It's not just Big Brother that has stolen a phrase; littered throughout are fantastic predictions and terms for everyday activities.

And it is still a fabulous read and a marvellous novel and work of art from George Orwell.

Buy a copy and read it again. Or, if you've never read it, please do so if you care about both literature and society.

The Blair that really matters.

It's amazing that so many Orwellian words have become everyday terms, such as "Big Brother".

But his foresight is even more startling. A true psychic.

Don't have time to read now JK not with driving lessons and preparing for the baby in November. Can you ask me what Room 101 is ? I asked my Dad who read the book but can't remember try to look on the net no luck.

Room 101 is "the worst thing in the world" Andrew - you'll have to read the book to find out what Winston's is, but here's a clue; it's the same as mine.

The feature film was filmed in 1984 when I was a student based in SENATE HOUSE ( University of London ) which doubled as one of the ministries in the film.

Amazing novel.

Perhaps it was a vision of the date the film was made - and that the real things were still to come. It seems sadly very possible that the scenario in the novel is now beginning to work itself out.

I do believe that God uses all people to show his purpose - and not just the mega religious.

Most certainly a fan

Although it is one of those books people seem to believe they've read and haven't. Even those who claim to have read it make the stillest claims about it

That said, it's a very good book. I rather like Orwell (Especially his take on Dickens )

And he was "blogging" 70 years ago:

4.6.39.

Extremely hot & dry. Made larger runs for chicks, putting sacking over as shade. Had to take the sacking from the lettuces, which had not wilted owing to being covered. A few sweet williams coming out. The other very small dianthus is coming out. These shut up at night, the cheddar pinks do not. Many greenfly on the roses. Squirted them with soap & water. M. gave 11 /2 pts. today, so is about back to normal.
14 eggs.
E. saw a white owl again last night.

http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/

I have a feeling I lived just around the corner from his London home when I was in St Andrews Mansions in Dorset Street/Baker Street in the 60s.

1984 contains little more than epistemological and axiological relativism.

too many people concentrate on centralism and in doing so fail to understand it's inner message

I bought a wonderful copy of this at Hemswell Antiques Market in Lincolnshire a few months ago and am reading a chapter a night.

it is emerging that "Room 101" is a tactic that has been used at Guantanamo Bay & Abu Grahb by US interegators.

Eyeteeth Oven Go Moron Son wrote:
1984 contains little more than epistemological and axiological relativism.

too many people concentrate on centralism and in doing so fail to understand it's inner message

I'm going to respond to this as soon as I work it the meaning:blink:

There's a crucial lesson to be learned by this novel at this time, 60 years later.

The problem is now greater than "it's a good story".

Broadsheet editors have realised the public - us - simply cannot any longer understand shades of grey.

So the Guardian champions the issue of rapists escaping justice - a worthy cause - and daren't carry false allegation stories as it confuses readers. Worse than that, they won't even consider the dangerous and overwhelming "shades of grey" area of misunderstandings, unintentional accidents, confusion and those vital, essential parts of the true picture.

The majority of "rapes" are neither rapes nor false allegations but the muddled area in between the two.

Because most readers cannot grasp that, writers no longer write it.

Likewise, leaders that do not conform to the Superman image, looking good, sounding good, gtting everything right, are immediately condemned.

Brown is now OUT. Obama will shortly suffer the same fate. But the real losers are us. We never get treated as intelligent adults and are assumed only to appreciate the simplistic slogan.

Quite rightly. We have brought our own fate upon ourselves.

Read it many times.

Also Animal Farm is worth a regular re-read - Including the "missing" last chapter written by a different author - but not unknown on this message board!

Repeating a message tirelessly is the way in which Capitalism sells things - and the way Politics is now organised.

Today all LABOUR politicians are saying the "same phrases" which have been written by their spin doctors. All TORIES are saying roughly the same as Cameron.

The more they REPEAT their mantras - the more the public understands the simplistic "truth" about what they stand for.

Advertising slogans work - Coke is the Real Thing ! for instance. That is why it sells truckloads every day despite not being a very pleasant drink.

The human race is hardwired at the moment to conform - and to follow the simplistic slogan.

So when COWELL does X Factor - everyone dutifully goes out and buys the record etc. We are SHEEPLE.

1984 shows how this can be taken to an extreme of control.

Yes - it is happening and we now have the "Means" to make that scenario happen. It is up to us all to FIGHT AGAINST ID Cards - FIGHT AGAINST CCTV - FIGHT AGAINST DATABASES that CONTROL US - and state interference in our lives.

If we give up this fight then we dont deserve freedom.

I used to like 1984 however I think the book is very dated. Its basically taking a swing at Stalinist regimes, which are now gone bar North Korea. As a prediction of the future it was largely wrong. Sure you can point to the growth of CCTV & DNA databases etc however the main features of the regime & society depicted did not come to be.

A far better novel is Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'.

Hamlet wrote:
I used to like 1984 however I think the book is very dated. Its basically taking a swing at Stalinist regimes, which are now gone bar North Korea. As a prediction of the future it was largely wrong. Sure you can point to the growth of CCTV & DNA databases etc however the main features of the regime & society depicted did not come to be.

A far better novel is Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'.
1084 covers the British class system equally well, even the vestiges that remain. It only applies to Stalin is a misnomer.

I do like like Huxley though

Seems that the UK Education system is based on ORWELL's 1984 according to an Oxford research study.....when will the public ( Sheeple ) wake up.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191689...upils-customers.html

I am actually rereading it at this very moment and it is TERRIFYINGLY accurate.

Read between the lines and we are there and then some.

Plus it is still a hell of a good novel.