Nineteen Eighty-Four (aka 1984), by George Orwell (pub. 1949)
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Caution: spoilers.

Well, this came out twenty-six years before I was born. It's one of the most classic novels in the history of the dystopian genre, so of course I was aware of it well before I read it, and I always wanted to read it. I think I picked up my copy at a flea market sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, so I was probably somewhere around my early teens, the first time I read it. The second time I read it was in 2018, so that's when I'm writing this review. Before rereading it, I didn't remember many details of the story, just the basic premise and a few of the terms from the book that became well-known in our culture, some of them even to people who've never read it or seen any adaptation. Terms like "Big Brother" and "doublethink" and "thought police", etc. And of course the book has had a great deal of influence on the culture, such as a famous Mac computer commercial in (appropriately enough) 1984. Though probably the one cultural reference I most commonly associate with the book is from the Chain of Command episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when part of Picard's torture involves being shown four lights and his tormentor insisting there are five. (This aired in 1992, and I can't say with any certainty whether I read the book before seeing the episode, so that the episode reminded me of the book, or whether I saw the episode first, so the book reminded me of the episode. Not that it matters.)

Anyway, I expect it has always been and always will be impossible to review the book, in any era, without getting political. But the book is particularly relevant to real world politics at the time I happen to be writing this review, during the Trump administration. In fact, Google will provide you with links to many articles written about exactly that comparison, surely with far more insight than I can (or even want to) get into, myself. And I'm sure each individual reader's opinion will vary, depending on their personal political beliefs. As for myself, I am very liberal, so to me it has been greatly obvious, over the past couple of years, just how terrifyingly similar the current administration is, in some ways, to the ruling Party in the book. And not just the administration, but how similar the mindset of many Trump supporters is to that of the general populace of Oceania, in the book. It is seriously scary AF. I expect I'll give some examples of this, as I get into describing the plot.

I suppose the first thing I should do is explain a bit about the world in which the book is set. (These are things that you learn in bits and pieces throughout the book, but I don't think explaining it now constitutes any real spoilers.) It takes place in probably the year 1984, though apparently it's uncertain whether that's really the year or not. (Official documents and newspapers and things will tell the year, but... considering how often such things are retroactively altered, the year itself could have been changed, as well. Still, even if it's not actually 1984, I think it's safe to say it couldn't be more than a few years before or after 1984.) There are three world powers: Oceania (which includes the Americas, the British Isles, Australia, Polynesia, and Southern Africa); Eurasia (continental Europe and Russia); and Eastasia (China, Japan, Korea, and Indochina). There are other areas that are constantly being fought over by the three major powers. The book takes place in Oceania; specifically, a province called Airstrip One (formerly known as England). To be absolutely precise, it takes place in London (which is still called London). At any one time, any two of the world powers may be allied against the third, but this is constantly shifting. Each power is governed according to a particular ideology, and in Oceania, that is Ingsoc. The actual government is simply known as "The Party," and the head of the Party is a figure known as "Big Brother," though it's unclear whether this is an actual person, or just a figurehead for the Party itself. The Party is working to eliminate English, as we know it, and replace it with "Newspeak." (There's an appendix at the end of the book that explains the principles of Newspeak, though it's really enough just to pick up the few Newspeak words that occur throughout the book itself.) "Ingsoc" is Newspeak for "English Socialism," but the ideology as it exists in 1984 is basically the opposite of what it was originally intended to be (prior to the Revolution, which happened in the 1960s). The Party vilifies Capitalism, which hasn't existed since the Revolution. So... I couldn't help but think that some readers might take the fact that Ingsoc is so obviously evil as an indication that the point of the book is to portray socialism as bad and capitalism as good (because obviously anything that the bad guys say is bad must actually be good). This is absolutely not what Orwell meant to convey. As I said, the "socialism" that exists in Oceania is nothing like true socialism. But given how many people in the real America today despise the entire idea of socialism of any kind (despite the fact that much about the way the country works has always involved some degree of socialism), I'm fairly sure a lot of people would choose to see the book as implying the exact opposite of what it's actually saying.

Anyway, the main character of the story is Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party (essentially the middle class, though the living conditions of the Outer Party would be considered pretty bad by today's real world standards, though at least it is in some ways better than the living conditions of the proletariat). It's through Winston that we learn pretty much everything about the nature of the world in which he lives. One thing I need to mention is that there are "telescreens" pretty much everywhere. They can't be turned off, and they work two ways. Not only do they provide government-mandated news and entertainment to the populace, but they can also monitor all the citizens of Oceania. So people have no real privacy, and must never show even the slightest sign of dissent against the Party. (Well, this is somewhat more true of Party members than of proles, but... well, we don't really learn too much about proles, despite their making up 85% of the population.) Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, which not only produces all of Oceania's news and entertainment, but also alters literally everything that's ever been written, to keep it in accord with the current positions of the Party. In fact, the Party's positions can occasionally change somewhat, but there can be no evidence of that. All written evidence of history must always make it appear that the way things are now is how they have been ever since the Revolution, because the Party is meant to be seen as infallible. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is that, while Oceania's relations with the other two super powers is always changing, the public is forced to always believe that whichever power is currently Oceania's ally has always been its ally, and its current enemy has always been its enemy. Winston himself finds it hard to believe nobody else seems to notice this, but there is a scene later in the book where... well, there's a sort of explanation for part of how it works... but I still find it really hard to suspend disbelief on everyone going along with it.

Well, actually... throughout the book, there's a good explanation, at least for how Party members go along with it. And that's the concept of "doublethink": the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in your mind at the same time, and accept both of them, without seeing any contradiction at all. It's... hard to explain, but the further into the book you get, the more it starts to make a kind of sense. Sort of. It's really quite scary, though... because that's one of the things I see as happening to some extent in present America. One of the passages early in the book that particularly struck me was, "It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grams. Syme, too- in some in more complex way, involving doublethink- Syme swallowed it. Was he [Winston], then, alone in the possession of a memory?" While this passage isn't specifically about doublethink, per se, I do feel like it pretty well captures the way doublethink works, as well as how blind devotion to one's party or country works. There have been, probably always, but especially in the past two or three years, so many instances of people (mainly conservatives, and most especially Trump supporters) refusing to believe incontrovertible facts. There's been the rise of "alternative facts," and calling real news "fake news," and Trump himself actually saying "Just remember: what you’re seeing and what you're reading is not what’s happening." It scares the hell out of me how many people believe the things he says that are demonstrably untrue, and how much those people hate anyone who actually believes in truths that are objectively true. How many Americans literally and sincerely believe liberals deserve to die for our beliefs. How they only want free speech for themselves, without consequences, but don't want anyone else to have free speech. ...But now I'm getting more into politics than I meant to, so I'll stop. For now.

Um... I really haven't been doing a good job of explaining the plot. I should actually say that the book is divided into three sections. In the first, we get to know Winston fairly well, and get to understand the world as it exists in the book. In the beginning, he buys a diary, and he begins writing in it, cautiously, about what he really thinks of the Party. We also see what his job is like. And there's a woman who works in another department of the Ministry of Truth, whom he doesn't actually know anything about (not even her name), but he imagines she could be a member of the Thought Police. So he's rather afraid of her, and he hates her (though part of that is because he wishes he could have sex with her... and that's tied up with his desire to kill her... so, even if I empathize with his anti-Party stance, I never really find him likable). There's also a member of the Inner Party named O'Brien, whom Winston imagines, with very little reason, may secretly share his own hatred of the Party. And... I'm not sure what else to say about part one.

In part two, Winston is passing by the woman he hates as they're both walking in a corridor at work, one day. She stumbles, he assists her, and she covertly slips a note into his hand. Later he reads it, and it says "I love you." This is, of course, shocking. (Honestly, I often have to suspend disbelief about romance in movies and things, when people have no reason to love each other. But this... this requires probably the greatest such suspension of disbelief I've ever had to engage in. And yet, on the other hand... since they live in a world where love is essentially forbidden, and social interaction is limited, and everyone is so guarded in their thoughts and feelings that they must not even allow facial expressions to betray them, not ever... I suppose normal metrics for judging the believability people falling in love don't really apply.) The two of them subsequently meet up, but they have to be very, very cautious to make sure no one knows about it. But anyway, Winston learns that her name is Julia. (He probably eventually learns her last name, but it's never given in the book.) He also learns that she hates the Party as much as he does... sort of. I mean, she doesn't exactly hate it for the same reasons he does. She basically just hates it in regard to how it affects the way she, personally, lives her life. Um... I also want to say it bothers me that we only really get to know Julia from Winston's perspective, never from her own, beyond the things she says to him about herself. I feel like the book would be more effective if we got to know her as well as we get to know Winston. But in any event... I'll just accept that they come to love each other. And eventually, Winston arranges for them to rent a room (without a telescreen) above the shop of a prole named Mr. Charrington, from whom he had previously bought his diary.

Also, O'Brien eventually invites Winston to his house, under a pretense, which Winston assumes means O'Brien wants to invite him to join a secret resistance (the Brotherhood), against the Party. He brings Julia with him, and in fact it turns out Winston was right. O'Brien arranges for Winston to obtain a book written by Emmanuel Goldstein, a traitor to the Party and the most hated man in Oceania (though it's unclear whether or not he's even still alive). Winston eventually reads a couple of chapters of the book, which explain a lot more about how the world came to be in its present state, and the true nature of the Party, and so forth. I actually found it quite fascinating. (As much as I'd like to, I won't spoil any details of that.) I wish there were more of it to read, though I imagine it's probably quite similar to things that have been written in the real world by various philosophers and such. I also think a lot of what Goldstein wrote about his world is probably quite applicable to the real world, even if things haven't gotten quite that dire, as yet. Anyway, part two ends with Winston and Julia being arrested by the Thought Police.

Part three involves Winston's torture, and discussions with his torturer about what is expected of Winston, and... there's some of the most intense brainwashing you'll likely ever see in any book or movie. Talk about the nature of the Party leads inextricably to talk about the nature of reality itself. I don't want to reveal any details of that, except to say that there's a part about the torturer holding up four fingers, and demanding that Winston not only say there are five fingers, but that he actually believe it. (This is the part that the TNG episode reminded me of, or vice versa, as the case may be.) I certainly don't want to say how the book ends, but... remember, this is a dystopian novel.

So, anyway, yeah, there are just so many things I must have thought of when reading the book, things I wanted to compare it to, or rather things to which I wanted to compare specific aspects of the book. Like, the way children are trained to basically spy on their own parents for the Party reminded me of V (though that, in turn, had reminded me of the Hitler Youth). Probably the book also made me think of The Wave (which, again, reminded me of the Nazis... it always comes back to them, doesn't it?) I'm probably forgetting lots of things I wanted to say, and maybe at some point I'll remember some of them and come back to edit this. (Or maybe not.) Honestly, my biggest concern is that I haven't given a proper view of just how bad things are in the world of this book, but I feel like to do so would spoil too much of... you know... the fascination of reading it for yourself. In any event, it's... an amazing book. Very dark, of course. But very thought-provoking, and very important.

Also, my copy has an afterword by Erich Fromm, which not only provides valuable insights about this book, but about a bit of the history of utopian writing, and subsequently of dystopian writing. (Though he doesn't actually use the word "dystopia," but rather "negative utopia.") Definitely a good read for helping understand this book, as well as its relation to the real world (even if it was written decades ago).