1984 ~ George Orwell

★★★★★

2+2=5 stars

That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better.

The Writing and Worldbuilding

George Orwell is the greatest writer of all time. Fight me.

This is so well written; it is consistently engaging, intriguing, and lyrical. I was never bored, even in long passages of solely exposition, because the world was so totally interesting. The first third of this book, constiting of part 1, was mostly exposition and set up, for example, but I was just as invested as I was at the very end. And the end, for that matter, was just as well-paced as the beginning, and the twists were expertly executed.

The political structure was so harrowing and unthinkable, and yet, horribly believable. This book was meant as a warning and reads perfectly as one. The world doesn't feel like an inevitability, but an awful possiblity. And I absolutely loved it.

Her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from outside. It would not have occured to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.

The Characters

Winston Smith: He was so real. A middle-aged paranoid intellectual cynic, Winston was the perfect protagonist for this book. He dreams of a better world, a world less bad at least than his current life, and does even what he knows will result in either nothing or in utter destruction because it makes him feel something other than existential dread, and for that, I commend him.

"You're only a rebel from the waist downwards," he told her.

She thought this brilliantly witty and flung her arms round him in delight.

Julia: She was a very complex person, just like Winston, except that she joys in small rebellion and doesn't much dream of a better world, only in finding the better parts of the life she's been dealt. She's 20 years younger than Winston, and therefore sees the world through fresher, but also more sheltered, eyes.

O'Brien: Oh my gosh I have too much to say, so I'm not going to say anything at all.

"Only because I prefer a positive to a negative. In this game we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all."

Conclusion

I loved everything about this book. Literally everything, even the horribly depressing ending, because it's a book that makes you think, and makes you reflect on yourself and your world almost more than on Winston and his world.

Farewell for now, proles. We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.

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