Review: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Started reading: June 16h 2021

Finished the book: July 9th 2021

Pages: 298 / 12:17:45

Genres: Classics, Science Fiction, Literature

Published: June 8th 1949

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 4.19

My score:

Synopsis

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia"—a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.

My thoughts

I'm aware that this has been and still is a very important book. It's on my list of 100-to-read-classics so I decided to listen to the audiobook.  I think that it's been brilliantly written and is still to this day true in many ways and forms. I've even played the Orwell games, obviously named after this book. I am beginning to find out that I'm not really a fan of older books, but I do feel like I should read them, because so many of them are important.

Pros

• Current: I feel like this book is still very relevant today. It's about a government deciding what can be in the news and trying to decide what is truth and what is not. I feel like I live in a free country as we speak, but I've seen documentaries about other places on this earth, where the situation is not the same. Where the government does decide what's news and what's not. This book was brilliantly written and has shown us how important it is to not believe everything you see, hear, read and to find you own freedom.
• World building: BRILLIANT. I felt like this was a real place in history, or a real place in the future. George Orwell has thought everything through in a way that I haven't seen in that many books. This dystopian world is based on fear and a secret unseen government by the name of Big Brother. It was really a ride to learn more about this world and the people in it.
• Oppressive: This creepy feeling of this world that felt unreal but felt so real at the same time... The feeling of the main character and other people in this world being watched with every breath or thought. It was there in every line, in every word and every chapter. That was for me the most memorable thing about this book: the feelings it was able to awaken in me.

Cons

• Middle part: The middle part, where our main character is reading a book, will probably be a huge part in the story, but it felt so dry to me. I kept wondering off with my thoughts and didn't really follow that much while listening to it. 
• Dark: The parts where the book starts to get darker were REALLY dark. I've mentioned before in my reviews, that it just sucks out all the joy of reading. The dark feeling takes over and not much pleasantry is left. I'm not sure that this book was written for being pleasant, but it just made me feel uncomfortable at some point.

Overall

I can see why this book has had such an impact and found its way to many readers. The fact that this book was published in 1949, way before the digital storm, as I call it, is astounding to me. I feel like George Orwell could envision the future, where people of power and governments could and would decide what was truth and what was not. When you try to think about this fact, the book will be even more powerful.. But be careful, Big Brother is watching you!

 

Other opinions on this book

"Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power."

- The New Yorker

Memorable quotes from this book

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

Thanks for reading!

I'd love to talk books; please let me know what you think about this book review.

 

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