From: edwardbelsky@worldnet.att.net
wrote in message
news:1173928881.892407.131470@p15g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
I recently came across this old book review of Nineteen Eighty-Four:
Buenos Aires, 1953
Eine Buchbesprechung von ,,Neunzehnhundertvierundachtzig''
durch Ricardo Klement
Herr Orwell shows us a possible future world, where everyone works for
the single good of the Party. He has predicted a Utopia, and has given
it the name Oceania. Big Brother is its handsome leader, and his face
is seen everywhere. There is an interesting device called the
telescreen, which allows the party to keep an eye on its citizens. But
not all is well in fair Oceania. There is one man who does not fit in;
his name is Winston Smith (or number 6079). His beginning is
promising, for he is blond and does his work in the Ministry of Truth
efficiently. This work is very important - correcting the mistakes of
the past. His weakness reveals itself near the beginning of the novel
when he decides to keep a secret diary. The astute reader will see
that this is a cry for help from a mental defective.
Another character is named Julia. The reader is sure to find her
unpleasant. Interested in nothing but sex, she serves as a foil to
Winston's beautiful wife Katharine, who is pure and performs her duty
to the party faithfully. Julia seduces poor Winston, and he soon
falls prey to her whims. She paints her face and controls Winston
totally. She speaks of love, but she knows nothing of true love: the
love that unites a nation through its leader.
The suspense holds the reader's attention during the entire story:
will Winston be saved? His stubborn refusal to cooperate causes
problems, but the Party does not give up. They have assigned O'Brien
to see to his re-education. O'Brien is a strong character who manages
to keep his sense of humour although his duties as a member of the
Inner Party are quite frustrating. A bigger problem than Winston is a
continuous worry - the evil character named Emmanuel Goldstein. This
enemy of the people probably is the main cause of the unpleasant
aspects of life in Oceania.
The most enjoyable sequence is in part three, where Winston is taken
into the care of the Ministry of Love. Natürlich, I had a professional
interest. There are some details here that I am familiar with, due to
a post I held several years ago. Poor O'Brien! I often have felt the
same sort of helplessness, when confronted with impenetrable
stupidity. But O'Brien proves his superiority in this passage:
" 'And you consider yourself morally superior to us, with our lies and
our cruelty?'
'Yes, I consider myself superior.'
O'Brien did not speak. Two other voices were speaking. After a moment
Winston recognised one of them as his own. It was a sound-track of the
conversation he had had with O'Brien, on the night when he had
enrolled himself in the Brotherhood. He heard himself promising to
lie, to steal, to forge, to murder, to encourage drug-taking and
prostitution, to disseminate venereal diseases, to throw vitriol in a
child's face. O'Brien made a small impatient gesture, as though to say
that the demonstration was hardly worth making. Then he turned a
switch and the voices stopped."
As I read this novel, I kept asking myself, how did he know, how did
Orwell know all this? The concept of doublethink so beautifully
expresses higher thinking. The slogans of the Party have a lyrical
beauty: 'War is Peace'. There is never so much peace as when we unite
against the enemy. And Freedom *is* Slavery, is it not? "Ignorance is
Strength" - if one faces every conflict in life with this stubborn
attitude, there is nothing one can not accomplish. I have little
patience with those who try to label this book a satire. It is no more
a satire than is Gulliver's Travels, or Animal Farm.
The year 1984 is far in the future. Orwell's prediction can still
happen. Ja, gentle reader, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -
for ever.
Süße Träume.
B.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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