broadcast), spying and ruthless repression (through thoughtpolice and show trials).

Even so, one wonders whether this is a novel of hope or despair. It's unclear how many others really do, or might, share Winston's distaste for the Party and Ingsoc - and whether the shadowy resistance movement 'the Brotherhood' really exists, or is simply an invention used to justify oppression - the problem for any would-be resistance is the near impossibility of communication and coordination. Whether the oligarchy would be final and permanent, or another revolution eventually come, we never know for sure; but even if it's too late for those already under the watchful eye of Big Brother, the lesson for us might be vigilance against the erosion of our liberties. This warning might seem less relevant, now that the work can no longer be portrayed as a prophesy of the future, and totalitarianism seems to have been superseded by a democratic paradigm. Perhaps, these days, it is Huxley's in many ways more subtle Brave New World than is the more realistic, and hence dangerous, vision. Nonetheless, there's something far deeper about 1984, and even if it will never come to pass, it serves as a useful reminder of why we value our freedom.

With this moral in mind, I'd say it's a book that should be read by everyone. It will appeal most, of course, to those who like something intellectually stimulating - it's not typical beach reading, for example.

Boring bits:
My edition is a Penguin Classic, RRP £7.99 (ISBN: 014118776X). It contains an introduction by Ben Pimlott, which I personally found a little disappointing - and which I thought should have carried a warning not to read it before the book (thankfully I didn't, because it had spoilers)
It's currently half-price on Amazon (£3.99); or you can buy it, with nine other banned books (including Animal Farm) from www.thebookpeople.com for £12.99. Both of those make me regret paying the cover price; but if neither take your fancy, second hand copies of such a popular book should be widely available.

Summary: A diary of life in a dystopian future society