1984 by George Orwell

 1984 by George Orwell | Book Review

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it.

In George Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith is an open-source developer who writes his code offline because his ISP has installed packet sniffers that the government regulates under the Patriot Act. It's really for his own protection, though. From, like, terrorists and DVD pirates and stuff. He drinks Coca-Cola, like every good American, and his processed food has made him less tolerant of all but four flavours: sweet, salty, sweet, and Cool Ranch.

His benevolent overlords have provided him with a war happening somewhere so that he and the rest of the population can be sure that the government is in their best interests. The news always has some story about Paris Hilton or yet another white girl who has been abducted by some evil bastard who is biologically wired by 200,000 years of human evolution to fuck 12-year-olds but is socially conditioned to be obsessed with sex, yet also to feel guilty about it.

This culminates in a distorted view of sexuality and results in rape and murder, which both make for very good news topics. This, too, is in Winston's best interests because, while fear is healthy, thinking too much about his own mortality is strictly taboo, as it may lead to something dangerously insightful, and he might lose his taste for Coca Cola and breast implants.

The television also plays on his fears of the unknown by exaggerating stereotypes of minorities and homosexuals under the guise of celebrating "diversity", but even these images of being ghetto-fabulous and a lisping interior designer actually exist solely to promote racism and homophobia, which also prove to be efficient distractions.

The novel's political exposition is all over the place, and the message completely takes precedence over any sense of storytelling. As an essay, the points it makes can be earthshaking. It seems everyone who has so much as gotten a parking ticket thinks he lives in a 1984 dystopia.

It is alleged that any administration that seeks power, violates civil liberties, or excessively collaborates with the media is playing Big Brother. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

Overall, Nineteen Eighty-Four is an insanely relevant novel in this day and age, but it's also a rather soothing novel that contains some of the horrors that could never come to pass, though there are some horrific parallels between the England in the book and some countries around the world in the 21st century.

Purchase 1984 here.

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