/lit/ - Literature

So when does the funny ironic racism happen? My understanding was that this book was about Winston being banned from a website for hate speech, but it seems to be taking a while to get to that. Like, they haven't even mentioned the internet yet. Is there a part I missed or something?

Big Brother did nothing wrong

How come in 1984, Orwell always portrays follows of the party as looking physically weird and fat? Look at this description while Winston is in the cafeteria

Nearly everyone was ugly, and would still have been ugly even if dressed otherwise than in the uniform blue overalls. On the far side of the room, sitting at a table alone, a small, curiously beetle-like man was drinking a cup of coffee, his little eyes darting suspicious glances from side to side. How easy it was, thought Winston, if you did not look about you, to believe that the physical type set up by the Party as an ideal — tall muscular youths and deep-bosomed maidens, blond-haired, vital, sunburnt, carefree — existed and even predominated. Actually, so far as he could judge, the majority of people in Airstrip One were small, dark, and ill-favoured. It was curious how that beetle-like type proliferated in the Ministries: little dumpy men, growing stout very early in life, with short legs, swift scuttling movements, and fat inscrutable faces with very small eyes. It was the type that seemed to flourish best under the dominion of the Party.

And look at these descriptions of Winston after he gets tortured

>As the gin rose in him he belched through purple lips. He had grown fatter since they released him, and had regained his old colour — indeed, more than regained it. His features had thickened, the skin on nose and cheekbones was coarsely red, even the bald scalp was too deep a pink.

And of Julia:

>Her face was sallower, and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple; but that was not the change. It was that her waist had grown thicker, and, in a surprising way, had stiffened
>Her feet seemed to have grown broader, he noticed.

Why does Orwell connect party loyalty with physical ugliness? What exactly is he going for? It's never really explained so I don't understand the meaning behind it, but I feel like it has to mean something

>whole story is based on middle class perspective that is a tiny minority so the whole critique loses all meaning
>still held in high regard

why does /lit hate this again?

>keep expecting and wanting miracle to happen
>it never does
this book hurts

WOAH

WE ARE TRULY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY FUCKED MY DUDE

>the thing that winston cannot stand the most, that makes him abandon all he believes in, is rats

This was a major flaw. This scene does not have the dramatic urgency required to make it believable. Rats?

ITT post books that aren't supposed to be instruction manuals

ITT: Works that despite being valuable and interesting have been misunderstood by the masses.

>>9485135
Funny, but I wanted to read the book since I was fourteen, and only did it at twenty, and by that point I already knew everything the book could have taught me, it only helped me organise that knowledge — exactly the sentiment expressed in the novel about which books are the best.

When will people stop referencing this stale meme?

Hey /lit/, I have a question.

What impact did 1984 exactly have at the time of its publication, if any?

>Anything related to 1984
>Some fucker who thinks they're funny says "IT'S NOT AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL XDD"

Hey /lit/

I havent read much since highschool, im in college now but none of my courses thus far have required any serious reading. Im getting back into reading casually for numerous reasons, and im starting with 1984. I know its probably been discussed to death here but I havent spent much time on this board. Im curious, what am I in for?

>read pic related
>it's actually really good
Why was I led to believe otherwise

Call me edgy, but I have some legitimate questions about this book.

In it, we know the Party is the rules all of Oceania, and has Big Brother as its head. But since Big Brother is a figure created to represent and/or embody the Party as a whole, the ruling class isn't identified.

The main antagonist says, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever." But who is stomping whom? The main antagonist also says, "The weariness of the cell is the vigor of the organism," but how strong can the organism be if it tasks itself to make every cell weak?

Who is the ruling class of the Party if everyone suffers in it, including the elites, the Inner Party? Under whom is everyone suffering?

Not kidding.I read it when I was 12 and thought the sex scene was hot.

Classics you've never read.

I'll get around to it some day.

All memes aside, what does /lit. actually think of 1984?

What are some good dystopian books /lit/?

Is this the most entry level book of all time?

>>8422816
Unsurpassed tbqfh