What is your go-to uplifting read?

[GenSec]

Fascinating stuff, GenSec. To be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled by 1984 either, it was something of a laborious read - although if I remember correctly, there is a section of the book where Winston is in love, and I thought that was nicely written.

Yes, as i remember its that girl he sits close to during the 10 minute hate session and starts having depraved lustful thoughts about her whilst beating her up? All because he believes she is unattainable.

Then she appears by accident to drop a small scrap of paper whilst walking past him in order to finally break the unbridgeably silent gulf between their worlds. A simple act which could have got them both liquidated. He has to go through leaps and bounds just to sneak home with it, make sure no camera see's that he didn't do the proper deed of binning it. He is breaking the norm by not doing so and that can cause suspicion to fall on you. Even unwrapping it at home is an art in secrecy, as even one of his walls has eyes. And it begins, the forbidden love affair. He loves her even more when she tells him she has been intimate with loads of men, because it shows she is not the perfection and purity which Big Brother aims to manipulate into absolutely everything in every aspect of everyone's life. She is true rebellion against the system, in Winston's eyes. She is free. She is the total opposite of his dense, dull, sex-loathing, Big Brother adoring wife whom he has never even seen in years. However, its a doomed love from the very start, because it turns out to have been spied upon by the authorities from the very beginning right through to the finish. There is no happily ever after.

Actually, the more i remember her the more she sounds not bad. Maybe there is a plus in the book after all!

[peepo23]

That's right! Thanks for reminding me, you've regenerated some of those brain cells I had about 1984. Maybe I'll dig it out at some point, give it another go and think about your previous post; gosh I must have been only 16 when I first read it.

[GenSec]

That's right! Thanks for reminding me, you've regenerated some of those brain cells I had about 1984. Maybe I'll dig it out at some point, give it another go and think about your previous post; gosh I must have been only 16 when I first read it.

I would have been about 21 years old when i read it. You're mentioning it has brought it all right back to me!

The sexual frustration which pervades the whole book very much reflects Orwell's own personal issues. Seriously. I think he always felt women didn't appreciate him as much as he would have liked. He was quite an awkward person in many respects, both personality-wise and physically. He was lanky and always bumping into things. He was never what one would call very physically attractive. I think this bothered him... in the severely repressed sexual element of Winston's personality, i think that is Orwell himself.

All reminds me of how Big Brother is shrinking the English vocubulary, and the word "sex" no longer exists: the word is "sexcrime". The act has been tied to unacceptability and criminality just be shrinking the language people have to use. As a result the simple act of making love is loaded with negativity from which it cannot ever be extricated.

And Big Brother deliberately fosters this mass sexual frustration in order to channel the energy into mass hate.

And on that note, how can we forget the Eurythmics song of the same name?