Orwell's 1984 - a school essay??

Archvillain

Talk about being behind the times... I only read this book last week, but I can't for the life of me think why it makes peoples all time top 10!
Far be it from me to go playing the Big Brother and telling people what to read, but it seemed like Orwell took a fairly simple point of view about the left and expanded it, admittedly in a pretty interesting way, to fill the length of a book.
This is a really basic story, the characters are practically nonentities, the resolution is predestined from the first breath and there isn't one single whit of humanity, levity or simple humour at any stage, although there are tries at it.
It seems like his school teacher said to him, ok young George, the post war british left and Stalin, I want an essay from you by monday.

Let me say it again, I liked the book, but an all-timer?

Dont be at yourself

there isn't one single whit of humanity, levity or simple humour at any stage, although there are tries at it.

There are tries at it?

The book's lack of humanity and of humour, I think, is a device used by Orwell to reflect the world of the book, an inhuman, unemotional world. Hence why most of the characters are non-entities, also.

I understand why some people might not like it (and certainly why it's not in everybody's top 10 list) - it is very bleak, with a very simple story and Orwell famously avoids using verbose language, but it's one of the few books that I reread as soon as I finished it the first time.

simu

I only read this book last week, but I can't for the life of me think why it makes peoples all time top 10!

I imagine they think of it as a worthy book and that it's important for its message to be heard by as many as possible.

I've read it and I found it interesting and enjoyed it but it would not figure on my top 10 list of books. I've read many other books that have made a far greater impression on me/that were more inventive in terms of form and language/that had more interesting ideas and observations in them.

Archvillain

Well i get what you're saying, but I never think the way to portray boredom in literature is to make the piece boring, likewise conveying a vacant and listless feel by being empty and with no direction. I don't think Orwell was guilty of this, but I do think he portrayed bleakness and oppression by being bleak, which is unforgiveable.
Look at Beckett or Dostoevsky, who better to get across the terror of a brick wall of a life, but always they understood to dredge up the human sense, even at its most basic or vulgar, hell they were even good for a laugh...

Zulu

Originally posted by Archvillain
Talk about being behind the times... I only read this book last week, but I can't for the life of me think why it makes peoples all time top 10!
Far be it from me to go playing the Big Brother and telling people what to read, but it seemed like Orwell took a fairly simple point of view about the left and expanded it, admittedly in a pretty interesting way, to fill the length of a book.
This is a really basic story, the characters are practically nonentities, the resolution is predestined from the first breath and there isn't one single whit of humanity, levity or simple humour at any stage, although there are tries at it.

Are you mentol?
..."the characters are nonentities!".... aaarrrggghhh thats the point!
The manipulation/destruction of language to control taughts; the automination of the middle class; the ongoing war to maintain the social structure, and you call it a "really basic story".
aaarrrggghh, did you think about the book as you were reading it, or were you watching tv at the same time?


...and on a personal note, 1984 is a work of art. A definate for the top 10. It's my personal fav!

Archvillain

ahem. mentol?

my point was not that the overall issues were small or uninteresting. Of course they're paramount and this is at least among the best examples of fiction that tackle them, simply for there being so few.

My point is that the characters are crap, undeveloped, and uninteresting. The so-called rebel girl is supposed to stand for unthinking liberty, unaffected by the oppression, but it's as if she were sketched by a student. She portrays no humanity, there's no trace of simple individuality about her, not even, and I know what you're thinking, when she's away in hiding supposedly being a rebel.
All the characters are like this. The Oppresive ones are scarcely cold and dead and the proles are condescending caricatures out of some maudlin Dickens piss-take.

aaarrrrgghhh - are you a pirate incidentally?

Zulu

Originally posted by Archvillain
ahem. mentol?

Joke - a wine-gum and a jelly baby walk into a bar, a orbit chewing gum... blah-blah... ...he was menthol. - Don't worry about it.

Originally posted by Archvillain
my point was not that the overall issues were small or uninteresting. Of course they're paramount and this is at least among the best examples of fiction that tackle them, simply for there being so few.

"Simplicty is the key to truth" to quote.... ...who???

Originally posted by Archvillain
My point is that the characters are crap, undeveloped, and uninteresting. The so-called rebel girl is supposed to stand for unthinking liberty, unaffected by the oppression, but it's as if she were sketched by a student. She portrays no humanity, there's no trace of simple individuality about her, not even, and I know what you're thinking, when she's away in hiding supposedly being a rebel.

That wasn't what I'm thinking.
She's not supposed to display humanity - charastics of human nature have been all but removed from the outer party members...

Originally posted by Archvillain
All the characters are like this. The Oppresive ones are scarcely cold and dead and the proles are condescending caricatures out of some maudlin Dickens piss-take.

Well whatever about Dickens, but that was the point. The inner party members have the freedom, so do the proles.

Originally posted by Archvillain
aaarrrrgghhh - are you a pirate incidentally?

LOL ...fair cop guv!

Archvillain

after all that, my point was simple. it is not a mark of quality fiction to write something mundane and vacant about a mundane and vacant situation.
I'm not saying it has to be simple or even that it doesn't, but it should show some innovation, some humanity, some imagination beyond, even in the language.
even write the thing in newspeak, that would've been interesting...
I just don't think his flaws in characterisation or portraying humanity are intentional. Look at his other books for example.