Review: 1984 by George Orwell

4/5 stars

“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.”

It's 2019, and that quote is more true than it's ever been. It's truly terrifying to read a book in which some things are so real, that for a moment you don't know which reality is yours. Sure, our food isn't rationed and we have enough razors for shaving, but the collective mindset is very much the same. 

If only Orwell knew how prophetic his book turned out to be. He meant it as a warning, but it tuned out to be more of a manual. The idea of Newspeak is especially funny to me, because although it isn't called that - English language nowadays is definitely at a stage that is more slang than an actual language. and it's only getting worse with years. I mean if we already add words such as "selfie" "derp" and most embarrassingly "twerk" into the Oxford dictionary, what is next? No, no, don't tell me, it's too horrible even to imagine. 

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“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

With the social media being the monster it currently is, we long forgotten any right or even need for privacy. People catalog everything about themselves on the web - engagements, weddings, births, divorces. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred anymore. And the worst part? We enjoy doing it. We enjoy sharing. We tell ourselves we share, so our relatives in other states, or countries, can see it, but in reality we all pine for likes. For some stranger to adore our lives, to think that we have it so good. 

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

​I never had to read 1984 in high school, I didn't grow up in the United States, but I know many of you did. I am surprised that this book was only only allowed, but required for reading. This book is a mirror for many current political and economical tactics and machinations. But maybe we are too comfortable to listen. Maybe the horrible things that happened to Winston are too bizarre for our pampered and spoiled minds? 

If not for the many info-dumps, this book unfortunately (writing wise) subjects the reader to, I'd have given it 5 stars. 1984 is brilliant. Scary so. It also doesn't read like a classic. For being written in 1949, it's very modern (albeit boring at times) in its language and execution of ideas on paper. 

Having never read this book before, I didn't know what to expect from the plot, but there was no happy ending. And if we aren't careful, we might end up just like Winston, drinking bad alcohol, starting mutely at a tv screen and believing everything the "big brother" tells us. 

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”