Winston leads the dull life of a worker, not encouraged to think, or dream, for feel for himself. His whole life must be driven to support the Party, which promulgates an apparent non-entity Big Brother as the supreme one. Winston early on shows the spark of individuality that the Party so wants to extinguish; by daring to write a journal on his own, he seals his fate early in the story. Soon he meets Julia, another worker, who charms and dares him even further to enocurage having an affair. Together they make a lethal pair, and some lethal decisions, which leads to the great climax in the Ministry of Love.
What lies in the story is an amazing prophecy of government gone mad. The Party believes in creating present truths by writing and rewriting the past on its whim. The Party understands in order to control the people, it must control the language, thereby, creating "Newspeak". The Party makes people simply vanish, eradicating them from existance. The Party realizes the people who follow are merely plebians in society, and therefore, should be encouraged to not think for themselves. In fact, the Party is able to directly lie to the people, using "doublethink", where they say one thing but mean the other.
How much of Orwell's nightmare is something that can be true today? Do we have a government out of control, one that manipulates information for its own benefit, to justify war, ensure fear and terror reigns over the country; one that illegally detains people without trial, right to counsel, or even being charged with a crime; one that wants to extensively monitor our personal phone calls, e-mails, the books we check out of the library, the things we buy in stores. The dots are there to connect them; the challenge is, will you dare to do it, like Winston Smith dared?
I believe 1984 is ultimately a hopeful book. Orwell wants to challenge humanity, that during times of crisis, we are able to rise up and change things, so the fateful prophecy so nobly and horrifyingly espoused in 1984 , will only stay between the covers of the book. The choice is up to us.
In the future, there is the one state, ruled by "Big Brother", an allegedly benevolent ruler who is rather sinister. Obedience is demanded, subjects are not even allowed the freedom of thought. All labor and effort is geared towards the "greater good", in a totally egalitarian society that is as stifling as it is sterile.
Written as a criticism of Stalinism and the Soviet system, its biting criticism is testament to the extremes of ideology. While it is an easier read than the earlier Soviet work by Eugene Zamiatin's _We_, I feel _We_ is the better book. Nonetheless, 1984 is worthy of a reading.
so, i was rather, as it were, stoked about this coming out. pynchon is one of my favourite authors, and to have him writing the intro for such an important book was, to say the least, an enticing concept. well, unfortunately, i really didn't think much of his intro. basically, the biographical information is presented in a rather dry and uninspiring tone, and the philosophical aspects seem, in the worst sense of the word, academic. it provides a somewhat interesting picture of socialism's evolution and existence, but, ultimately, i found it failing in its (presumed) goal of introducing the work at hand. moreover, i found it rather wanting for pynchon's personal style. basically, i'd recommend checking this out of the library for a reading, but if you already own a copy of 1984, don't bother picking this up as a second for the sake of the intro, it is, unfortunately, not worth it. on the other hand, if you don't already own 1984, get two, they're cheap.