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The beginning to 1984, as Seamus previously wrote, has been fairly slow albeit very interesting and peculiar. Essentially George Orwell has, through the actions of the main character Winston and the descriptions of his environment, painted the picture for the dystopian society that the book will occur in. As we have discussed in our classes, the authors of dystopian novels usually extenuate and input certain characteristics of their own modern day society whether social, political or economic. George Orwell creates a setting where the government is all-seeing and extremely powerful, limiting many of the basic liberties that we take for granted in our lives. The government is lead by propaganda that decrees "Big Brother Is Watching", which is supposed to deter anyone from defecting or rebelling from Oceania. The powerful nature of the government is shown through the sequence of events of when Winston writes in a journal; something that had previously been banned by the government and would be considered as a major offense to the ideals of the society. He is initially extremely frightened by the idea, but at the same time is exhilarated by an act that seems so mundane and simple to us. I find it extremely interesting that George Orwell wrote this book so long ago, but that it reflects some of the issues that have manifested in our society today. With the emerging importance of technology in the lives of so many, the government is able to monitor and track people without their consent or knowledge. Personally, this sounds a lot like the what Oceania experiences in this novel, although it's citizens know they are being watch at all times because things have gotten so out of control. I am looking forward to reading more and connecting parallels to the U.S. today.

Until next time my fellow peers, fans and others,
  Ben 

1984

The start to George Orwell's novel 1984 has been very slow. Thus far, the book outlines the life of Winston Smith in the dystopian society of Oceania where everything and everyone is controlled by "Big Brother". The book is interesting to read in the 21st century because the book represents Orwell's projection of the world 34 years in the future, yet we are reading it as if it is 30 years in the past. Orwell has made eerily accurate predictions of what the world would be like although he is thirty years off. To start with, our world, like that of Oceania is dominated by screens. Winston's life is constantly monitored by a telescreen in his home which constantly watches him while feeding him information. In a similar sense, life today is dominated by screens whether it is a computer, cell phone, or a television screen it seems as though people are continuously connected to technology. Additionally, Orwell predicts the language of Newspeak which appears to be full of conjunctions and combining words. Today, we text and even speak in an entirely different language to make things shorter and simpler. Several interesting more philosophical topics have arisen in 1984 such as what is history. In the book, Winston's job is to correct how history is written so that his Party is always correct. This makes you question how we ever really know what true history really is because works from the past could be edited and rewritten or portrayed in a different light. Furthermore 1984 addresses the power of language and how theoretically you could adjust the language to control peoples thoughts. I think a real life example of this would be the fact that there was not a word for privacy in the Chinese language until recently because privacy was not a cultural phenomenon.

George Orwell the Prophet: The harrowing Reality that Mr. Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948...

I am going to be honest, I did not love the first twenty pages of 1984...I found it to be slightly dry and found myself speculating about how great it would be to read The Hunger Games!  However, after reading past the first twenty pages, I realize just how impressive this book really is.  I am a firm believer that it is important to shape your perspective with the knowledge that Orwell wrote this nearly prophetic novel three years after World War II.  Televisions were hardly a concept, computers and the idea of "memory" were in their infantile stages, and the idea of digital music and government surveillance was decades away.  Thus, how does such an author muster such an ability to foreshadow and create a creative, authentic dystopian society? Ask Orwell because I have not the slightest notion.  Clearly some form of distinctive and unique ingenuity is at play here because predicting the future of a nation four decades later so accurately after a technological revolution is a daunting and near-impossible test.  I think it would be interesting to see an author try to write a novel entitled 2053 to see if such a performance can be replicated?

Additionally, I see many subtle similarities between 1984 and Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, but feel that 1984 is a more impressive piece of literature because of its prophetic nature.  That being said, both  1984 and Handmaid's Tale have an equivalent of the "Thought Police", a government-implemented form of an oppressive police force which seeks out any form of dissent and swiftly crushed freedom of expression.  If I was to guess, I would wager that the "Thought Police" which Orwell invents in 1984 were inspired by the oppressive and brutal police forces in Russia and Germany: The SS and Gestapo respectively.  I am excited to see the progression of this novel and see just how much fight Winston has in him!

God Bless America and its Inhabitants,
         Kevin Michael Wholihan

1984 - Hannah Ryde

Initially, I was confused by the references to Newspeak in the first chapter.  Orwell first brings up Newspeak when introducing the reader to the Ministry of Truth  by giving the Newspeak abbreviation, "Minitrue,"in addition to the Oldspeak name.  In a footnote on that same page, Newspeak is defined as Oceania's official language and the reader is directed to the appendix for more information.  Further down the page, Orwell offers the Newspeak versions of the three other ministries, without any further explanation of the language.  These references to this unfamiliar language struck me as strange; they seemed to be added as a side note.  Although they gave me more details about the society, they seemed somewhat irrelevant.  Why would Orwell include these made-up words when they are in a language that I don't know and that the characters don't use frequently?  It seemed contrary to everything I had been taught about novels; everything was supposed to be relevant to the plot and every detail that wasn't necessary shouldn't be included.
It wasn't until many pages later, in the fifth chapter, when Winston sits down to lunch with Syme, who is writing the eleventh edition of the Newspeak dictionary that Newspeak seemed significant.  As Syme excitedly explains to Winston that he and his colleagues are "getting the language into it's final shape," it became clear that Newspeak is destined to become more common, and perhaps the sole language spoken in Oceania (50).  Syme believes that the destruction of words is "beautiful" and that "narrow[ing] the range of thought" will eliminate thoughtcrime (51, 52).  Although Syme certainly can't see it, and perhaps even Winston is not yet aware of the impending danger, it is evident to the modern day reader that these restrictions on language will bring about a serious threat to the already limited personal freedom of Oceania's citizens.  Especially coming from a society where we take freedom of speech for granted, the thought of not having the vocabulary to express myself is alarming.  Winston already feels alienated from nearly everyone because of his lack of support for The Party and the elimination of the words necessary to voice his opinions promises to further isolate and dissuade him.