ripe with misogyny and weak critiques of marxist theory. most interesting part by far for me was the book within the book. ( )

Trigger warnings: Torture

7/10, terrifying and sad. ( )

Está muy bien, aunque se toma como referencia de lo que podría ser un régimen totalitario, creo que peca un poco de exagerar. ( )

Uma das obras mais contundentes e influentes do século XX ganha nova e definitiva edição com projeto especial e ampla fortuna crítica.

Romance incontornável, 1984 continua sendo o livro ao qual nos voltamos sempre que se mutila a verdade, distorce-se a linguagem e viola-se o poder. Nesta nova edição, a obra-prima de George Orwell ganha projeto gráfico especialíssimo ― com uma série de obras da artista brasileira Regina Silveira. O leitor conta também com apresentação do crítico Marcelo Pen e textos de gigantes como Golo Mann, Irving Howe, Raymond Williams, Thomas Pynchon, Homi K. Bhabha, Martha C. Nussbaum, Bernard Crick e George Packer ― ensaios que dão conta da história da recepção crítica do livro desde o ano de seu lançamento, 1949, até hoje, setenta anos depois.
Com dezenas de milhões de cópias vendidas em todo o mundo, o romance de Orwell tem como herói o angustiado Winston Smith, refém de um mundo feito de opressão absoluta. Em Oceânia, ter uma mente livre é considerado crime gravíssimo. Numa trama em que os "fatos alternativos" estão por toda parte e a mentira foi institucionalizada, Winston se rebela contra a sociedade totalitária na qual vive; em seu anseio por verdade e liberdade, ele arrisca a vida ao se envolver amorosamente com uma colega de trabalho, Júlia, e com uma organização revolucionária secreta. Normalmente lido como uma distopia, 1984 é também uma sátira, uma profecia, um grito de alerta, um thriller de espionagem, uma extraordinária ficção científica, um terror psicológico, um romance pós-moderno e uma história de amor.

A classic first published in 1949 - This either was a premonition of what was to come or a lot of what the author writes about was already taking place back in 1949 when the book was published and his novel expounds on the facts in novel form. This is “Socialism 101”. It was the remaking of human thoughts and ideas by using “doublethink”…reality control and erasing history, and erasing and covering up the lives of individuals.

Set in London, the government was divided between four Ministries: Ministry of Truth, who corrected or fixed the news and education to only what they wanted the people to hear and to learn; Ministry of Peace, who made sure there was always war, division in the country and chaos; Ministry of Love, who maintained law and order by “evaporating” (killing) any who disagree or found to be against Big Brother; Ministry of Plenty, who dealt with economic affairs, making sure the people are starving and thankful for Big Brother for supplying at least something for them to eat, and for supplying some of the basic necessities through the black market...which reminds me, be sure to stock up on razor blades...

Every household had a telescreen; Big Brother was watching and listening to their every move. And no household owned guns. Children were taught to be spies against their own parents, reporting them if they saw or heard anything suspicious, so it became impossible to discipline the children without fear of retaliation from the child, which meant death to the parent. Records and books were altered, rectified, falsified, every statue and street and building had been removed or renamed. The capitalists were taken down, businesses confiscated by the government…factories, mines, land, houses, transportation were now public property belonging to the government. With the development of machine production, it was no longer necessary for people to live and work at different social or economic levels. They could still work at different kinds of jobs, but for the government, all earning the same low wages, or starve. The mental training in early childhood was now proving itself in “doublethink”…black is white and white is black…2 2 = 5…to tell deliberate lies and actually believe them. They were changing the laws of language, itself. Eliminating words that could no longer be used. The new language was to be called “Newspeak”.

The story was actually a really good and interesting read and had a few surprising twists and turns, but I gave it a 3-star because there were 3 very long sections explaining how this government worked, which I hardly understood, and one was a never-ending dialogue between the main character, Winston Smith, and his torturer O’Brien. Otherwise, very interesting.

Now, step into the year 2019.

It's like the higher ups know exactly what they are doing and have read this book or read up on "Socialism 101", and they have been putting it into the works and changing the course of the country. And if you haven't heard about any of the things mentioned above already occurring today right here in America, then their plan is working, and you might need to change your news source. I don’t see America headed in the right direction. It will be interesting to see where we are at in just a few more years as the Milliniums take charge of governing this nation.

MOVIE: 1984 (released Dec. 14, 1984), starring John Hurt as Winston Smith, the leading character, and Richard Burton as O'Brien, the loyal Party torturer. I'm not sure how anyone can understand what's going on in the movie without reading the book first. The movie is sloooooow!
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*Top 10 Classic Banned Books - challenged in a Florida school district in 1981 for being "pro-Communist" and having "explicit sexual matter." But, it wasn’t actually pro-communist as it was warning against Totalitarianism. The Soviet Union banned the book until 1988. In 2022, Belarus, a country bordering Ukraine and Russia have since banned the book. ( )