1984 Orwell

[Lucy]

I am going to have my freshman start reading 1984 by Orwell.  Do you have any recommendations for me - anything you think she should do as she is reading to help understanding or thoughtful application?  Maybe a project or something?  I don't want to do a whole study on it or anything, but do want her to get something more out of it.  Any thoughts?

[Tsuga]

I'd definitely read some of the newspaper articles of the time if possible. Spain, Germany, and other truly fascist states--like, door to door shoot you in the head if you're Jewish or say the wrong things--were ascendant at the time and a lot of what he wrote about was in that context. Chamberlain.

 

I think to really get that book and not just to parrot "OMG they're in my living room get my tinfoil hat Betty!" foolishness, it is important to look at how Orwell talks about information and fascism. Actually the entire plot would have worked if they had had almost no real surveillance at all--which is fascinating. The important thing was that people thought that the government had knowledge, not that they actually had it. This is my soapbox however because while people freak out about surveillance in the US and UK, they seem to fail to notice that the real tyranny has to do with what they let IN their heads. Hunger Games (mind you I've only seen the movies but have been inspired to read the book) is an interesting foil on this and kind of gets to the question of how information is used as a weapon for fascism--hint, it's not what they know about you, but what you think about others.

 

She could edit a Wikipedia entry and follow up and compare her experience with Winston's job. How was it easier to modify the news? How was it harder?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

There is a book called The Vanishing Commissar that has side by side before and after pictures showing how in the Soviet Union photos and pictures were altered to remove individuals who had been declared enemies of the state.

I've seen photos from flea markets in the former USSR where people had x'd out or marked over faces in group photos to remove offending faces from class photos. These were photos in personal collections. Like going through your own albums and deleting old classmates and teammates because they are politically dangerous.

 

1984 presents two ideas [ETA. two scenarios on the idea of the govt watching the people.]. One is the actual surveillance. It is being done in the story. People will be called out during exercise sessions. At the end there is a big reveal of top down manipulation and surveillance.

But also there is a political hygiene of avoiding thought crime. People are declared non entities and everyone just goes along. The enemy country flips and everyone just says yep we've always been at war with them. (Cf Nazi Germany turning on the USSR and the USSR in turn allying with the Allied powers. I've seen the map that Molotov and Von Ribbentrop signed, partitioning Poland. A few years later they were acting as if they'd always been on opposite sides. )

[Tsuga]

 

1984 presents two ideas.

 

I think that is deeply unfair to Orwell--there are many, many more ideas in 1984. Language--as per his most beautiful essay on Politics and the English Language, is in 1984. Surveillance is a minor point, alteration of history is a major one. The value of the individual. The effect of torture and hunger and undermining of the will. The undermining of the family, the meaning of social units.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think that is deeply unfair to Orwell--there are many, many more ideas in 1984. Language--as per his most beautiful essay on Politics and the English Language, is in 1984. Surveillance is a minor point, alteration of history is a major one. The value of the individual. The effect of torture and hunger and undermining of the will. The undermining of the family, the meaning of social units.

I should have specified that it was two view on the topic of truth/surveillance/government control.

 

Of course there are many more themes.

 

Please be patient with me. We're moving a second time this year and I'm trying to juggle school with all of the crazy pack out to do items compressed into six weeks.

[EndOfOrdinary]

The book is depressing for people who are idealist or intense personalities. I remember waiting and waiting for it to get better. In my mind there had to be some silver lining. When that did not happen I had a rather strong reaction to most things for upwards of a month. I am not saying this to discourage or scare you, but more to have your Mom self (as opposed to Teacher self) ready and waiting if she needs to swoop in and take over a bit.

 

Part of what was so hard for me was knowing that the story wasn't really a story. It was the allegory that bothered me. It was feeling no one was ever going to stop all the bad things even if they knew the bad stuff was happening. Providing an outlet for your daughter to do some meaningful help to the world might be a bright spot that would be a good project.