Have you ever read George Orwell’s1984? Too poor to buy it? Too lazy to trek to the library? Now you can read the whole thing online! I know, I was surprised too. I’m pretty sure it’s still manacled under copyright, so I’m not quite sure how this site is getting away with this. Enjoy it while you can. You could probably read it at work and still look like you’re working.
I enjoyed this comment by a reader written from the point of view of someone who would support ‘The Party’. Hmm. Well, it makes sense if you’ve read the book. I thought it was funny:
So many people are surprised that O’Brien forces Winston to his senses, but that is because they are only led to doubt O’Brien’s loyalty through Winston’s paranoid musings on ‘hope’. O’Brien, of course, is a strong and compassionate member of the Inner Party and could never be capable of such wrongdoings. That is my favorite part of the story, when it is finally proven that O’Brien has not forsaken the Party after all! As for the trespasses of Julia and Winston, hopefully one day such foolish heresy will come to be eradicated from all group behaviour. Of course, 1984 is very outdated — Orwell could not have imagined that North America would eventually find the right word for all these thoughtcrimes, “terrorism”, and use it as an umbrella to stop any opposition to the Party whatsoever. However, one could speculate that the altruistic ‘humanitarianism’ of the last few decades has substantially delayed our progress towards Victory.