Anyone read 1984?

[marci]

None of the comments that follow support this claim, because none of them pertain to literary merit, except perhaps the claim that he’s dark and cynical. I would agree that Orwell is not on the level of someone like Dante or Dostoyevsky, or maybe even Dickens, and that his lack of hope and the transcendent has a lot to do with that. But he’s still a darn good writer and there’s a lot to learn from him.

Edwin

 

[rr1213]

I think this passage is trying to express the absolute loyalty that the Jesuits have to the Catholic Church’s Magisterium, its Teaching Authority. I don’t think it is similar to trying to deliberately erase the annals of history or manipulate information and facts, as the fictional government portrayed in 1984 was doing, if that is what you’re trying to allude to.

I think what Ignatius is trying to express with the white /black analogy is that a Jesuit’s loyalty to the Catholic Church should be so absolute that if a Jesuit has an opinion about something, and the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ holds an opinion different from the Jesuit’s opinion, a Jesuit should follow the Churches teaching, because “by the same Spirit (Holy Spirit) and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed.” …

For those of us who don’t hold that the Catholic Church is infallible, Ignatius’ Thirteenth Rule looks plenty Orwellian.

 

[Texas_Roofer]

What do you think of Orwell’s vision of a disordered 1984 utopia? Do you see any of these extreme ideas in our society. I am particularly interested in “The Party’s” use of “Newspeak” and it’s similarities with Politically Correct speak in our time.

What do you think?

.

I read the book 25 years ago, so I have forgotten “Newspeak” however I remember the book well. The book is about humans, one man’s utopia requires another man’s slavery. And yet our imperfect hero seeds a reestablishment of real humans verses the cloned state employees. To me the message is humans cannot overcome being human, it is kind of like a call to repent!

 

[rr1213]

Remember the ending of 1984? I think that its more an assertion of how a tyrannical State triumphs over human will. Quite pessimistic.

 

[BradW]

.
And yet our imperfect hero seeds a reestablishment of real humans verses the cloned state employees.

Uh, that’s not how I remember the book ending.

Anyway, I liked the Apple Macintosh commercial version better.
youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

As soon as I heard that Macs had switched to using the same Intel chips that PCs used, I thought they should do another commercial, showing the Intel CPU chip, zooming out through the case to show its in a Mac, zooming back to show the girl in the running suit staring glassy-eyed at the screen, with a voiceover of that memorable last line of the book.

 

[Texas_Roofer]

My apology to all I was thinking of “Brave New World”

 

[didymus]

My apology to all I was thinking of “Brave New World”

I’ glad somebody finally mentioned Brave New World. Huxley’s vision of people enslaved by their own hedonism and brainwashed by catchphrases (soundbites, if you will) has come closer to being realised than Orwell’s 1984.

 

[carl_catholic]

I hated Huxley’s “The Island”… was the most boring book I have ever read! And I am dead serious about that, I got about 3/4 of the way through before I just threw it down and gave up. Anybody else here agree?

 

[marci]

For those of us who don’t hold that the Catholic Church is infallible, Ignatius’ Thirteenth Rule looks plenty Orwellian.

The only way it would be “Orwellian” is if the people had no choice to believe this. At any time they were free to leave. Our Faith does not force itself upon anyone. One is called to investigate and form one’s faith. What good would it do the church to physically force people, priests or laity, to believe?

 

[Gamera]

Awesome book, I read it about 10 years ago. I most vividly recall the Newspeak (sounds uncomfortably like the magazine, “Newsweek” ) and the protagonists’ job re-writing old newspapers to revise history on a daily basis. “We’ve always been at war with Country A.” “We’ve always been at war with Country B.” I thought of this when the American news media somehow “morphed” Osama Bin Laden into Saddam Hussein.

And if you don’t think the media shapes our thoughts, ask yourself why you can immediately recognize the phrase “labor disputes” but not the phrase “management disputes.”