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Nineteen eighty-four
*** Shopping-Tip: Nineteen eighty-four
{{Infobox_Book | name = Nineteen Eighty-Four
| image =
Image:Book_cover_1984.jpg 250px
| author =
George Orwell
| cover_artist = Unknown
| publisher = Plume (Centennial Edition)
| release_date =
June 8,
1949
| media_type =
Paperback,
Hardcover,
e-book, audio-CD
| pages = 368 (Paperback edition)
| size_weight = 8.0 × 5.5 × 1.0 inches 14.1 ounces (Paperback edition)
| isbn = ISBN 0452284236 (Paperback edition)
}}
'''''Nineteen Eighty-Four''''' is a
Satire satirical Political fiction political novel by
George Orwell. The story takes place in a nightmarish
dystopia where the
omnipresence omnipresent State enforces perfect
conformity (psychology) conformity among members of a
Totalitarianism totalitarian Party through
indoctrination,
propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present, all-seeing
Big Brother (1984) Big Brother,
Room 101, the
Thought Police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language of control,
Newspeak. ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' sold well from the start, and has remained one of the most influential books of the
20th century.
Along with
Aldous Huxley's ''
Brave New World'', the world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is one of the first and most cited works of
dystopian fiction to have appeared in
English literature. The book has been translated into many languages. ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' and its terminology have become a byword in discussions of privacy issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations that are thought to be reminiscent of the society depicted in the novel.
Novel history
Title
The novel was written with the working title of '''''The Last Man in Europe'''''. However, the book's publishers in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where it was simultaneously released, moved to change its title for marketing purposes to ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. First published on
June 8,
1949, the bulk of the novel was written by Orwell on the island of
Jura, Scotland in
1948, although Orwell had been writing small parts of it since
1945. The book begins approximately on
April 4,
1984 (the first entry in
Winston Smith's diary) at 13:00 ("It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...").
=Theories
=
The original working title of ''The Last Man in Europe'' was a natural evolution of the theme of the novel itself. When the publishers requested a new title Orwell did not object. It has been suggested that Orwell had originally chosen to call it ''Nineteen Eighty'', but as his writing dragged on due to the advance of his
tuberculosis, Orwell changed it to ''Nineteen Eighty-Two'' and then to ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. From this beginning of speculation a number of competing theories have also arisen regarding the meaning of the title. Some have suggested that Orwell simply switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book (1948), but others have suggested that it may also have been an allusion to the centenary of the
Fabian Society, a socialist organization founded in
1884. Alternatively, still other theories link it to
Jack London's novel ''
The Iron Heel'', in which the power of a political movement reaches its height in 1984, or even to
G. K. Chesterton's ''
The Napoleon of Notting Hill'', also set in that year. Even further suggestions are that it refers to a poem that his wife,
Eileen O'Shaughnessy, had written called ''End of the Century, 1984''. The only real knowledge that we have is that the working name was ''The Last Man in Europe'' because it related to the storyline of the book, and that the publishers wanted to change the name for purposes of mass marketing.
Orwell's inspiration
The world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' also reflects various aspects of the social and political life of both the
United Kingdom and the
United States of America. There have been suggestions that the primary character was named Winston after
Winston Churchill, who had been British
Prime Minister during the
Second World War.
Orwell is reported to have said that the book described what he viewed as the situation in the United Kingdom in
1948, when the British economy was poor, the
British Empire was dissolving at the same time as newspapers were reporting its triumphs, and wartime allies such as the
USSR were rapidly becoming peacetime foes.
Orwell acknowledged being influenced by
Zamyatin's dystopia ''
We (novel) We'', written in 1921 and published in English that year.
His work for the overseas service of the
BBC, which at the time was under the control of the ''
Minister of Information Ministry of Information'', also played a significant role as the basis for his Ministry of Truth (as he later admitted to
Malcolm Muggeridge). The ''Ministry of Information'' building,
Senate House (University of London), was the Ministry of Truth's ''architectural'' inspiration.
In many ways, Oceania is indeed a future metamorphosis of the
British Empire (although Orwell is careful to state that, geographically, it also includes the
United States, and that the currency is the
dollar). It is, as its name suggests, an essentially naval power. Much of its militarism is focused on veneration for sailors and seafarers, serving on board "floating fortresses" which Orwell evidently conceived of as the next stage in the growth of ever-bigger warships, after the
Dreadnoughts of
WWI and the
aircraft carriers of
WWII. And much of the fighting conducted by Oceania's troops takes place in defence of
India, which was of course the British Empire's "Jewel in the Crown".
O'Brien (book character) O'Brien, representative par excellence of the oppressive
Party, is in many ways depicted as a member of the old British
ruling class (in one case,
Winston Smith thinks of him as a person who in the past would have been holding a
snuffbox — i.e. an old-fashioned English
Gentleman).
It is natural that such comparisons and references would crop up in a book by Orwell — a man who started as a loyal servant of the
British Empire in the
Colonial Police at
Burma, became bitterly disillusioned with the
Empire and seeker after a
revolution, and rediscovered his British
patriotism during
WWII. However, since the book was used for decades as a staple of
anti-Soviet propaganda, this aspect of it was obscured from its widely-known image — though quite obvious to an intelligent reader.
It should also be noted that Oceania’s standard practice of declaring
POW's to be "
war criminals" as a justification for killing them outright might be considered as Orwell's criticism of the
Nuremberg Trials conducted by the victors of WWII against the losers — another aspect of this book which did not quite fit with using it as
Cold War propaganda.
Thus, it is more accurate to perceive the novel as a prognostication of the
Culture of the United Kingdom British society in which Orwell grew up set in the
future than to see it strictly as
propaganda opposed against and attacking the
Soviet Union.
The world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
Image:Bbc1984.jpg Peter_Cushing.html" title="Meaning of 240px 240px|thumb|right|[[Peter Cushing (left) as Winston Smith with
Donald Pleasence as Syme in the
1954 Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme) BBC television adaptation of the novel..html" title="Meaning of thumb|right|[[Peter Cushing">240px|thumb|right|[[Peter Cushing (left) as Winston Smith with
Donald Pleasence as Syme in the
1954 Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme) BBC television adaptation of the novel.">thumb|right|[[Peter Cushing">240px|thumb|right|[[Peter Cushing (left) as Winston Smith with
Donald Pleasence as Syme in the
1954 Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme) BBC television adaptation of the novel.''
{{spoiler}}
The novel focuses upon one man named Winston Smith who stands, seemingly alone, against the corrupted reality of his world: hence its original working name of '''The Last Man in Europe'''. Although the storyline is unified, it could be described as having three parts, and indeed has been published by some in such a fashion. The first part deals with the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four as seen through the eyes of Winston; the second part deals with Winston's forbidden sexual relationship with Julia and his eagerness to rebel against the Party, and the third part deals with Winston's capture and torture by the Party.
The world described in ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' contains striking and deliberate parallels with the
Stalinism Stalinist Soviet Union and
Adolf Hitler Hitler's Nazi Germany. There are thematic similarities: the betrayed-
revolution, with which Orwell famously dealt in ''
Animal Farm''; the subordination of individuals to "the Party"; and the rigorous distinction between inner party, outer party and everyone else. In the book, people are encouraged to be engaged in group activities, possibly a reference to the
collectivism described in
Ayn Rand's ''
Anthem''. There are also direct parallels of the activities within the society: leader worship, such as that towards Big Brother, who is as much a reference to the non-existent character of
Uncle Sam as he is to actual dictators like
Stalin and
Hitler; Joycamps, which are a reference to concentration camps or gulags;
thoughtcrime Thought Police, a reference to the
Gestapo or
NKVD; daily exercise reminiscent of Nazi propaganda movies; and the Youth League, reminiscent
Hitler Youth or
Octobrists/Pioneers.
There is also an extensive and institutional use of
propaganda; again, this was found in the totalitarian regimes of Hitler and
Stalin. Orwell may have drawn inspiration from the greatest propagandists of the time, the Nazis; compare the following quotes to how propaganda is used in Nineteen Eighty-Four:
;Nazis
*“The broad mass of the nation ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.� — Adolf Hitler, in his 1925 book
Mein Kampf
*“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.� — Nazi Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels {{Citeneeded}}
*“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.� — Nazi Reich Marshal
Hermann Goering, before committing suicide at the
Nuremberg Trials
;Nineteen Eighty-Four
*“Remember our boys on the Malabar front! And the sailors in the Floating Fortresses! Just think what they have to put up with.�
*“The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep the people frightened'.�
*“The key-word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.�
*“To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed.�
Winston Smith, a member of the
Outer Party, lives in the
ruins of
London, the chief city of
Airstrip One — a front-line province of the totalitarian superstate
Oceania (fiction) Oceania. Winston grew up in post-
Second World War Britain, during the
revolution and
civil war. When his parents died during the civil war, he was picked up by the growing
Ingsoc (newspeak for "English Socialism") movement and given a job in the
Outer Party. Like the rest of the population, Winston lives a squalid and materially deprived existence. He lives in a filthy one-room apartment in "Victory Mansions", and is forced to live on a diet of hard bread, synthetic meals served at his workplace, and vast amounts of industrial-grade "
Victory Gin". He is deeply unhappy in his life and keeps a secret diary of his illegal thoughts about the
Party. Winston is employed by the
Ministry of Truth, which exercises complete control over all media in Oceania: his job in the Ministry's Records Department involves doctoring historical records in order to comply with the Party's version of the past. Since the perception of the past is constantly shaped by the events of the present, the task is a never-ending one.
While Winston likes his work, especially the intellectual challenge involved in fabricating a complete historical anecdote from scratch, he is also fascinated by the ''real'' past, and eagerly tries to find out more about the forbidden truth. At the Ministry of Truth, he encounters
Julia (1984) Julia, a mechanic on the novel-writing machines, and the two begin an illegal relationship, regularly meeting up in the countryside (away from surveillance) or in a room above an antique shop in the
Proles' area of the city. As the relationship progresses, Winston's views begin to change, and he finds himself relentlessly questioning
Ingsoc. Unknown to him, he and Julia are under surveillance by the
Thought Police, and when he is approached by
Inner Party member
O'Brien (book character) O'Brien, he believes that he has made contact with the Resistance. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of "the book", a searing criticism of
Ingsoc that Smith believes was written by the dissident
Emmanuel Goldstein.
Winston and Julia are apprehended by the Thought Police and interrogated separately in the Ministry of Love, where opponents of the regime are tortured and executed. O'Brien reveals to Winston that he has been brought to "be cured" of his hatred for the Party, and subjects Winston to numerous torture sessions. During one of these sessions, he explains to Winston the nature of the endless world war, and that the purpose of the torture is not to extract a fake confession, but to actually change the way Winston thinks. This is achieved through a combination of torture and
electroshock therapy, until O'Brien decides that Winston is "cured". However, Winston unconsciously utters Julia's name in his sleep, proving that he has not been completely brainwashed. Room 101 is the most feared room in the Ministry of Love, where a person's greatest fear is forced upon them as the final step in the re-education. Winston is dreadfully afraid of rats, and a cage of hungry rats is placed over his eyes, so that when the door is opened, they will eat their way through his skull. In his absolute terror, he tries to think of the one thing he can say to stop the punishment, and he realizes what it is. He says, "Do it to Julia!" At the end of the novel, Winston and Julia meet, but their feelings for each other have been destroyed. Winston has become an alcoholic and we know that eventually he will be killed. The one thing Winston had held on to when facing his inevitable end was that when he was killed, he would still hate Big Brother. This would be his victory, showing that the party's power was not absolute. However, the novel's conclusion reveals that the torture and 'reprogramming' have been successful; Winston realized one truth above all, 'He loved Big Brother'.
At the end of the novel there is an appendix on
Newspeak (the artificial language invented and, by degrees, imposed by the Party to limit the capacity to express or even think "unorthodox" thoughts), in the style of an academic essay.
History according to 1984
The novel does not give a full history of how the world of 1984 came into being. Winston's recollections, and what he reads from "The Book" (i.e.,
Emmanuel Goldstein's book) reveal that at some point after the
Second World War, the
United Kingdom descended into civil war, eventually being absorbed by the
United States to form the new world power of Oceania; at roughly the same time, the
Soviet Union expanded into mainland
Europe to form
Eurasia; and the third world power,
Eastasia — an amalgamation of east
Asian countries including
China and
Japan — emerged some time later.
There was a period of
nuclear warfare during which some hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped, mainly on
Europe, western
Russia, and
North America. (The only city that is explicitly stated to have suffered a nuclear attack is
Colchester.) It is not clear what came first — the civil war which ended with the Party taking over, the absorption of Britain by the US, or the external war in which Colchester was bombed. To reconstruct it one needs to try combining the hints scattered in "1984" itself with the analysis and predictions contained in Orwell's non-fiction writings.
In articles written during the
Second World War, Orwell repeatedly expressed the idea that British
democracy as it existed before
1939 would not survive the war, the only question being whether its end would come through a
Fascist takeover from above or by a
Socialist revolution from below. (The second possibility, it should be noted, was greatly supported and hoped for by Orwell, to the extent that he joined and loyally participated in "the Home Guard" throughout the war, in the futile expectation that that body would become the nucleus of a
revolutionary militia). After the war ended Orwell openly expressed his surprise that events had proven him wrong.
The most complete expression of Orwell's predictions in that direction are contained in "The Lion and the Unicorn" which he wrote in
1940. There, he stated that "the war and the revolution are inseparable (...) the fact that we are at war has turned Socialism from a textbook word into a realizable policy". The reason for that, according to Orwell, was that the outmoded British
class system constituted a major hindrance to the war effort, and only a Socialist society would be able to defeat
Hitler. Since the
middle classes were in process of realizing this, too, they would support the revolution, and only the most outright
Reactionary elements in British society would oppose it — which would limit the amount of force the revolutionaries would need in order to gain power and keep it.
Thus, an "English Socialism" would come about which "...will never lose touch with the tradition of compromise and the belief in a law that is above the State. It will shoot traitors, but it will give them a solemn trial beforehand and occasionally it will acquit them. It will crush any open revolt promptly and cruelly, but it will interfere very little with the spoken and written word".
Such a revolutionary regime, which Orwell found highly desirable and was actively trying to bring about in
1940, is of course a far cry from the monstrous edifice presided over by
Big Brother, which was his nightmare a few years later. Still, one can see how the one may degenerate into the other (and The Party does provide "traitors" with "a solemn trial" before shooting them...)
The term "
England English Socialism", repeated numerous times in "The Lion and the Unicorn", is rather parochial — had events developed as Orwell predicted, the
Scots and
Wales Welsh would have undoubtedly had a major share in such a revolution. Its importance for understanding "1984" is that the official Party ideology is "Ingsoc", an abbreviation of "English Socialism". This shows that Orwell perceived of the monstrous regime which he described in "1984", not only as a betrayal and perversion of
Socialist ideals in general, but also as a perversion of Orwell's own specifically and dearly cherished vision and hope of
Socialism.
In
1940 Orwell was quite optimistic about the chances of Socialism — his brand of Socialism. In
1947, when he wrote "Toward European Unity" he was far more pessimistic (which may have had to do, not only with objective conditions in the world, but also with his fast deteriorating health). He no longer had hopes in the possibility of a Socialist revolution in Britain alone. The only real chance (and he considered it a slim chance) was through a
Socialist Federation of
Western Europe, "The only region where for a large number of people the word Socialism is bound up with
liberty,
equality and
internationalism". Such a federation, embracing some 250 million people, would provide a large-scale working model of "a community where people are relatively free and happy and where the main motive in life is not the pursuit of money or power".
A lot of preconditions had to be fulfilled for that vision to materialise. The
Western European countries had to remain independent both of the Soviet military might and of looking to the
Soviet Union for their model of Socialism. Britain had to divest itself of its empire, since exploiting the labour of colonial masses was incompatible with building a true Socialist society. It also had to cut itself completely out of the
United States American orbit, and ally with the West European countries in a common revolution. Orwell was not sanguine about the chances of all these conditions materialising, but stated in conclusion: "One thing in our favour is that a major war is not likely to happen immediately" — which would at least give some breathing space to the forces seeking
Democratic Socialism.
"1984" was written at almost precisely the same time as "Toward European Unity", and the fictional history unfolding in the past of the novel could be considered as the exact mirror image of that article. A major war does break out almost "immediately" from the time of writing in 1948, the opposite happens of all the indispensable conditions for Democratic Socialism, and things go from bad to worse.
From the memories of Winston Smith, scattered through the book, one can try to piece out the following:
* At the outbreak of war, when
Colchester was A-bombed, the child Winston experienced an air-raid alarm and was taken by his parents to a
tube station, where he heard an old man saying "We didn't ought to 'ave trusted them". This implies a sense of betrayal, felt in the British public in the aftermath of a surprise attack. The context would suggest a
Soviet attack, possibly after a period of relative rapprochement or a failed peace effort.
:The outbreak of war might have followed the withdrawal of US forces from Europe — a quite plausible future development when the book was written, before the creation of
NATO and when the main available precedent was the American withdrawal from Europe in the aftermath of WWI. That would account both for the feeling of betrayal and for the Soviet success in sweeping, while Britain was heavily bombed but protected by the Channel from a ground invasion, westwards to the
Atlantic and southwards into the
Middle East. (A newsreel from the
Middle East which Smith watches shows a boat full of
Jewish refugees being sunk by an Oceanian helicopter; evidently, in this history the state of
Israel, founded in 1948, had had only an ephemeral existence.).
:The major invasion was followed by the
Soviet Union being transformed into "Eurasia" and adopting the ideology of "Neo-Bolshevism" (possibly under the impact of absorbing the
Communists of
France,
Italy etc. into its ruling party).
:The isolated Britain kept its empire and was perforce drawn into a closer alliance and eventual political amalgamation with the
United States — that might have been the time when the
Dollar became the common currency.
:At that time, in Smith's life, his father was still around and his sister was not yet born. The time must be the early 1950's, since Smith was born in 1944 or 1945 and these are for him dim childhood memories; in other words, for Orwell writing in
1948 this was the very immediate future. Winston Smith is about the same age as Richard Horatio Blair, Orwell's adopted son, who was born in May
1944.
* After that, the war in Europe seems to have stabilized into exchanges of aerial bombardments (by tacit agreement avoiding the use of nuclear arms) and to naval blockades and submarine warfare, with ground battles confined to extra-European theatres. In effect, Orwell conceived the future war as taking virtually the same course that WWII took in
1940 after the
Fall of France. This is the period from which come Winston Smith's later childhood memories, a time when the father was gone and the mother was left alone with Winston and the baby sister.
:That was a time of very great economic privations — much worse even than the systematised and controlled privations which daily life in 1984 Oceania entails. There was presumably the destruction left by nuclear bombardment, which destroyed a part of Britain's industrial capacity, and also left agricultural areas contaminated ("1984" mentions Winston and Julia meeting in countryside areas still devastated and deserted after thirty years), the need to fight a full-scale war again without being fully recovered from the effects of WWII (in our history Britain only fully recovered in the 1950s, and in 1948 when Orwell wrote, there were predictions of a much longer time needed for recovery). To these would be added Soviet/Eurasian attacks on the supply lines, for which (unlike with
Nazi Germany in WWII) the coasts of
Spain,
Portugal and
North Africa, as well as those of
France, would be fully available for Soviet/Eurasian submarine bases and airfields. (The development of the "virtually unsinkable" Floating Fortresses might have come later, as a means of securing the
Atlantic sea-lanes and ensuring at least a trickle of vital supplies to
Britain/
Airstrip One — which would explain the popularity of the sailors serving in these fortresses, used in the Party's propaganda. The Floating Fortresses might have been inspired by
WWII Project Habbakuk's virtually unsinkable reinforced ice aircraft carriers, if Orwell had heard of them.)
Winston's memories of this time are full of political chaos and violence, as seen through an uncomprehending child's eyes. There is a specific mention of rival militias roaming the streets, each one composed of boys all wearing shirts of the same colour (a vision which Orwell might have taken from the last years of
Weimar Germany, where
Nazism Nazi,
Communist and other militias constantly fought in the streets).
That corresponds, presumably, to the time when The Party (which at the time must still have had a name, being only one of several contending parties) was led by Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, and
Big Brother had not yet risen to prominence. (The three are clearly modelled on
Bukharin,
Zinoviev and
Kamenev, the prominent
Bolshevik leaders whom
Stalin supplanted and executed).
Apparently, Orwell conceives of the three as sincere revolutionaries moved by outrage at the injustice of
capitalism. There is the specific mention of Rutherford's "brutal cartoons", depicting slum tenements, starving children, street battles and
capitalists in
top hats, which "helped inflame popular opinion before and during the Revolution". The revolutionaries eventually win — or so it seems. What Orwell hoped for in vain during WWII does take place during the WWIII of the
1950s, Orwell's immediate future — a revolution in Britain. But now he sees it as the beginning of a nightmare, not of hope.
The difference can be partly explained by the fact that the revolution takes place in far more brutal conditions than those of WWII Britain where Orwell hoped for a relatively mild revolution — and more similar to the conditions of
1917 in
Russia from which the incipient
Soviet regime had its introduction to brutality. While Rutherford's cartoons were obviously exaggerated, in order to be so effective in rousing public fury they must have to some degree reflected the reality of deep privations and social polarization in the immediate pre-revolutionary time. Under such conditions, the revolutionaries' victory could have easily been accompanied by widespread retaliations against "war profiteers" and "fat cats" (there was widespread resentment against such people in WWII Britain, where conditions had never been that bad). Such retaliations, condoned as "unavoidable excesses", would have set the new regime on a road of arbitrary brutality from its very inception.
Also, Orwell's essential conditions for the revolution to develop towards
Democratic Socialism, set out in "Toward European Unity", were all not fulfilled —
Western Europe is occupied and in no condition to join in the revolution, and
Britain is inextricably tied to both the
United States U.S. and to its oppressive overseas empire. Indeed, the brutal all-out exploitation of
colonial peoples as semi-
slave labor slave labour could have been started by the old regime in the immediate aftermath of the occupation of
Europe, as a desperate measure of survival, and deepened rather than abolished by the newly-arrived revolutionaries. Altogether, the revolutionary regime was inexorably perverted into the merciless tyranny of
Big Brother.
At some time soon after, the revolution which started in
Britain spread to
United States America and won there as well. This is simply mentioned, with no detail and no information of the situation in the
United States American part of Oceania beyond a passing mention of a Party congress in
New York and a reference in "The Book" to "Jews, Negroes and South Americans of pure Indian blood" being "found in the highest ranks of the Party". America is not part of this story any more than the detailed history of
China, it is just a faraway place of which we know nothing.
The later history of Oceania seems modelled, in a rather one-to-one basis, on
Soviet history. Oceania's 1950s are based on the Soviet
1920s, a time of civil war and revolutionary turmoil. Similarly, the 1960s are the
1930s, the time when
Stalin/
Big Brother (1984) Big Brother, consolidated his power and smothered all opposition. (Stalin's
Moscow Trials Moscow Show Trials took place in 1936,
Big Brother's equivalent in
1965). By the end of the
1960s, Big Brother has completed the process of turning the revolution into a pretext for creating a terror state.
By the year 1984, the citizens of Oceania had been separated into three distinct, isolated classes — the
Inner Party, the
Outer Party, and the
proles. However, in the view of
Emmanuel Goldstein (which seems to be Orwell's) these are but new names for classes which have essentially existed throughout human history — though under the new dispensation they are more rigid and unchangeable than ever before.
On the global level, as "The Book" (supposedly written by
Emmanuel Goldstein though in fact its descriptive part turns out to be endorsed by the Party) explains, the three powers eventually realized that continuous stalemate war was preferable to conquest, as war allowed them to spend their surplus labour manufacturing products that would be wasted during fighting, rather than improving people's standards of living (an impoverished population being easier to control than a rich one).
By the time the novel is set, the three powers have taken over most of the world, but a large area is still disputed between them. This area, containing the northern half of
Africa, the
Middle East, southern
India,
Indonesia, and northern
Australia, provides
slavery slaves, or low-paid workers who are effectively slaves, for all three powers.
The powers rarely if ever fight on their own territory —
Airstrip One (the official name of
Great Britain) has become the target of Eurasian rocket bombs, but it is hinted that the Oceanian government itself may launch these weapons in order to convince the population that it is under constant attack.
Ministries of Oceania
Oceania's four ministries are housed in huge pyramidal structures, each roughly 300 meters high and visible throughout London, displaying the three slogans of the party (see below) on their facades.
; The Ministry of Peace : Newspeak: ''Minipax''.
Concerns itself with conducting Oceania's perpetual wars.
; The Ministry of Plenty : Newspeak: ''Miniplenty''.
Responsible for rationing and controlling food and goods.
; The Ministry of Truth : Newspeak: ''Minitrue''.
The propaganda arm of Oceania's regime. Minitrue controls information: political literature, the Party organization, and the telescreens. Winston Smith works for Minitrue, "rectifying" historical records and newspaper articles to make them conform to IngSoc's most recent pronouncements, thus making everything that the Party says true.
; The Ministry of Love : Newspeak: ''Miniluv''.
The agency responsible for the identification, monitoring, arrest, and torture of dissidents, real or imagined. Based on Winston's experience there at the hands of O'Brien, the basic procedure is to pair the subject with his or her worst fear for an extended period of time, eventually breaking down the person's mental faculties and ending with a sincere embrace of the Party by the brainwashed subject. The Ministry of Love differs from the other ministry buildings in that it has no windows in it at all.
The ministries' names are, of course, ironical — the Ministry of Peace makes war, the Ministry of Plenty administers over shortages, the Ministry of Truth spreads propaganda and lies, and the Ministry of Love inflicts misery.
The Party
In his novel Orwell created a world in which citizens have no right to a personal life or to personal thought. Leisure and other activities are controlled through a system of strict mores. Sexual pleasure is discouraged; sex is retained only for the purpose of
procreation, although
artificial insemination (ARTSEM) is more encouraged.
Image:Bbc19842.jpg right||frame|Big Brother, as seen in the BBC television adaptation.
The mysterious head of government is the omniscient, omnipotent, beloved
Big Brother (1984) Big Brother, or "B.B.", usually displayed on posters with the slogan "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU". However, it is never quite clear whether Big Brother truly exists or not, or whether he is a fictitious leader created as a focus for the love of the Party which the Thought Police and others are there to engender. It is perfectly possible that the conflict between Big Brother and
Emmanuel Goldstein is in fact a conflict either between two fictitious or dead leaders, whose true purpose is to personify both the Party and its opponents.
His political opponent (who is therefore a criminal) is the hated Emmanuel Goldstein, a Party member who the reader is told had been in league with Big Brother and the Party during the revolution. Goldstein is said to be the leader of the Brotherhood, a vast underground anti-Party fellowship. The reader never truly finds out whether the Brotherhood exists or not, but the implication is that Goldstein is either entirely fictitious or was eliminated long ago. Party members are expected to vilify Goldstein, the Brotherhood and whichever supernation Oceania is currently warring via the daily "
Two Minutes Hate two minutes hate." A typical two-minutes hate is depicted in the novel, during which citizens ridicule and shout at a video of the hated "bleating" Goldstein as he releases a litany of attacks upon Oceanic governance (indeed, the image ultimately morphs into a bleating sheep).
The three
slogans of the Party, on display everywhere, are:
* '''WAR IS PEACE'''
* '''FREEDOM IS SLAVERY'''
* '''IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH'''
Each of these is of course either contradictory or the opposite of what we normally believe, and in ''1984'' the world is in a state of constant war, no one is free, and everyone is ignorant. The slogans are analysed in
Goldstein's book. Through their constant repetition, the terms become meaningless, and the slogans become
axiomatic. This type of misuse of language, and the deliberate self-deception with which the citizens are encouraged to accept it, is called
doublethink.
One essential consequence of doublethink is that the Party can rewrite history with impunity, for "The Party is never wrong." The ultimate aim of the Party is, according to O'Brien, to gain and retain full power over all the people of Oceania; he sums this up with perhaps the most distressing prophecy of the entire novel: ''If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.''
Political geography
Image:1984_fictious_world_map.png thumbnail|400px|right|The world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. Not all boundaries are given in detail in the book, so some are speculation. Note: At the end of the novel, there are news reports that Oceania has captured the whole of Africa, though their credibility is left uncertain.
The world is controlled by three functionally similar
totalitarian superstates engaged in
perpetual war with each other: Oceania (ideology:
Ingsoc or English Socialism), Eurasia (ideology: Neo-Bolshevism), and Eastasia (ideology:
Death Worship ''or''
Obliteration of the Self). In terms of the political map of the late
1940s when the book was written, ''Oceania'' covers the greater part of the
British Empire (or the
Commonwealth of Nations Commonwealth), and the
American continent Americas, ''Eastasia'' corresponds to
China,
Japan,
Korea, and northern
India. ''Eurasia'' corresponds to the
Soviet Union and
Continental Europe. That Great Britain is in Oceania rather than in Eurasia is commented upon in the book as a historical anomaly.
North Africa, the
Middle East, southern
India, and
South East Asia form a disputed zone which is used as a battlefield and source of slaves by the three powers.
Goldstein's book explains that the ideologies of the three states are basically the same, but it is imperative to keep the public ignorant of that. The population is led to believe that the other two ideologies are detestable.
London, the novel's setting, is the capital of the Oceanian province of
Airstrip One, the former Great Britain.
The war
:{{main|Eternal war}}
The world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is built around an endless war involving the three global superstates, with two allied powers fighting against the third. The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are formed, but as
Goldstein's book explains, this does not matter, as each superstate is so strong it cannot be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers. The war rarely takes place on the territory of the three powers, and actual fighting is conducted in the disputed zone stretching from Morocco to Australia, and in the unpopulated Arctic wastes. Throughout the first half of the novel, Oceania is allied with
Eastasia, and Oceania's forces are engaged with fighting
Eurasian troops in northern Africa. Mid-way through the novel, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces in
India. During "Hate Week" (a week of extreme focus on the evilness of Oceania's enemies), Oceania and Eurasia are enemies once again. The public is quite blind to the change, and when a speaker, mid-sentence, changes the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia (speaking as if nothing had changed) the people are shocked as they notice all the
flags and
banners are wrong (they blame Goldstein and the Brotherhood) and quite effectively tear them down.
The book that Winston receives explains that the war cannot be won, and that its only purpose is to use up human labor and the fruits of human labor so that each superstate's economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for every citizen. The book also details an Oceanian strategy to attack enemy cities with atomic-tipped rocket bombs prior to a full-scale invasion, but quickly dismisses this plan as both infeasible and contrary to the purpose of the war. Although, according to Goldstein's book, hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped on cities during the 1950s, they are no longer used by the three powers as they would upset the balance of power. Conventional military technology is little different from that used in the Second World War. Some advances have been made, such as replacing bomber aircraft with "rocket bombs", and using immense "floating fortresses" instead of battleships, but such advances appear to be few and far between. As the purpose of the war is to destroy manufactured products and thus keep the workers busy, obsolete and wasteful technology is deliberately used in order to perpetuate useless fighting.
Living standards
By the year 1984, the society of Airstrip One lives in abject squalor and poverty. Hunger, disease, and filth have become the social norm. As a result of the civil war, atomic wars, and Eurasian rocket bombs, the urban areas of Airstrip One lie in ruins. When travelling around
London, Winston is surrounded by rubble, decay, and the crumbling shells of wrecked buildings. Apart from the gargantuan bombproof Ministries, very little seems to have been done to rebuild London, and it is assumed that all towns and cities across Airstrip One are in the same desperate condition. Living standards for the population are generally very low — everything is in short supply and those goods that are available are of very poor quality. The Party claims that this is due to the immense sacrifices that must be made for the war effort. They are partially correct, since the point of continuous warfare is to be rid of the surplus of industrial production so as to prevent the rise of the standard of living and make possible the economic repression of people.
The Inner Party, at the top level of Oceanian society, enjoys the highest standard of living. O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, lives in a relatively clean and comfortable apartment, and has access to a variety of quality foodstuffs such as wine, coffee, and sugar, none of which is available to the rest of the population. Members of the Inner Party also seem to be waited on by slaves captured from the disputed zone. Although the Inner Party enjoys the highest standard of living, Goldstein's book points out that, despite being at the top of society, their living standards are far, far below those of society's elite before the revolution. The proletariat, treated by the Party as animals, live in squalor and poverty. They are kept sedate with vast quantities of cheap beer, widespread pornography, and a national lottery, but these do not mask the fact that their lives are dangerous and deprived—proletarian areas of the cities, for example, are ridden with disease and vermin. As Winston is a member of the Outer Party, we discover more about the Outer Party's living standards than any other group. Despite being the middle class of Oceanian society, the Outer Party's standard of living is very poor. Foodstuffs are low-quality or synthetic; the main alcoholic beverage—Victory Gin—is industrial-grade; Outer Party cigarettes are shoddy. Smith, like many other members of the Outer Party, lives in a filthy one-room apartment with no comforts. All members of the Outer Party are required to wear scruffy overalls, and clothes in general are of very low quality. Members of the Outer Party are subject to a rigid timetable, being awoken each morning by the telescreens, and are required to participate in group "leisure" activities. Apart from Victory Gin, everything from artificial foods to badly-made razor blades is in very short supply, and living standards as a whole appear to be declining further.
The social stratification serves to make members of the Outer Party appreciative of what they have, however meager: this helps to keep them governable, for they are less likely to take their status for granted as would those who live in plenty. An Outer Party member can at least be grateful not to be a Prole, who will always be much worse off. An Outer Party member will be obedient for fear of being executed, and he will learn to love the Party for providing a higher standard than them. He may also aspire to the higher status and standard of living of the Inner Party, and apply extra effort and diligence.
But the ultimate goal of this impoverishment and stratification is the preservation of the hiearchical society, which Orwell states through "The Book" to be only maintainable via ignorance and poverty.
Newspeak
Newspeak, the "official language" of Oceania, is extraordinary in that its vocabulary decreases every year; the state of Oceania sees no purpose in maintaining a complex language, and so Newspeak is a language dedicated to the "destruction of words". As the character Syme puts it:
:''Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well... If you have a word like 'good', what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well... Or again, if you want a stronger version of 'good', what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like 'excellent' and 'splendid' and all the rest of them? 'Plusgood' covers the meaning, or 'doubleplusgood' if you want something stronger still.... In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words; in reality, only one word.'' (Part One, Chapter Five)
The true goal of Newspeak is to take away the ability to think anything not desired by the state (thought-crime), let alone act against the state, by eliminating words to express the concepts. For example, though a person could say, "BB is ungood" (Big Brother is bad), this would be seen as totally meaningless to any member of the party, and he would have no words to support his claim. Syme openly discusses this aim, this indiscretion being the presumed reason for his disappearance later on. Since the thought police had yet to develop a method of reading people's minds to catch dissent, Newspeak was created. (This concept has been examined — and widely disputed — in
linguistics: see the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.)
'''See also:''' [http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns_frames.html The Complete Newspeak Dictionary (newspeakdictionary.com)].
Technology
The world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is a political, not a technological,
dystopia. The technological level of the society in the novel is mostly crude and less advanced than in the real 1980s. Apart from the
telescreens, speech-recognizing typewriters, and novel-writing machines (the credibility of which is stated to be dubious), technology is barely more advanced than in wartime Britain. Orwell explains that, in the latter part of the twentieth century, technology has been driven by only two things: "war, and the desire to determine against his will what another human being is thinking."
Living standards are low and declining, with rationing and unpalatable
ersatz products; in that regard, Orwell's vision is diametrically opposed to the technologically advanced
hedonism of ''
Brave New World''.
None of the three blocs has much genuine interest in technological progress, since it could destabilise their grip on power. Some scientific advance is conducted in the field of interrogation, developing techniques against thought criminals through advanced torture, drugs, and hypnosis, but in other fields, technology is stagnant. Atomic weapons are avoided in the
perpetual war, since the whole point of the conflict is to be indecisive and wasteful. The technologies employed are obsolete and deliberately wasteful. This stagnation is related to what is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the novel: for all their brutality, the regimes are not going to burn themselves out in strategically significant conquests or technological arms races. Rather, they have reached a stable
equilibrium which could theoretically last forever—" a boot stamping on a human face ...forever".
The themes of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
Nationalism
Nineteen Eighty-Four expands upon the themes summarised in Orwell’s preparatory essay,
Notes on Nationalism (1945): [http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/nationalism.html]. In it, Orwell expresses frustration at the lack of vocabulary needed to explain an unrecognised phenomenon that he felt was behind certain forces. He addresses this problem in Nineteen Eighty-Four by inventing the jargon of Newspeak.
A fictional society, to which the readers have no preconceived bias, was a tool in illustrating why Orwell thought the below examples were different manifestations of the same forces at work, despite their being ideologically incompatible.
= Positive nationalism
=
This is apparent in the novel, in the Oceanians’ undying love for Big Brother, whose physical existence is doubtful. Orwell lists
Celtic Nationalism, Neo-Toryism and
Zionism as examples of positive nationalism.
=Negative nationalism
=
This is apparent in the novel, in the Oceanians’ undying hatred for Goldstein, whose continued existence is doubtful. Orwell lists
Trotskyism,
Anti-Semitism and
Anglophobia as examples of negative nationalism.
= Transferred nationalism
=
In the novel, an orator, mid-sentence, alters the alleged enemy of Oceania, and the crowd instantly transfer their same feelings of hatred toward the new alleged enemy. In Notes on Nationalism, Orwell describes transferred nationalism as swiftly redirecting emotions from one power unit to another, as if not by reasoned change in opinion, but as if one’s beliefs are serving one’s loyalties, which can be altered, but with the original fanaticism intact. Orwell lists
Communism,
Political Catholicism,
Pacifism,
Colour Feeling, and
Class Feeling as examples of transferred nationalism.
Nationalism for its own sake is described by O'Brien in one of his most conclusive statements: “The object of power is power; The object of torture is torture.�
Sexual repression
In the novel, Julia describes party fanaticism as "sex gone sour;" Winston, aside from during his affair with Julia, suffers from an ankle inflammation, alluding to
Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex and symbolizing an unhealthy repression of the sex drive. Orwell supposed that the sufficient mental energy for prolonged worship requires the repression of a vital instinct, such as the sex instinct. This possibly alludes to the restrictions on sexuality imposed by religious authorities, be it consciously or by selective pressures on doctrine.
Futurology
It is not clear to what extent Orwell believed his work was prophetic.
He describes what he believed was the future of
England in his essay
England, Your England:
:"The intellectuals who hope to see it Russianised or Germanised will be disappointed. The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture. The Stock Exchange will be pulled down, the horse plough will give way to the tractor, the country houses will be turned into children's holiday camps, the Eton and Harrow match will be forgotten, but England will still be England, an everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the same."
This is in stark contrast to O'Brien's forecast:
:"There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face ...for ever."
Appendix on Newspeak
The novel includes an appendix, ''The Principles of Newspeak'' [http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~smf7/175/chapp.html], written in the style of an academic essay. The appendix describes the development of ''Newspeak'', and explains how the language is designed to standardise thought to reflect the ideology of ''Ingsoc''; that is, by making "all other modes of thought impossible".
The fact that the appendix is written in the past tense, as well as other grammatical and non-grammatical features, has led some to argue that it can be seen to be describing Newspeak, and by extension Ingsoc, as a thing of the past, possibly implying a more ambiguous ending for the novel than is commonly thought (Atwood [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,978474,00.html], Benstead [http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-hopebegins.htm]). However, there is no explicit statement in the appendix to suggest that it existed or was written in the world of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', and it could simply be a part of the third person narrative that is deployed throughout the rest of the novel.
Furthermore, it could be argued that Orwell, as an advocate of
plain English, would be unlikely to underpin such a significant plot detail with such a subtle clue.
Cultural impact
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' has had a surprisingly large impact on the English language. Many of its concepts,
Big Brother (1984) Big Brother,
Room 101,
thought police,
doublethink and
Newspeak, have entered common usage in describing totalitarian or overarching behaviour by authority.
Doublespeak or
doubletalk is a subsequent elaboration on the word doublethink that never actually appeared in the novel itself. The adjective "Orwellian" is often used to describe any real world scenario reminiscent of the novel. The practice of suffixing words with "-speak" and "-think" (
groupthink, mediaspeak) arguably originated with the novel.
Controversy
In 1981,
Jackson County, Florida challenged the novel on the grounds that the book was "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter." [http://title.forbiddenlibrary.com/] Supporters of the book have called this accusation preposterous, saying it casts more light on the accusers than the book.
The book's proponents admit that there are some passages relating to sex, and some to torture, but they are by no means extreme for the time, and are quite relevant to the plot. Still, some people have objected to the book for those depictions. It's worth noting that the book never declares explicitely that any sex takes place.
Emmanuel Goldstein, a
Jew, is described as "the Enemy of the People" by the Party, and is the subject of the Two Minutes Hate. As the party is seen throughout the book as evil, making its main opponent Jewish cannot be seen as an antisemitic attitude on the part of Orwell. In fact, the Soviet Union was antisemitic in some ways, and the Goldstein character may reflect this.
Adaptations
Films
'''''Nineteen Eighty-Four''''' has been made into a cinema film twice — in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048918/ 1956] and in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/ 1984]. The film made in 1984 is a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel, and was critically acclaimed. The film's soundtrack was performed by the band
Eurythmics, and a single taken from this, "Sexcrime (1984)", was a hit in several countries. The film is notable for containing
Richard Burton's last performance.
The
Terry Gilliam film ''
Brazil (film) Brazil'' has been interpreted as a 'tribute' to the novel, although Gilliam claims not to have read the book before making his film.
Radio
The first radio broadcast of '''''Nineteen Eighty-Four''''' was a one-hour adaptation transmitted by the
NBC radio network at 9.00 p.m. on
August 27,
1949 as number 55 in the series ''N.B.C. University Theater'', which adapted the world's great novels for broadcast. Another broadcast on the NBC radio network was made by the Theater Guild on Sunday
April 26,
1953 for the ''
United States Steel Hour''.
In the
United Kingdom, the
BBC Home Service produced a 90-minute version with
Patrick Troughton and
Sylvia Syms in the lead roles, first broadcast on
October 11,
1965. In April and May
2005,
BBC Radio 2 broadcast a reading of the novel in eight weekly parts.
Television
'''''
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme) Nineteen Eighty-Four''''' was adapted for television by the
BBC in
1954, and again in
1965.
It was voted No. 7 in the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television special, ''My Favourite Book'', which sought to find Australia's favourite book.
The scene involving Winston in Room 101 from the 1984 movie adaptation of the book was ranked among the 100 scariest moments of TV history, as voted by
Channel 4 viewers.
Opera
Lorin Maazel, better known as a conductor, has composed the opera, ''
1984 (opera) 1984''. The libretto is by Tom Meehan, who worked on
The Producers (musical) The Producers and JD McClatchy, professor of poetry at Yale University. The opera directed by Canadian director
Robert Lepage premiered on
May 3 2005 at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. See
Science-fiction operas.
Related works
Literature
*''
Nineteen Eighty-Five 1985'' by
Anthony Burgess, a sequel-critique of 1984
*''1985'' by
György Dalos, a "sequel" to 1984 beginning at the death of Big Brother
*''
Anthem (novel) Anthem'' by
Ayn Rand
*''Assignment in Utopia'' by
Eugene Lyons
*''
Brave New World'' by
Aldous Huxley
*''
A Clockwork Orange'' by
Anthony Burgess
*''
Darkness at Noon'' by
Arthur Koestler
*''
Fahrenheit 451'' by
Ray Bradbury
*''
Fatherland (novel) Fatherland'' by
Robert Harris
*''
The Handmaid's Tale'' by
Margaret Atwood
*''
The Iron Heel'' by
Jack London, a dystopian novel about a proto-fascist state, cited by Orwell biographers as an influence
*''
Jennifer Government'' by
Max Barry
*''Justice Machine'', a comic book series created by Mike Gustovich and published by several different publishers about a group of superheroes from the world "Georwell". They begin as soldiers for their totalitarian planet until they learn that the government has used them to oppress the people. They then fight for true justice against their version of Big Brother.
*''
Kallocain'' by
Karin Boye
*''
Starship Troopers'' by
Robert A. Heinlein
*
James Burnham, whose book ''
The Managerial Revolution'' was a major influence on the development of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
*''
Player Piano'' by
Kurt Vonnegut
*''
This Perfect Day'' by
Ira Levin
*''
We (novel) We'' by
Yevgeny Zamyatin — another influence on 1984
*''
V for Vendetta''
Television
*"
1984 (television commercial) 1984", an
Apple Macintosh commercial depicting an Orwellian dystopia
*''
Babylon 5'',
J. Michael Straczynski's
space opera science fiction epic which features an intentionally Orwellian Earth government, as well as many
homages to ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
*''
Blake's 7'', also does this as well with themes borrowed from ''
Brave New World''.
*"
Chain of Command (TNG episode) Chain of Command", an episode of ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation'' in which
Jean-Luc Picard is tortured in a fashion similar to that of Winston Smith. Just as Smith is repeatedly shown a hand with four fingers and tortured until he will agree that he actually sees five, Picard is tortured by a
Cardassian sadist and is as much told, as asked to see five lights when there are only four.
*"
Treehouse of Horror V", an episode of ''
The Simpsons'', in one segment,
Homer Simpson Homer builds a time machine, alters the past and creates a dystopic future where
Ned Flanders is the totalitarian lord of the world.
*''
The Prisoner''
*''
Big Brother (TV series) Big Brother'', the world-wide reality television show takes its name from the novel.
*''
Room 101 (TV series) Room 101'', a British television programme which takes its name from the novel.
Recordings
*
David Bowie released the album ''
Diamond Dogs'' (1974) which contains the songs: "Rebel Rebel", "1984," "We Are The Dead," "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)," and "Big Brother" (another song, "Dodo," was left off the album and would not be released officially until 1989). The project was originally conceived as a full length theatrical production but Bowie was denied the rights by George Orwell's widow.
*
Pink Floyd pay a clear homage to George Orwell in their album ''
Animals (album) Animals''. The album cover has an image of
Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of ''1984''. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's ''
Animal Farm''.
*In
John Lennon's 1973 quasi-protest song "Only People", he repeatedly sings the line "We don't want no Big Brother..."
*
Radiohead's album ''
Hail to the Thief'' contains the song "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)", where not only the title refers to Nineteen Eighty-Four but the first lines of the song seem to be referring to the hopelessness of Winston's struggle:
:''"Are you such a dreamer''
:''to put the world to rights?"''
*
Jimi Hendrix's album ''
Electric Ladyland'' includes a song titled "1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" in which the narrator flees a war torn world to live in the ocean with his lover. The lyrics include, "Oh say, can you see it's really such a mess, every inch of Earth is a fighting nest. Giant pencil and lipstick tube shaped things, continue to rain and cause screaming pain, and the arctic stains from silver blue to bloody red as our feet find the sand." The song is rather abstract, but it is difficult not to view the title as a hint at the subject matter.
*
Rick Wakeman, from
Yes (band) Yes released the album ''
1984 (Rick Wakeman album) 1984'' in
1981, to lyrics by
Tim Rice. This is a concept album directly based on the novel.
*
Subhumans released the album ''
The Day The Country Died'' in
1982, which appears to be influenced by ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. One of the songs is called "Big Brother", with lyrics like "There's a TV in my front room and it's screwing up my head", referring to the
telescreen of the novel. Much like the novel, the album is largely
dystopian, with songs like "Dying World" and "All Gone Dead", the latter of which contains lyrics like "It's 1984 and it's gonna be a war". According to
Dick Lucas, the song "Subvert City" is based on the ideas of
George Orwell and
Aldous Huxley
* "Nineteen Eighty Bore" is a song from the anarcho-punk band
Crass, focusing on the alleged mind-numbing affects of television.
* ''
1984 (For The Love of Big Brother)'' is the title of an album by the
Eurythmics which was originally released in November 1984 as a partial soundtrack for the film adaptation. It contains the following tracks:
:(3:28) "I did it just the same"; (3:59) "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)"; (5:05) "For the love of big brother"; (1:22) "Winston's diary"; (6:13) "Greetings from a dead man"; (6:40) "Julia" (4:40) "Doubleplusgood"; (3:48) "Ministry of love"; (3:50) "Room 101".
*
Oingo Boingo released a song called "Wake up (It's 1984)" on their
1983 album ''
Good For Your Soul''. Taking heavily from the movie as well as the book, it serves as commentary to current society.
*
Rage Against the Machine released the album called ''
The Battle of Los Angeles'' in 1999 featuring the track "Testify" containing the phrase "Who Controls the Past Now, Controls the Future, Who controls the Present Now, Controls the Past...", a slogan used by the Party in the ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' novel. Also on the same album, the song "Voice of the Voiceless" contains the lyrics "Orwell's hell a terror era coming through, but this little brother is watching you too".
*
Bad Religion released the album called ''
The Empire Strikes First'' in 2004 featuring the track "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" with the title of the song being a direct reference to the ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' novel. In the novel, O'Brien suggests the image of a boot stamping on a human face forever as a picture of the future. The song seems to be referring to the hopelessness of rebellion against the Party. The lyrics of the title track also states "You don't need to be afraid, you deserve Two Minutes Hate". The lyric book art style is Orwellian themed.
*
Marilyn Manson's album ''
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) Holy Wood'' includes a song called "
Disposable Teens" in which he sings that he's "a rebel from the waist down". This is a direct reference to Orwell's book, when Winston accuses Julia of being "only a rebel from the waist downwards".
*
Incubus's album ''
A Crow Left of the Murder'' includes the song "Talk Show On Mute", about how one day, the television might be watching us instead of us watching them, showing a world where humans are monitored at all times. Among its lyrics is the line
:''"Come one, come all, into 1984" ''
*
Manic Street Preachers released the album ''
The Holy Bible'' in
1994 which contains the song "Faster". At the beginning of the song a voice (John Hurt, sampled from the movie version of 1984) quotes a line from the book, although not word for word: "I hate purity. I hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt."
-
Benzene Jag, an obscure
punk rock punk band formed in
Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada released a 45 rpm single called "Fuck off 1984" in 1983.
*
Anaal Nathrakh's album ''
Domine Non Es Dignus'' includes a song called "Do Not Speak" that opens with a sample of "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face, for ever." Due to Anaal Nathrakh's lyrics being unpublished, the exact influence of ''1984'' is unknown. However the words "pain, frustration, faded memories" are intelligible, and ''1984'' certainly fits with the apocalyptic, despairing, anti human themes of the band.
* In the song "George Orwell Must Be Laughing His Ass Off" by
Mea Culpa, the second verse begins with "If 2 plus 2 don't equal 5 I guess I'm just no fun".
* Singer/songwriter
Jonatha Brooke published a song called "When Two and Two are Five" with
Jennifer Kimball (as
The Story).
* The
Pet Shop Boys have a song called "One and One Make Five" on their 1993 album ''
Very (album) Very''.
* The song "The Panama Deception" by
Anti-Flag begins with the text "Their two plus two does not equal four. Their two plus two equals whatever they want us to die for".
*
Open Hand released a song called "Newspeak" on their
2005 album ''You and Me''. The song title and lyrics deal heavily with the ideas of newspeak and being thought controlled.
* The
Rare Earth (band) Rare Earth hit single "Hey Big Brother", released in
1971, sings of the future arrival of Big Brother, first addressing this future Big Brother directly and then finishing by expressing a rebellious defiance against his arrival.
*
The Dead Kennedys'
1979 single "
California Ãœber Alles" contains the lyrics "Big Bro on white horse is near", and also "Now it is 1984 / Knock knock at your front door / It's the suede-denim secret police / They've come for your uncool niece" in reference to the thought police of the novel.
* The album ''
Vistoron'', released in
2004 by Japanese
electronic musician Susumu Hirasawa under the name
KAKU P-MODEL, contains a track titled "Big Brother". Hirasawa has [http://www.teslakite.com/freemp3s/e/ offered Big Brother as a free download] in
MP3 file format.
*
Van Halen released the album "
1984 (Van Halen album) ''1984''" that year.
* New Zealand band
Shihad start off their debut album
Churn (album) Churn with the quote "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever" on the song "Factory".
* Rock singer
Darais Kemp released two songs on his album
Sweet Sweet ("Room 101" and "Two Minutes Hate") that explicitly alluded to the novel.
*
Sage Francis references "Big Brotherly love" and declares "don't forget what two plus two equals" in the political song "Hey Bobby".
*
Anti-Flag released a song called "1984".
* German band
:de:BAP referred to George Orwell and 1984 in their live recording of the song "Ne schöne Jrooß" on their 1983 live album "Bess demnähx": "Leven Orwell, vierunachzig ess noh, ess mittlerweile nur noch een läppsch Johr" (Cologne dialect for: "Dear Orwell, '84 is near, meanwhile it's only one more shabby year to go"). In concerts after 1984, they replaced the second verse with: "Ess mittlerweile leider vill ze vill wohr" ("Unfortunately, much too much has meanwhile beome reality").
*
Five for Fighting has a song called 2+2 makes five on the bonus CD to his album
The Battle for Everything.
* British Oi! band
Combat 84 chose their name based on 1984.
* The song '1977' by British punk band,
the Clash, includes imagery of civil disorder on the streets of
London, similar to that described in
Orwell's explanation of the Party's rise to power, and a coda that consists of a lyrical count-up from the year 1977 that ends on 1984.
* The song 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' by British band, the
Arctic Monkeys, includes the lyrics "Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984. From 1984!"
* The second album,
What Will the Neighbours Say? by British band
Girls Aloud contained the track
Big Brother which features the line "Big Brother's watching me and I don't really mind".
Film
* ''
Brazil (film) Brazil'' is a dystopic black comedy feature film directed by Monty Python member Terry Gilliam.
* ''
Equilibrium (2002 film) Equilibrium'' starring Christian Bale resembles ''Nineteen Eighty Four''. The movie tells the story of "Libria" after being ravaged by the Third World War and therefore suppresses all human feelings in order to stop the outbreak of war again. Cleric Preston (Bale) is the leader of a police force who draw comparison to the Thought Police from the book. Also, all people in the movie are forced to take vials of a liquid drug known as Prozium — called intervals — to stop themselves from succumbing to thoughts. Libria is also controlled by the "Father", another comparison to "Big Brother" from the novel which can be drawn here.
* ''
Me and the Big Guy'' is a comedic short-film that satires the relationship betwixt
Winston Smith Winston and
Big Brother (1984) Big Brother by portraying its main character, Citizen 43275-B, entirely grateful of the Revolution and treating his telescreen as if it were his own
imaginary friend best friend.
*''
V for Vendetta '' takes place in a dystopian future not unlike the world imagined in
1984. The use of government spying, state censored media, and a police state designed for everyone's "protection" are common to both films. In contrast to his role of Winston in the film adaptation of 1984, John Hurt plays the Big Brother-like character of Sutler.
*''
The Matrix'' has Mr Anderson living in the apartment room 101.
See also
*
Asch conformity experiments
*
Censorship under fascist regimes
*
Dystopia
*
Imaginary antecedent
*
Language and thought
*
Mass surveillance
*
Memory hole
Big Brother Awards
Each year, the national members and affiliated organizations of
Privacy International present the "Big Brother" awards to the government and private sector organisations which have done the most to threaten personal privacy in their countries. Since 1998, over forty ceremonies have been held in sixteen countries and have given out hundreds of awards to some of the most powerful government agencies, individuals and corporations in those countries.
Bibliography
* Orwell, George. (1949). ''Nineteen-Eighty-Four''. London: Secker & Warburg. (later edn. ISBN 0451524934)
* Aubrey, Crispin & Chilton, Paul (Eds). (1983). ''Nineteen-Eighty-Four in 1984: Autonomy, Control & Communication''. London: Comedia. ISBN 0-906890-42X.
* Hillegas, Mark R. (1967). ''The Future As Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians''. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-809-30676-X
* Howe, Irving (Ed.). (1983). ''1984 Revisited: Totalitarianism In Our Century''. New York: Harper Row. ISBN 0-060-80660-5.
* Shelden, Michael. (1991). ''Orwell — The Authorised Biography''. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-695173
* Smith, David & Mosher, Michael. (1984). ''Orwell for Beginners''. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. ISBN 0-86316-066-2
* Tuccille, Jerome. (1975). ''Who's Afraid of 1984? The case for optimism in looking ahead to the 1980s''. New York: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-308-9.
* West, W. J. ''The Larger Evils – Nineteen Eighty-Four, the truth behind the satire''. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. 1992. ISBN 0-86241-382-6
External links
'''ELECTRONIC EDITIONS WARNING:''' Nineteen Eighty-Four will NOT enter the
public domain in the
United States of America until
2044 and in the
European Union until
2020, although it is public domain in countries such as
Canada,
Russia, and
Australia. (A list of free downloads appears under the external links section below.)
''The following free online or downloadable editions of '''Nineteen Eighty-Four''' are available:''
-
(English)
-
(French translation)
-
(Russian translation)
-
(Estonian translation)
-
(Searchable etext)
-
(Searchable online edition)
-
(With publication data)
-
(Project Gutenburg Australia e-text)
''Other links:''
* '''[http://www.studentsfororwell.org/ Students for an Orwellian Society (SOS)]'''
-
George Orwell Web Ring
-
Orwelltoday.com — Comparing the world George Orwell described in "1984" with the world we are living in today
*
Sinfest has several strips which are allusions to ''1984''; for instance, [http://sinfest.net/d/20041006.html]
-
An article on ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
-
Big Brother Awards
-
Privacy International
-
The 1984 Index, which tracks the degree to which present conditions mirror those of the novel
-
Flag-Burning: a Detriment to the Oceanian Way, a satire by Alexander S. Peak
* Prof. David Womersley [http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000331.php Reading 1984 in 2005: Does it still have much to say to us?] Social Affairs Unit Web Review
References
-
"Orwell and me" by Margaret Atwood, The Guardian, June 16, 2003, retrieved November 20, 2005
-
"Hope Begins in the Dark: Re-reading ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''" by James Benstead, retrieved November 20, 2005
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