No.19443
>>13183You got the gist of it. 1984 was a reaction to Orwell's own experiences in the British colonial police, as a propagandist for the BBC during WW2, and under the late 1940s Labour government. What most people (and evidently many American high school English teachers) don't understand is that the book
has to be read as immanent to WW2. 'Newspeak' draws from an essay Orwell wrote on trends in British journalism. The longing for a half-remembered before time is not abstract and reactionary, but a concrete depiction of how WW2 imposed brutal austerity conditions on the British people. It's also a reaction to Fordism and the kind of obsession with a rationalized, efficient world that was common back then. We see this with "the clocks were striking 13"—they're on military time! It's a depiction of militarized efficiency cannibalizing all of society. The stuff about "we've always been at war with Eastasia"? That happened in 1945 when the war propaganda effort switched abruptly from focusing on Germany to Japan. Orwell was there when that happened, in the BBC. The book ends with Orwell giving up on, essentially, Blanquism and reformism and endorsing a proletarian revolution. It's a critique of the ideology behind British Imperial decline, of wartime social democracy, and of the contemporary trends that idolize that period.
No.19485
>>13183Fuck, i tried searching for this post so many times.
To whomever bumped this thread, i want to suck your clit/penis.
No.20347
>>13111>>13107>>13109 >Read Orwell's Homage to Cataluña>the explanation of the USSR influence goes like this: <There were two major marxist parties in cataluña: 1) POUM, that did not align with the USSR, and claimed that the civil war and the revolution were inseparable. 2) PSUC, that aligned with the USSR, and claimed that only after the civil war was won, and bourgeois democracy was restored, that the revolution could go on. <He is very skeptical of PSUC's position, and states that the USSR would not allow the revolution to go on because they needed stable allies, and revolutions bring about many things, but not stability. The USSR had no way to solely support a socialist revolution. Instead, the USSR's strategy was to defeat fascism via a Popular Front that included communists, socialists, and liberals. From the POV of the Communists, the POUM was undermining the war effort by pushing for revolution instead of political unity. I'd also like to add that the militia system was retarded and the Communists were the only faction on the side of the Republic that resembled a real army.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8caypg/in_homage_to_catalonia_orwell_portrays_the_soviet/ No.27766
>>13055Jewish? Negro
German? Anarchist
Hotel? Trivago
No.27770
OP meant right-wing conservatives/"libertarians"?
because they haven't read it. they hear it's a famous novel and it's against "totalitarianism", maybe skim the wikipedia, and think that's good enough for them
No.30983
>>19333 >333Checked. SO essentially the petty bourgs selling out to richer bourgs or bootlicking proles getting a better life in return for selling out comrades?
No.31256
Is the Gladiator the predecessor of "objectivist" power fantasies like that of Atlas Shrugged? The book itself seems to be a warning against it, but instead seems to be misinterpreted by idealogues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_(novel) No.31259
>>13035>1984 reflects both his vision of the USSR and Capitalist Britain More capitalist (as in, post-war social democratic) Britain than USSR. Any references to the latter are mostly superficial. But you won't find such a nuanced reading in your average American classroom.
No.31260
>>31259Seriously, 1984 is more informed by Orwell's own time in Burma's colonial police and witnessing firsthand BBC's propaganda department shift its sights to Japan towards the end of the war than it has anything to do with his 'vision' of the USSR.
No.31267
The dystopia genre is legitimately mostly projection.
No.32368
Dude, why trio Alex Carp, Elon Musk, and Nick Land is almost openly libertarian, anarchosyndicalist or socialist and the anarchocapitalists still proudly simp over him?
No.32396
>>13035>Animal Farm is well written but its obvious jabs at Stalin make it annoying to me from a historical context.LOL
No.32397
>>13183I'll publish this on New Multitude if you want? (anything to add?)
No.32404
>>13032from an intellectual perspective they're kinda shit books. Completely detached from reality or relevant analysis. Just a butthurt imperialist """leftist""" snitch shitting on ussr
"newspeak" literally doesnt accomplishes at all what it supposedly sets out to do, it's just another elite class signifier
its view on state repression is basically a liberal child believing the evul commies are out to get him and force him to internalize their false ideology like 2+2=3
its funny cause pushing people to believe blatant bullshit is very prominent in modern capitalist society. You just dont need much repression, suggestion and societal pressure is much more efficient.
No.32657
>>32648>against totalitarianismGoes to show he was always a bitch of Western liberal hegemony, but hey, who would guess that Western "socialists" would be West first in thought.
No.32661
>>13048I gotta ask
In your mind is writing a book that’s mean to the USSR genuinely worse than Stalin’s execution of a fuckton of bolsheviks, at least 700,000 people frequently on nonsensical and unproven allegations, decision to tell the Chinese workers and peasants to fall down to the mercy of Chiang Kai Shek, rapprochement with Germany at various points, heavy centralization of power, and attempts to essentially use loyal international leftists as pawns to fall for Moscow if needed while treating all other leftists as enemies?
Because bro, if Orwell is genuinely worse in your mind somehow and his criticisms were unfair or false just fucking Lmao
No.32662
>>13183Excellent post mate, never seen this perspective on 1984 before!
Honestly I think we need a 2084 novel to describe where we’re currently headed as a society, I think the real likely 2084 is even worse than the fictional 1984
No.32664
>>131831984 is a critique of bloc politics which brushes actual social issues under the carpet while dumbing down culture. Oceania is just one generic bloc against Eurasia and Eastasia where it's implied that things there are more or less the same as in Oceania, and they use their mutual manufactured animosity to keep the way of things everywhere going without any question.
No.32666
I want to read a sequel to 1984 set in Eastasia or whatever, where it is in fact a progressive socialist state struggling against Oceanian tyranny.
No.32667
>>32664Orwell did nothing wrong. Well okay a few things but his writing was prescient.
No.32668
>>32667>prescienthe was literally just describing how he perceived the soviet union at the time
No.32670
>>32404Newspeak is obviously an exaggeration but it's true that language shapes thought, just look at how the west defines the world in vague yet morally laden terms like 'liberty' 'authoritarian' 'regime' 'democracy' etc etc in order to reinforce their ideological superiority.
No.32671
>>32669I said a few things.
>>32668Yeah I guess that's the wrong word but it's a lesson that still seems to be lost on most people including in this board (coughziggerscough)
No.32672
>>32670>language shapes thoughtundialectical
it goes both ways
No.32673
>>32672Well yeah obviously but language is one of the many ways to control thought.
No.36359
>>36358The other thing that grinds my gears is the right-wingers who apparently think that Big Brother is the name of the government, or at least the surveillance state (instead of the Thought Police).
Big Brother is the name of their charismatic, strongman leader that their whole society has a cult of personality around.
No.36360
Very few people actually read that crap book and mostly just regurgitate what others have said. If they did they'd realize what nonsense it is or do some self-reflecting of their ego.
No.36361
>>363581984 is always been a garbage book. It's actually based more on Britian than anything about the Soviet Union. Orwell never even visited or even researched the Soviet Union at all.
t. vid related
No.36364
Only the gifted classes in America are mandated to read 1984. The normies are kept more retarded
No.36365
>>36361it's really funny that george orwell was a part of an extremely oppressive state apparatus, both as a colonial officer and as an informant for the british government and then he went on to write a book about a spooky alternate reality where the government is repressing people like him as well
No.36366
>>36358George Orwell? Who is that? Isn't he that liberal who provided a list of names to MI6 of people who would be unsuitable to write anti-communist propaganda?
Seems like a lovely guy…
No.36369
>>36365Well, if you remember, Winston (the protagonist) is a member of the Party and works for the Ministry of Truth.
No.36370
>>36361I would argue that 1984 is worth reading, except not as a critique of communism or fascism, but as a critique of British politics, and Anglophone politics by extention.
No.36371
>>36369Is he a self-insert? Like is he Orwell's way of saying "I'm sorry bros I know I am a piece of shit but they made rats nibble on my earlobes"?
No.36372
>>36371Orwell didn't get coerced into working for British Intelligence he got honey-potted like the sex pest he is.
His contact/handler was a very attractive British woman whom he desperately wanted to get it on with.
No.36373
>>36372wow women are truly evil
Unique IPs: 36