It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centers on the consequences of government over-reach, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviors within society. More broadly, it examines the role of truth and facts within politics and their manipulation. First published in 1948, The present book 1984 is a dystopian novel by prominent twentieth-century novelist, essayist, and social critique Eric Arthur Blair under his popular pseudonym George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One, a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation. The superstate and its residents are dictated to by a political regime euphemistically named English Socialism, shortened to ‘Ingsoc’ in Newspeak, the government’s invented language. The superstate is under the control of the privileged elite of the …
It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centers on the consequences of government over-reach, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviors within society. More broadly, it examines the role of truth and facts within politics and their manipulation. First published in 1948, The present book 1984 is a dystopian novel by prominent twentieth-century novelist, essayist, and social critique Eric Arthur Blair under his popular pseudonym George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One, a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation. The superstate and its residents are dictated to by a political regime euphemistically named English Socialism, shortened to ‘Ingsoc’ in Newspeak, the government’s invented language. The superstate is under the control of the privileged elite of the inner party, a party and government that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as ‘thought-crime’, which is enforced by the ‘thought police’. this novel, in a way, criticizes the forced implementation of the colonial thought system and life onto various colonies by the great Britain.
A lot to unpack in this book. The lead character (Winston) has some pretty misogynistic tendencies, and there's not a single female character in the book with any depth whatsoever. This can be explained to some extent by the fact that it was written in the 40s, and that Winston has been subject to psychological manipulation essentially since birth.
Problematic elements aside, this provides an interesting dive into the world of psychological warfare, which remains relevant to this day.
George Orwell étire la réalité des régimes autoritaires pour en faire un régime absolu, total.
Alors oui l’Angsoc n’est pas le parti qui domine notre vie politique et non les journaux officiels ne sont pas en Novlangue… mais…
Parfois grâce à liberté de la Science-fiction on peut en exagérant sur les mécanismes de la société, nous montrer ce qu’on ne voit pas aujourd’hui comme…
Le parti qui veut le pouvoir… pour le pouvoir. La classe dirigeante du roman n’a pas vraiment beaucoup d’avantages matériels mais aucune hypocrisie ou faux semblant : le parti veut écraser l’individu pour écraser l’individu. Pas d’avenir radieux. Pas de promesse de paradis pour le travailleur, le sur-homme ou l’entrepreneur (rayez les mentions inutiles).
Le pouvoir pour le pouvoir pour toujours.
Le parti s’appuie entre autres sur la langue. Le parti s’approprie les mots, les détourne, les vides de leur substance. Cette volonté est affichée et motivée (et même expliquée en annexe).
Très pertinente lecture qui expose à nu des manipulations que l’on croise dissimulées.
Le parti s’appuie sur la surveillance. Un sujet qui a dépassé la fiction.
La grande force du récit ?
Incarner de si grand thème, un point de vue si large avec seulement trois personnages centraux.
The contributions of this book are far too grand for me to go into all details here. To make it short, I believe that Orwell provided a fitting explanation of how individual thought is suppressed under totalitarian regimes. The principles of doublethink are also used in democratic states whenever it is politically necessary to hold two conflicting opinions. I even claim that it is a politician's most essential skill to perform this mental gymnastics convincingly.
However, this propaganda does not necesarrily manage to convince everybody. Regardless of the political system, it seems that generally, the people under its influence tend to root for it. But also regardless of the system, the capacity for subversive ideas can never be eliminated. Whether this capacity is actually of any use, though, depends on the system. The dystopian world of 1984 deals with subversive thoughts in such an efficient way, that revolutionary spirit is …
The contributions of this book are far too grand for me to go into all details here. To make it short, I believe that Orwell provided a fitting explanation of how individual thought is suppressed under totalitarian regimes. The principles of doublethink are also used in democratic states whenever it is politically necessary to hold two conflicting opinions. I even claim that it is a politician's most essential skill to perform this mental gymnastics convincingly.
However, this propaganda does not necesarrily manage to convince everybody. Regardless of the political system, it seems that generally, the people under its influence tend to root for it. But also regardless of the system, the capacity for subversive ideas can never be eliminated. Whether this capacity is actually of any use, though, depends on the system. The dystopian world of 1984 deals with subversive thoughts in such an efficient way, that revolutionary spirit is crushed before it even started to materialize.
