1984 By George Orwell

Book 1 of 100: Check


WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH


I started with this book for a few reasons: first, my boyfriend had just finished reading it. Second, it was on my list. Yeah that is about it.


It took me about a week to get though the first 20 pages of this book. I would literally fall asleep somewhere between page 7 and 15. I didn't feel as though it was poorly written, but the book is definitely not my typical fiction novel. As a fan of Harry Potter and Twilight one could imagine a book about a cruel utopia, to be something rather different than my norm. But once I got through those first 20 pages. I was in. The use of language made the book is very vivid. He paints a picture of this disgusting world so well, you begin to look over your shoulder.


Here is my favorite example of this: after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces -- at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally. (chills)


The believable culture that George Orwell created felt vaguely familiar. In a world where we are watched, with our GPS enabled cell phones and traceable emails, I began to relate to the frustrations the main character, Winston, would experience. Winston, felt real. I worried for him. My heart would race at the thought of him being noticed as an outsider, or the thought of him being caught falling in love with a woman, a relationship that wasn't approved by the party. His false sense of security was astounding. For the first 1/4 of the book, he was overly careful; constantly watching his back and making sure he wasn't making any mistakes. And when you least expect it, a person he thought he could trust, turned out to be exactly what he feared. His guard was down--he made a mistake.


The Ministry of Love sequence left me on edge. I was (shit...am)so afraid of the mind fuck they were subjecting him to. Ripping him apart and reshaping him as a minion was mind boggling. The thought of a government reshaping the past in order to have control of the future was intense.


"He who controls the past, controls the future; and he who controls the present, controls the past."


I have to say that this book was amazing. A great lead into my exciting task of tackling some of the best literature ever written. If you haven't read this book. Do. Because. Big Brother is Watching. Indeed.