1984 by George Orwell
Part 3

Please use this thread for discussing Part 3 of 1984 by George Orwell. There are 6 chapters in this section.

Or if you would like to create your own threads please feel free as this thread is just to help give this discussion forum some structure.

You can read 1984 for FREE here.

Here is a speech given in 1984 comparing the book titled "1984" to the book "Brave New World" that was written by Aldous Huxley, the grandson of Thomas Huxley who was known in his time as Darwin's bulldog.

http://emp.byui.edu/davisr/202/Neil_Postman.htm

I had read [i]Amusing Ourselves to Death[/] shortly after it came out. Postman seemed pretty compelling then, and I'd have to agree that in 1984, the world was more like Huxley's hedonistic dystopia than Orwell's bummer one. Right now, I'd probably say the same, despite he increased ability to surveil us nudging us more toward Orwell. The internet also has changed the nature of our screen experience so that it is less passive, not so soma-like. But, of course, we're getting richer, with even authoritarian governments like China's believing that the best way to avoid unrest is to make citizens feel like they can have it all, rather than keep them near poverty. I need to reread Huxley to be more certain.

delete--repeated

A couple of chapters into part 3, and I wondered if Room 101 was a reference to entrance-level college courses, as in English 101, Chemistry 101 and so on. But then I found this article:

Room 101, the torture chamber in George Orwell’s 1984, was named after a conference room at the BBC where Orwell would have to sit through tortuously boring meetings
thevintagenews.com/2017/02/07/room-101- ... -meetings/



lol

I apologize if I have hijacked the sections of the book dividing of the commentary. I did actually mean to make a separate thread. But the main point being...there are so many ways to silence dissenters. I watch the Bill Maher show on HBO regularly and he, as many other comedians, don't do shows at colleges anymore because the colleges and the students are so against things that might be offensive that in this day and age the perfomer can get massacred by offended students. By massacred I mean super criticicezed on twitter, not actually being killed. Hooray for Hyperbole! That can be a very effective way of shutting out voices that one does not want to hear. Plus it has the added benefit of it not being censorship from the government...it is supposedly "the people" stopping it instead of the government. Mayer points this out for people he disagrees with as well as for people he agrees with.

All in all, 1984 is about the most harrowing book you could read, isn't it? Not a shred of hope left at the end. Part 3 answers the question, "What would a Big Brother government do about the most recalcitrant citizens, the ones who despite horrible torture still can't fully grant the Party the power to redefine reality, to make two plus two equal five? The evil genius O'Brien realizes that he needs to destroy Smith's personality while robbing him of all self-respect, because indoctrination will never work with him. He needs to change Smith's feelings, not his ideas, so by the end Smith, a helpless alcoholic, exudes gratitude toward Big Brother. O'Brien achieves the objective by forcing Smith to wish his ultimate torture on Julia instead.

Oh dear, DW, not the most harrowing! Not even near! Read some Margaret Atwood. Handmaid's Tale was published in 1985. Great, it has been made into a series that has won emmies or something. It doesn't change the fact that....oh, I was about to get political and mad there. I would also like to suggest that book in conjunction with 1984 and Brave New World. Most people have not read Atwood after Handmaid's Tale, but she takes her writing very seriously and does tons of research.

In her 1984 book, Atwood described her heroine as swiping a card to pay and being denied...all money cut off from her. Doesn't this also relate to 1984 and Brave New World? Think about how you pay for things...by card. That card can be shut off at any time.

O'Brian is not an evil genious. He is a tool.

And now...the thing I mentioned in section one that could not be mentioned until the end...the ever changing enemy. Oceania switches being allies with Eastasia to Eurasia. And back and forth, iirc. That is the thing I most remember about this book. Give everyone the proper enemy and they will fall in line. Do you want an enemy? China is building islands in order to claim more ocean. Saudi Arabia has aligned with several other Golf states to throttle Quatar, which is the country Al Jazeera is based out of. Russia has annexed a part of a country without being challenged. So...who are are our friends? Should we be afraid?

In the book...The enemies are fluid...They change all the time. I missed the 1300 thing. Did everyone else miss that the enemies and friends changed a lot?

It's all about fear. Keeping the average person scared.

But DW, isn't it just a warning tale? Yeah, if you put me in a ....ok, I'm not going to admit my biggest fear, but isn't it about that we shouldn't let it get to that point? How about that Ayn Rand book We The Living.