Just bought a copy of 1984 on the kindle. I've been wanting to read it again for months now and no time seems better suited for it, but my physical copy is too fragile to handle.
forgotn1 reblogged
me: begins and finishes a book within a day
me: begins and finishes a book within three months
Every day I feel as though politicians and the rich and powerful all read 1984 and decided to use it as a guideline rather than a caution.
forgotn1 reblogged
lampblack-deactivated20170504
i love old science fiction because it’s all like “IT’S THE DISTANT YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND THREE AND MAN IS EXPLORING THE DEEP CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE” like god bless you old sci-fi you had such high hopes for us
I mean, Orwell was right though. About pretty much everything.
10 books that have stayed with me:
- So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish - Douglas Adams (the entire H2G2 series, really, but this one in particular)
- Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
- The Dark Tower series - Stephen King
- The Saxon Chronicles - Bernard Cornwell (particularly the Last Kingdom)
- Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
- Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
- A Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
Not pictured:
- Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
- Millennium People - J.G. Ballard
- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson - Bette Bao Lord
#10 books that stayed with me#10 books that have stayed with you#bookporn#enders game#orson scott card#ender's game#the dark tower#the dark tower series#stephen king#the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy#h2g2#Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy#so long and thanks for all the fish#douglas adams#queen of the damned#anne rice#nineteen eighty-four#george orwell#1984#nineteen eighty four#a book of five rings#miyamoto musashi#the saxon chronicles#the last kingdom#bernard cornwell#alice in wonderland#lewis carroll#millenium people#jg ballard#j.g. ballard
It's Black Friday. The proles are out fighting for the treats from the Bourgeoisie. They still have to pay, they just get to pay less.
forgotn1 reblogged
Red dawn 1984 vs red dawn 2012
Personally i think the original reaction was far more emotional and we could see he was very close to his dad, and really felt that it was their fault he died
Yeah. There's no room for emotion in this modern world. All of the reactions of the original were far more emotional. I mean, I enjoyed the remake, but it's not nearly as powerful as the original. It's watered down.
forgotn1 reblogged
Why George Orwell’s 1984 Got it Right
In June, 2013, book sales of George Orwell’s 1984 spiked to record sales after the news of the NSA surveillance broke. Orwell might have been wrong about the year, but he was on to something much bigger than even he knew. We found out that “Big Brother” is really watching us. All of the conspiracy theorists that society used to scoff at are being listened to a little more carefully. Snowden is still a wanted man for just letting us know that the unthinkable of our country spying on us in ways we would not think, was in fact happening.
Orwell need to explain why he wrote his now so famous book because he, as well, did not think that the general public should remain naive and in the dark about their governments.
In a 1944 letter to Noel Willmett, George Orwell laid out the thesis behind his next book, Nineteen Eight-Four, railing against the inevitable rise of Stalin, Anglo-American millionaires and “all sorts of petty fuhrers” who will prosper by means of anti-democratic caste systems. He explains that he supports going to war against Hitler as the lesser of two evils, but makes it clear that the great threat to the world is authoritarianism and its attendant systematic falsification of history, accepted by the intelligentsia so long as it is being undertaken by people on “our side.”
On the whole the English intelligentsia have opposed Hitler, but only at the price of accepting Stalin. Most of them are perfectly ready for dictatorial methods, secret police, systematic falsification of history etc. so long as they feel that it is on ‘our’ side. Indeed the statement that we haven’t a Fascist movement in England largely means that the young, at this moment, look for their fuhrer elsewhere. One can’t be sure that that won’t change, nor can one be sure that the common people won’t think ten years hence as the intellectuals do now. I hope they won’t, I even trust they won’t, but if so it will be at the cost of a struggle. If one simply proclaims that all is for the best and doesn’t point to the sinister symptoms, one is merely helping to bring totalitarianism nearer.
Two and two could become five if the fuhrer wished it.
Orwell’s insights were more prophetic than fiction. He saw something coming to fruition that is not what our country was supposedly founded on. As for Snowden, some view him as more of a hero than traitor and that he did the right thing. Our society has the right to know what the government is doing. Unless brave souls step up to reveal this information, it will remain reserved for the very few, the privileged one percent.
I've read this book at least a dozen times in my life. In fact, it is currently sitting on my desk waiting for me to read it again. Even from the first read it angered me. I could always see that this was happening in the US. We hide parts of our past from schoolchildren (the Korean War, Christopher Columbus' true story), we lie about other things (Vietnam, weapons of mass destruction), and we keep war going at all costs (Iraq, Syria - if it happens).
1984 was a warning to the people and a strategy guide for the government.
Source: Boing Boing
I think I'm going to go to the local thrift shop when I wake up later today. I have an odd compulsion to buy every paperback copy of 1984 that they have and use them to make art. Not at all certain what type of art, but there's something there. I also want to look at record players and receivers/speakers. I want to hobble together a cheap system to play my vinyl on. I've got a player, but it's a more of a novelty item that works, just not well.
One day soon, I'm going to read 1984 and listen to Holywood together. I should be able to destroy governments with the hatred it breeds.