Elias' Thoughts on Utopias & Dystopias

     So, the time has come for this series of posts to end, and I want to round it off with some final thoughts on the book as a whole. As I've said in about every post I've made on this book so far, I don't find this book realistic, and that has really hindered my enjoyment of it. The book not feeling realistic isn't something I take issue with in itself, but the point or appeal of 1984 's   society is lost on me. The idea of having complete control over a large amount of people makes sense to me, but who is it that is in control? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding some things, but to me there is no one, not a single soul in 1984 who has anything to gain by what they wish to achieve. In Brave New World , at least people have things like soma, feelies (or whatever those movies were called), and sexual liberation (kind of, and this also is taken a bit too far with the children participating). In 1984 however, no positive emotions will be allowed, and it doesn't ...

     In this blog post, I am once again asking why. I know I do this pretty much every time, but in chapter three, we are told by O'Brien what the future will look like, and while reading, I could not imagine a reason why. O'Brien describes it as devoid of all emotion except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. He says that they will eliminate everything else: motherhood, marriage, friendship, "sex instinct," the orgasm, love, laughter, art, literature, science, etc. Reading this I thought to myself, what else is there? What else are people living for? What kind of human being would ever think a world without those things would be ideal, what kind of person would rally behind them? The only circumstances I could think of in which someone would think this way is if they were for some reason spiteful of all these things, maybe due to living in unfortunate circumstances for all of their life. Similar to how incels are created I suppose. But even then, for this person...

     After reading chapters 1 and 2 of part three, I'm left with curiosity as to where Orwell will take the story in the last few chapters, as well as some confusion regarding what it is I just read. 1984 's torture sequence is by far one of the most memorable I have come across in a long time. In general, the concept of being confined within a place that strips you of your sense of time and location is frightening to me, but the horrors of these chapters go far beyond that. While torturing Winston, O'Brien managed to change the way Winston's mind worked with pain and reasoning alone. I say "reasoning" as O'Brien does provide Winston with logic to alter the way he thinks, but anyone could read this passage and know that his argument is idiotic and nonsensical. Four fingers is just four fingers, nothing more and nothing less, and yet, through the turn of a knob, O'Brien was able to change this indisputable fact in Winston's eyes and mind. I can'...