Quintuple plusgood. What else can you say?

I think this is the third time I’ve read this Book and it never ceases to amaze. Orwell completed the first draft of this book at Barnhill on Jura, an isolated house overlooking the sea towards the Scottish mainland. I was there in April 2023. It’s a quiet and lovely spot.

What struck me this time about the book were the use of telescreens and Newspeak by Big Brother. My interpretation now is that people have their own Personal telescreens with them most of the time (I mean their mobile phones) and so receive the propaganda they want via the algorithms of big business. This is not so different from 1984 except that most people choose this option rather than being forced to have telescreens in their homes and at work. Also, there’s the role of the ‘influencers’ on Youtube etc whose ‘influence’ is paid for by those same big businesses.

Newspeak in 1984 was designed not to extend, but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to minimum. This is not so different from the words and emojis we use in Social Media, IMHO. LOL. OMG. The word ‘Thought’ did not exist in Newspeak.

The two-minute Hate can also be witnessed when people get their news from Meta etc and watch videos on Youtube. In fact, two minutes might be too long, but again George Orwell had the right idea.

On a personal note, I felt sorry for Winston Smith for two main reasons, one related to Big Brother and the other related to his personal life. I won’t say anything else, as that would count as a spoiler.

This book is recommended.

I hope you never have to visit your own personal Room 101.