/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1483045]

Ive just finished 1984 after 2 days of reading. I really, really liked it.
All through the book i was holding on to hope, even though it tells you how it will all end at numerous points throughout the story. As i was nearing the end i kept grasping at straws trying to find some way out of what was happening, trying to delude myself that it will all be okay. When i read the last line i almost cried.
After everything, The Party won. The Party always wins.
I've been putting off reading my next book just t let it sink in a bit.

[Anonymous No.1483054]

>your face when Winston gets shot in the back of the head

[Anonymous No.1483073]

You realize that there were, on Earth, massive societies founded upon profound efforts to dehumanize their enemies and humanity in general?

The society in 1984 is more extreme than Hitler's regime or Stalin's regime ever was. But the latter are more horrifying because actually existing.

[Anonymous No.1483081]

I liked it because for once the good guy didn't win just because he happened to be the good guy. I mean, the bad guys are well organised and well prepared, yet why is it when one guy sees the light, he manages to defeat them. (Yeah, I root for the Sith in Star Wars.)

That always annoys me.

[Anonymous No.1483088]

>>1483081

[Anonymous No.1483090]

>>1483054
>>1483054

I'm still stuck between the belief that he was actually shot, or that the bullet was metaphorical.

[Anonymous No.1483096]

>>1483081
Because actually having the balls to write a story that will make people unhappy is.. Relatively rare, and more importantly, having an editor with the balls to let you publish such a story is even more-so.

But yeah, the sith should win. Explain to me why the death star's massive defenses and personnel couldn't blow up all thirty rebel fighters.

[Anonymous No.1483106]

>>1483081

[Anonymous No.1483114]

>>1483090

The Party always killed those they reformed while they still loved Big Brother.

[Anonymous No.1483117]

I didnt really get any of Goldsteins book, though. I'll have to re read it with a dictionary at hand.

>>1483090
I think he was shot. [spoilers]O'Brien[/spoilers] tells him throughout that he will be once he has excepted Big Brother.

[Anonymous No.1483121]

>>1483114
True. Plus the armed guard standing behind him kind of makes it obvious.

[Anonymous No.1483125]

>>1483117
lol, you pluralized spoiler

[sage No.1483124]

>>1483096
plot

[Anonymous No.1483134]

I would have wanted to know what happened to Julia in room 101. Does that make me sick or just too curious?

[Anonymous No.1483140]

Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's...

[Anonymous No.1483145]

>>1483134
And speaking of room 101, I identified with Winston far too well in his scene (perhaps because I've had things I fear brought close to my face as a child)... I physically trembled when reading the scene... Brrh!

Also, the song "Underneath the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me" is based on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_vsNzXLi1M

[Anonymous No.1483153]

>>1483145
Sudden cold shivers at the realisation of "I sold you and you sold me". It went right over my head.

>>1483140
Whats the significance of this poem in the book?

[Anonymous No.1483178]

>>1483134

What do you think happened? They threatened to take away her ability to orgasm

[Anonymous No.1483192]

>>1483178
what the fuck .It fits yeah but.. what. How do you come by that?

[Anonymous No.1483194]

>>1483178
Heh, though you probably meant this as a joke, seeing how sexually active she was and how important it was to her, something that would have hurt her body, sexuality and womanhood (like mutilation) would indeed make sense...

[Anonymous No.1483198]

>>1483192

see

>>1483194

No joke, that's how I came to that conclusion. What else could they do to her?

[Anonymous No.1483199]

>>1483198
[spolier]raping her over and over again until she couldn't feel anything?[/spoiler]

[Anonymous No.1483203]

>>1483199

I think she'd probably like that, tbh.

She's the kind of girl that if she were alive right now no one but drunken frat boys would touch.

[Anonymous No.1483211]

>>1483203
I doubt that. I have the feeling she just wanted to have sex and enjoy it like normal people do, but because she hated the party she used her promiscuity as a way to silently protest against it; on top of the sexual satisfaction there was the satisfaction of betraying the party. In our world where she could freely satisfy her needs she wouldn't have the extra motive of rebellion and could even be less frivolous than she was in Oceania as a result.

[Anonymous No.1483213]

>>1483211

You could be right, but the way I see it is that you have to be a pretty big nympho to have sex even on risk of death.

[Anonymous No.1483231]

>>1483213
Well, as for that, I have a few points:
1) since the risk of death was pretty much a possibility in any sort of rebellion (buying a book, taking a walk, having sex), if one must rebel, why not rebel sexually as well? It may not be a sign of nymphomania in particular, but of her attitude of having to rebel in general.
2) Her motivations for sex may be more complex than just the physical need of it; the concept of love is pretty much dead in Oceania (that's one of the reasons why "loved" became "sold" in The Chestnut Tree, after all), so she may actually be longing for intimacy, romance and whatever as well.
3) Nymphomania doesn't neccessarily make someone as bad as you initially stated. A nymphomaniac fulfilling their needs in a committed relationship can be a completely respectable person in spite of their excess libido.

Anyway, I suppose she could be either way, but I personally see her as a rebel expressing herself through sexuality rather than a complete slut.

[Anonymous No.1483237]

>>1483231

Perhaps you're right, but that's one of the joys of literature -- no two people will have exactly the same view, and both views are equally valid.

[Anonymous No.1483238]

>>1483081
>>1483090

The thing about Sith...check topic #1.

http://www.cracked.com/article/167_5-reasons-star-wars-sequels-would-be-worse-than-prequels_p2

[Anonymous No.1483319]

I started 1984 3 days ago and I barely managed to drudge through the first 80~ pages, which was just one long essay on how the government is bad and how nobody can stop it. I'm at about page 120 right now and it's starting to pick up. Am I missing out on something or is this just not my cup of tea?

[Anonymous No.1483384]

>>1483319
You're probably a faggot.

[Anonymous No.1483394]

I thought it ended perfectly, although I don't really think there was even a choice in the ending, because that was pretty much the entire message of the book.
Although I did start to get a little annoyed about exactly how fucked over the main characters kept getting.
I haven't read it in years, as soon as I get a chance I think I'm going to read it again.

[Anonymous No.1483429]

>>1483134
She was a party agent all along, used to test people and make them reveal themselves to not love the Party. Nothing happened to her in Room 101.

[Anonymous No.1483436]

>>1483429
I haven't read the book in a while so I might be completely wrong but I though they meet again at the end and they both know that they sold each other out and can't stand the shame of it (hence the meaning of him tearing up when hearing that song at the end. Also didn't they explain that they were caught because there was a hidden camera thingy in the room that they were hooking up in?

[Anonymous No.1483442]

>>1483436
So trusting. So naive.

[Anonymous No.1483454]

>>1483442
but then what was the point of even putting in the hidden camera part? Or the other actually revealed spy of the resistance leader/interrogator (I only vaugely know if I'm getting this right, I read the book like 5 years ago) It seems like a more devastating victory for the government if they really were in love, were easily discovered, and were fairly quickly made to sell each other out "I sold you and you sold me"

[Anonymous No.1483462]

Winston was the agent all along.
Think about it.

[Anonymous No.1483469]

>>1483462

And then John was the demons.

[Anonymous No.1483474]

What about the Mongolian faced man?

[Anonymous No.1483544]

>>1483474
Im not sure if it was any real significance. If that is, youre talking about the prisoner that winston sees in one of the truck convos.

[Anonymous No.1483571]

This is the greatest novel of the 20th century and if you don't agree, you don't know shit about fuck.

[Anonymous No.1483889]

>>1483571
This is not the greatest novel of the 20th century and if you don't agree, you don't know shit about fuck.