Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to similar audio books?
Excellent
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Excellent
Advantages:
A crystal clear message and warning . Plus, a great story in itself !
Disadvantages:
Can be very heavy - going and depressing
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
PLOT SYNOPSIS AND BACKGROUND ----------------------------------------------------- The action opens in the grim dwelling of Winston Smith, the book's central protagonist. Everything in the world of "1984" is seen through his eyes. The reader is left in no doubt, right from the beginning, that Smith's life is grey, shabby and depressing.
Yet that's not all. Not even one page in, and we're told that "Big Brother is Watching You". Sombre, terrifying posters of the Head of State abound everywhere. You quickly realise that Big Brother is an omnipotent dictator, and the head of the only political Party allowed to exist. The unnerving extent of his control is unveiled further and further as the book goes on.
Helicopters pass by the windows of Party members, having a routine snoop, and Winston appears to accept it in a matter of fact way. The telescreen - present in the house of every Party member - is blaring militaristic propaganda, but at the same time, it is wired directly to the State as a two-way monitor. Through the telescreen, your every move, word and facial expression can be monitored. Sex is purely for pro-creation, and strictly controlled. Every activity, large and small, is to be viewed as duty to the Party. "All competing pleasures we will destroy; there is no loyalty except loyalty to the Party, no love except the love of Big Brother." Complete and perfect political conformity and orthodoxy is expected and demanded, and even the tiniest sign of rebellion, free thinking or individuality is seen an abhorrence: "thoughtcrime".
If detected by the shadowy Thought Police (and no-one knows who may be an agent) thoughtcrime carries a terrible punishment: not just death, but monstrous brainwashing and torture is the fate of all dissidents.
In fact, the whole of society is governed by four ministries, all with paradoxical names: the Ministry of Truth is responsible for the propaganda lies of the Party; the Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war; the Ministry of Plenty keeps the vast majority of the population in squalor and poverty; and, most terrifying of all, the windowless Ministry of Love houses the unimaginable unseen dungeons where rebels are taken to be "corrected".
The three superpowers that rule the world, Eastasia, Eurasia and Oceania, are basically indistinguishable from each other, and constantly in a state of war. London, the focus of the action, is known as "Airstrip One".
Winston's job, a gruelling sixty-hour week, is in The Ministry of Truth. Alongside many others, his job is to re-write history. The facts must be made to conform to Big Brother's worldview - all other versions of reality are invalid and corrupted. You must believe what Big Brother tells you - whatever it is. He may change his mind, in which case you are expected to deny the very evidence of your senses. If he asserts that 2 + 2 = 5, you must accept that also. In fact, you must not only accept it, but come to believe it in the very core of your being. If history is re-written in front of your very eyes, you must then use "doublethink" and refuse to believe what your eyes tell you. There is no common sense, only the eternal truth of Big Brother.
Language has been progressively curtailed and restricted. Year by year, words are removed from dictionaries, and the individual is taught to use "Newspeak": a form of language which uses simple terms, and restricts the range of consciousness. Verbally and, slowly, mentally you will only be able to express what Big Brother deems appropriate.
Keep your face straight! Don't move! Don't think! Always wear a mask of complete obedience and never dare to show even a flicker of anger or resentment towards your worshipful infallible master, Big Brother.
Every morning, an officious instructress appears on the telescreen. "Up! Time for your exercise!" And you had better perform to satisfaction. The woman barks at Winston, "You can do better than that! Keep up with me, comrade! Harder! Faster!"
Winston, worn down by the cruelty of the terrible regime, is in poor health, in a state of complete despair and misery. Yet you can sense his growing anger. As the instructress finishes barking orders, he moves away from the telescreen (which can never be turned off) and into a tiny nook. From a secret cupboard, he removes a diary. Heresy of heresies, crime of crime, horror of horrors! He is keeping a diary; he dares to suggest that his version of reality counts, that he has something of his own to say, that he is an individual with an independent existence. Oh, but it's perilous. To be caught with this diary would render him a candidate for "correction" at the Ministry of Love. Even, possibly, an appointment in Room 101 - the ultimate emotional and intellectual conditioning centre, and the worst thing in the world.
It is impossible to communicate with those around you. Telescreens, microphones, spy helicopters and agents of The Thought Police are everywhere. Family members are indoctrinated to keep a watchful eye on each other and report even the tiniest sign of political deviance or rebellion. You cannot even trust your own children, who are all obligatory members of the Junior Spies.
Very, very slowly Winston comes to realise that there may be the tiniest, tiniest ray of hope. Someone he has seen in the "Two Minutes Hate" (wherein everyone is forced to demonstrate their deep hatred towards all subversives and enemies of the Party.) There's someone there who might just feel as he does. Can he make contact? Could he find someone to share his fears and hopes with, could there be a possibility that the legendary "Brotherhood" (enemies of the State) actually exists? Is there even a chance that he could find love for another?
As the story continues, the impossible paradox of the three Party tenets unfolds:
WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
The reader experiences for him/herself that these statements are not as impossible as they seem.
There I must stop! I mustn't say more, as to do so would spoil it.
MY OPINION. ---------------------
The impact of this book is just - immediate. It terrifies from the outset, with its horrific images of totalitarianism.
The very appeal of the book stems from the fact that it so perfectly describes everything I detest: being controlled, curtailed, watched, forced to conform.
Quite apart from any political message contained therein, "1984" as a story, in itself, has pace, tension and horror. It has a huge emotional appeal with its slowly revealed secrets and sense of mystery around every corner. What is contained in the dungeons of The Ministry of Love? Who is Big Brother and is he, in fact, real at all? Will Winston end up experiencing the sci-fi terror of Room 101? Will freedom win through in the end? Or will the Party bring its hideous bootprint down on the face of humanity forever?
The characters here are vivid, full of life. The warmth of humanity shines through even the harshest of conditions. You can identify with Winston as his passion and anger ignites.
The use of language is a powerful mind-shaping influence. Through language, we indeed shape our mental life, and Orwell knew this. "Newspeak" is truly nightmarish in that its aim is to completely eradicate the whole mental concept, let alone the possibility, of freedom.
It's tempting to think, at times, that Orwell has overstated his case, and that no society could exist in such a state of terror and oppression. It's also hard to think that any regime, no matter how strong or overbearing, could last forever. The author, in his genius, counters all such arguments very persuasively. "Life will defeat you!" yells Winston. "We control life on every level", affirms the Party.
One thing I still find slightly less than satisfying: the existence of the "proles" (working class) who are not subject to the same rigorous level of control as Party members. The Thought Police send their agents to infiltrate the "prole" areas, but not to the same extent as happens with Party members like Winston. In Orwell's sociology it was only the middle classes that could potentially have become dangerous, and therefore needed to be controlled more closely. Still, I do think the dystopia would have been somehow even more complete if all people had been controlled to the same frightening extent, and there was no possibility of any degree of freedom for anyone!
There's a sense in which I'm actually very glad to put the book down and think to myself, "This is just a story". The sun is shining through my window; I can get up now and go and do what I want. I can hold the opinions I wish, talk to whom I want, dance to my CDs, and walk out into the fresh air. "1984" is just fiction! Well, it is! For now.
Well, what about the relevance of the book today?
It is making a profound philosophical statement that cannot be ignored: the most important statement, to my mind, is the crucial message about freedom. It enables you to look harder at life around you, at our changing society. More and more, I see signs of State control around us. Security cameras proliferate, global tracking systems to watch where we're going in our cars, DNA profiling... These things are real. I wonder what Orwell and his imagination would have made of events in the world today.
For some years, the general trend has been towards greater and greater public surveillance. I can't remember the exact figures, but someone quoted to me the amount of times that you could expect to appear on a security camera, if you simply walked, say, through a town centre. Again, what would Orwell have thought about that?
On the TV, there are adverts telling the benefit cheats, car-tax dodgers etc, that the government is "on to them" and that all their details appear on a database, from whence they can be discovered and held to account. I don't approve of criminal activity, of course, and I can see that there are sometimes valid reasons for holding data, and that in some cases, the law is being upheld. Yet, I'm finding it thought-provoking too...
Many people say that it is only criminals that have anything to fear - so long as you obey the law, there is no reason your privacy should ever be compromised by the state or anyone else. This isn't really an answer though. In some societies, you are breaking the law if you even speak against the state, or hold subversive values. Imagine technology like that described above in the hands of a dictator. Government ideologies and values change, sometimes quickly, and cameras, databases and other measures can be slowly re-employed, very effectively, to control (rather than protect) individuals. Orwell knew this, well ahead of his time, and was probably accused of being an extremist, or just paranoid. Conversely, I think it was part of his genius. Indeed, his tormenting vision may have been part of the reason for his declining health.
When freedom and privacy is slowly eroded, people often say, "Oh well, I've got nothing to worry about because I'm not a criminal." That seems to be a very common response. But I also think it's a very short-sighted and unimaginative attitude, focusing on today's values, today's ideals. An increase in surveillance technology works well to catch a criminal today (the shoplifter, benefit fraudster, music pirate etc etc), but what guarantee is there that the freedom in society generally will not eventually become severely compromised?
The message of "1984" has never been more relevant than it is today.
One further note: having seen Michael Radford's film version, I thought it was admirably done but it didn't, for me, capture the full horror and subtlety of the book. This is something that I think just needs to be read in order to absorb the fullness of its message.
ISBN 0-14-027877-X
I got my copy of "1984" from Ebay, second-hand. Bargain!
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