1984

I enjoy reading.  But apparently I enjoy other things more because unless it’s summertime I don’t end up spending much time reading.  Fortunately, a few months ago I found that I can check out audio books from the library, and while you often have to get on a waiting list, they do have quite a large selection and overall it’s worked out great.  Now I listen to books when I go running (Lindsey says I’d run faster if I listened to music), do the dishes, mow the lawn, etc.

So I thought I might review some of my recent listenings.  I’ll start with 1984.  There will be spoilers, but I figure if you haven’t already read this book you’re probably not too likely to read it in the near future.  Plus everyone sort of already knows how things are going to play out.

It seems that 1984 was required reading for most people in high school, but apparently not in Fallon.  There were three main parts to the story (in my view, I haven’t read any official critiques):  Part one was just getting to know the main character (Winston) and how utterly hopeless his life is.  Part two is the hopeful portion.  Winston starts a love affair (something he’d thought to be an impossibility) and learns that the rumored resistance to Big Brother actually exists.  Part three is basically the most crushing ending imaginable.  I knew there wouldn’t be a happy ending, but Orwell manages to surprise with just how demoralizing he makes it.  Winston finds that the level of surveillance was orders of magnitude greater than he had assumed; the “Thought Police” even replaced a spec of dust that he had placed in the corner of his journal to alert him to tampering.  Winston is captured (which you knew was coming), but rather than having the government just kill him, they break him down mentally until he realizes that he loves Big Brother.  I can’t do the emotional experience of having read (or listened to) the book justice, but like I said, it was utterly crushing.

There are a number of interesting themes: thought control through controlling language, thought control in general, government surveillance, the role of history in shaping the future, the role of media, etc.  Overall I didn’t really come away as fired up against the NSA as I thought I might (maybe because the Orwellian picture is so bleak that it still seems otherworldly despite recent technological advances in surveillance).  But 1984 does make clear that opposing mass government surveillance isn’t so much about having something to hide as being free to express thoughts without fear of governmental repercussions.

Most memorable line: “Sanity is not statistical.”