1984 is not one of those books that grabbed me from sentence one and pulled me along. In fact, the first 4-5 pages had me trudging along and the thought of quitting often crossed my mind. But, the memory of Orwell's Animal Farm goaded me to stick on. And I am glad I did.
Trivia: The character of Big Brother in the story is the inspiration behind the UK-based reality show Big Brother, also known as Big Boss in India.
George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, which makes the novella futuristic. Unfortunately in this future, people don't drive flying cars, eat pills for food and vacation on the moon, something my school essays about the future always had. The author in his book projects a grim future. And he projects it so well that as I visualise the protagonist Winston in his home, at work, the park even, all I see is grey. Not the sharp lines of black and white. But, grey, blurry grey in its many shades.
As the plot unfolds, and the extreme future that Orwell projects comes to light, my first thought is 'Bah! That's a bit extreme'. But as I go further and the layers under the plot become more evident I think 'Genius! This man saw the future.' Censorship, corruption of power, extreme surveillance...Orwell spoke the language that has become a part of our existence today. The story moves and the parallels between the reality of the story and the reality of today become more evident. And that scares me.
The one thing that Orwell could not foresee was the evolution of the language. Winston's use of terms like 'deep-bosomed maidens' and 'old boy' and when he says of Julia that 'he would ravish her' don't fit into the future of 1984. They existed in Orwell's times but soon fell out of favour.
Trivia: The character of Big Brother in the story is the inspiration behind the UK-based reality show Big Brother, also known as Big Boss in India.
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