1984

George Orwell

Format: Physical book.

Completed: 3/19/2023

What’s it about: The seminal utopian (“Orwellian”) warning to society regarding the perils of possible “perfect” futures.

Main takeaway: I was supposed to have read this in 9th grade, and before I started I assumed I had. I definitely had not; I remembered almost none of it.

Passages hit home quickly and stand the test of time for a book written looking forward to 1984 as some far flung future days in time.

“In the end the party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existing of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sesame. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For after all, how do we know two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable— what then?”

Overwhelmingly, I come aware with two ideas:

1). Winston was simply too weak of mind to resist the easy path of accepting Big Brother. Viktor Frankle showed us this is absolutely possible, even in the worse of environments, him in concentration camps of Auschwitz. This is the “human spirit” he talks about, but never really connects with.

2). A warning for all thought control and ownership of the truth, something that seems to be becoming more common every year. Now I know why I’ve heard of a gym who hoarded copies of the book and puts one in every order over $100.

I’ll keep my copy handy, just in case.