When in the first chapter of a dystopian novel the protagonist fantasises about torturing, mutilating, raping, and slitting the throat of his "love" interest, then there is a problem. But, and I didn't think it possible, an even bigger problem comes later on when he admits his fantasies to her, adding in another way he's thought about violently murdering her, sparing no detail, and in immediate response, "The girl laughed delightedly," (page 139 of my copy). She only thinks he is absurd for suspecting her of being a Party spy. She really does not care.
I never for one second believed in Winston Smith and Julia's "love" story in the novel - he infantilises and sexualises her constantly, and she is a proto-Manic Pixie Dream Girl, his ideal "girl" - sexually liberated, easy and "corrupted", hell, she even has internalised misogyny - and her always calling him "dear" gets old fast - but it was from that point on that I definitely thought, "Yeah, I don't want to read any more, I'm going to skim it." It is not a romance. It is not true love. It is not love at all. So the "betrayal" at the end loses its impact, its climatic tragedy.
Or was that part of the intent all along?
One of Winston's most traumatic and angry memories is when he had sex with a prostitute who was in her fifties at least, and he openly regrets not killing his estranged wife Katherine in the past. And Julia doesn't even have a last name. So who knows which writing decision was unconscious bias, and deep-seated issues on the author's part, and which was pointed, authorial intent; social commentary.
It is a shame, because 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is well written, and it remains an important text. An important historical text. Frighteningly, a lot of it isn't even fiction anymore. It grows more in relevance every generation. Everyone should read it - I still stand by that claim. It's just that forties casual misogyny written by otherwise, *ahem*, learned men is hard to overlook nowadays. Glossing over it and ignoring it is going to take a hell of a mental wave of doublethink. Of cognitive dissonance. Nowadays, because humanity continuously, determinedly finds new ways to be awful and power hungry over others for the satisfaction of and sake of power itself - wave after wave, generation after generation - we have a newer term of psychological abuse to go with what is present in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', called gaslighting.
The same cognitive dissonance, "of its time" thinking process applies to the racism: on page 88 someone is described as "monstrous" - a term for bigness or fatness in the book - BUT with the added offense of the person having "thick n[*****]d lips." Yikes.
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' - still recommended, but still a blatant product of its time, socially. No longer a favourite book, after over ten years since I first read it, but it is vital in many respects to our society and world nonetheless.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
'Nineteen Eighty-Four' - one of the best works of fiction ever written. And one of the most important pieces of writing ever published.
Really, I can't say much more than that. This masterpiece was George Orwell's last novel, and the first I've read of his.
Historically, politically, and intellectually well thought-out and stimulating. Usually this sort of thing should have bored me to tears, but it didn't. Sure, anyone can write a morality and cautionary tale, but not everyone can write interesting and human characters in a world made real by how he or she has created it. Not everyone can weave a story together with these things to keep in mind. Orwell achieves all story functions spectacularly, with the ultimate moral/caution looming over the writing like an omen. Winston Smith, Julia, and others have realistic personalities, jobs, backgrounds and even habits in a society that forbids individuality.
To date, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is the most realistic and terrifying dystopian story I've ever read or seen. It is a nightmare that sticks with you long after you've finished experiencing it. It is a book where even the title is possibly misleading, as no one in the story is sure what year it is - as the past is being rewritten and it keeps changing. No one is sure of anything anymore, and yet they don't think that anything is wrong. The process of doublethink can make susceptible human beings believe anything at all. There is a reason why the two countries that Oceania is "at war" with - Eurasia and Eastasia - sound the same: leaders who want unlimited power keep changing who's at war with who and why. And no civilian will question it. It keeps the news and therefore the days going.
Change what is written about the past, you effect the present - and you have a degree of control over people.
Truths are lies, lies are truths,
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
And no one is safe from Big Brother and the Thought Police. Thinking differently can get you killed, or tortured; which, as demonstrated in the story's tragic end, is worse still.
Even sexual thoughts - or any passions - are deemed bad. Big Brother is watching you. He sees you when you sleep, he sees you when you dream - dream of rebellion, and the Thought Police will come knocking at your door. Thinking differently from a universal "truth" is a crime. A Thoughtcrime. Risks of rebellion are destroyed immediately. You are insane if you are not a happy and mindless slave to the leaders like everyone else is.
Will it ever be possible to beat the regime with so much against you? Will such a thought even be dreamed of anymore in Orwell's view of the future?
'Nineteen-Eighty-Four' is a relevant and human cautionary tale. Fresh and evocative in levels I didn't believe a novel could reach. It teaches us to think; to think for ourselves. Don't let "progressive" technology or higher-ups dictate your life - your mind - for you. Keep dreaming. Keep being an individual. Keep trying to seek out real truths.
Before it is too late.
Final Score: 5/5
Other reviews:
'The book of the twentieth century... haunts us with an ever-darker relevance' - Independent
'His final masterpiece... enthralling and indispensable for understanding modern history' - Timothy Garton Ash, New York Review of Books
Page quotes:
'I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY' - Page 91
'Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.' - Page 93
No comments:
Post a Comment