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/lit/ - Literature

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12663092 No.12663092 [Reply] [Original]

Was Orwell an actual PLEB? After finally reading 1984 after years of putting it off, I can only say I'm disappointed. Winston is bland as fuck. The setting is forced as fuck. Everything is cringy. What's the deal with this book? Why is it so well renowned?

>> No.12663122

>>12663092
because you use it to slander your enemies

>> No.12663171

>>12663092
Maybe you're a pleb

>> No.12663194

>>12663092
>Everything is cringy
Nice analysis, cringy brainlet

>> No.12663221

>>12663092
The most profound part of the book is when Winston is talking to the old man in the pub. Winston says "were things better back then or worse", meaning back before the totalitarian government came to power, and the old man misinterprets his question to mean "is it better to be a young man or an old man". It was incredibly frustrating to me to read the old man continue to incorrectly answer the question, even after Winston clarifies.

>> No.12663280

>>12663092
>Winston is bland as fuck
Thats the point, he was bland because he was raised in a total controlled environment.
>The setting is forced as fuck.
What setting? if anything the point is that whatever you try to do, at the end you cant escape the system, because you became the system.

>> No.12663386

>>12663092
He was a mediocre novelist but a great essayist. 1984 is great at capturing the anxieties and potentialities of the era even if he was pretty much entirely wrong; still a good rumination on the depths of the human psyche and what it is capable of.

>> No.12663403

Huxley is a lot better

>> No.12663412

>>12663403
nah. Wanting Seed is better than both and TCoL49 is more or less the apex of this particular sub genre

>> No.12663420

It was really just another reason to talk about Brave New World when it came out

Speaking of which, you have to read Brave New World. Makes every other dystopian future novel seem shitty

>> No.12663429

>>12663420
BNW's kinda shitty though

>> No.12663437

>>12663092
t. brainlet

if you're serious, read Politics and the English Language as a primer. 1984 is more than just a sheer display of totalitarian brutality. it's about the psychological and linguistic tools of a totalitarian state.

>> No.12663445

>>12663403
I preferred 1984 over it because I didn't like how BNW doubled down on its worldbuilding and used the characters just to show the world off even more (I can't remember a single character now so I don't think I ever cared for them). Whereas 1984 felt a lot more first person rather than birds eye view (which isn't a bad view it's just that it feels a bit lecture-like).

>> No.12663447

also, you have to be a real brainlet to try to compare BNW and 1984 with each other on anything besides literary merit. they both have their own niche and powerful political messages to convey.

>> No.12663546

>>12663420
I've done. It's so much better than 1984.

>> No.12663551

(((Emmanuel Goldstein)))

>> No.12663563

>>12663445
1984 didn't even have drug-induced brainwashing

What the fuck kind of dystopian society doesn't put their slaves into permanent comas?

>> No.12663714
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12663714

>>12663092

>> No.12663816

Here's where you're wrong, kid, 1984 is based as fuck.

>> No.12664169

>>12663437
Yes this is what I thought was truly terrifying and impactful about the story. How the people were happy to be simplifying and even eventually eliminating words and speech. It shows how the gov wanted to turn them into basically cattle.

>>12663445
This too, I felt like I was the one being taken through his journey. I felt so much suspense too. The way Winston thought and responded to O'Brian during his "cleanse" felt real as if I were thinking and responding it, as if I were the one being put through the torture. 1984 actually really resonated with me.

>> No.12664186

Those long sections from "the book" are excruciatingly boring and unnecessary. Orwell acts like a claptrap journalist, nothing else.

>> No.12664188

1984 is just anti-totalitarian propaganda (in the traditional, neutral sense of the world). Effective and well argued, like a good essay, but artistically barren. It's not a great book by any means.

>> No.12664592

>>12664186
wrong

>> No.12664621

>>12664592
Why?

>> No.12665161

>>12663092
I don't object to your not liking "1984," but you haven't done a very good job explaining why you didn't like it.

>> No.12665206

>>12663221
The rare actual /lit/ post, thanks anon.

>> No.12665231

>>12663092
Has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps it’s you that doesn’t get it? Many people who are much more intelligent and cultured than you have seen the value in Orwell’s writings. They may not think he is Shakespeare but they appreciate him.

Learn some humility.

>> No.12665238

>>12663403
"Orgy porgy orgy porgy". Really? Come on.

>> No.12665243

>>12663563
They do the plebs have their pints in the pubs iirc and are bretty content

>> No.12665269

>>12665231
This

>> No.12665416

>>12665231
There isn't a single opinion that can't be shat on in this way, because there will almost always be a person who is smarter than you who disagrees with you.

>> No.12666540

>>12665243
It's gin

>> No.12666556

By the way, was Winston wrong to believe in the proles? He thought of them as being 'alive' whilst himself was 'dead'.

>> No.12666571

>>12663092
>everything is cringy. book bad

Explain your thoughts if you wish to be taken seriously. Cite examples and preferably use quotes. To answer your questions, 1984 is regarded so well because it posited the idea of contemporary dystopian societies and brought that concept into the public debate/consciousness.

>> No.12666576

>>12666571
But he simply ripped off 'We'. The main problem with Orwell is that his fame stems from the fact he was Anglo. That's it. He's not original nor a good writer, his plot is contrived, he inserts long passages of political pontification. I don't know, it's just not a good book desu

>> No.12666578

>>12663092
it is the harry potter of "actual literature". English speaking cunts like this shit because they read it in high school

>> No.12666626

https://www.scribd.com/doc/100899/Pynchon-s-Intro-to-Orwell-s-1984