I read 1984 many years ago and reading your notes now shocked me. I’m not sure if it’s reading the synthesized version of the book or the way you present it, but it’s eerily similar to the communist world in which I grew up. I have a memory from when I was 5 years old. We lived on the ground floor of an apartment building. It was summer and I was sitting in the kitchen with my mother. The kitchen window was open to the alley on which people walked. Out of the blue I asked my mother: ‘Who is this Ceausescu you’re always talking about?’ I will never forget the fear on her face. In one sweep she shut the window close, came to me and said: ‘Never ever ask me this question again! Do you understand? You’ll have us put in jail’.
My parents never talked about the dictator in front of me again after that day.
It’s been years since I read 1984 but I remember the feeling of the world Orwell painted – it freaked me out, but in a “never here” way. Your reread & thoughts are timely because I do believe truth, objective truth, is harder to establish now.
What we took on faith doesn’t seem to exist (maybe it never did?). And, horrible acts, even when admitted to, now eschew shame. I’d like to believe, given the choice, people are naturally good, naturally protective but the last few years I’ve seen people of faith fall for charlatans.
Thank you! This is wonderful.
I read 1984 many years ago and reading your notes now shocked me. I’m not sure if it’s reading the synthesized version of the book or the way you present it, but it’s eerily similar to the communist world in which I grew up. I have a memory from when I was 5 years old. We lived on the ground floor of an apartment building. It was summer and I was sitting in the kitchen with my mother. The kitchen window was open to the alley on which people walked. Out of the blue I asked my mother: ‘Who is this Ceausescu you’re always talking about?’ I will never forget the fear on her face. In one sweep she shut the window close, came to me and said: ‘Never ever ask me this question again! Do you understand? You’ll have us put in jail’.
My parents never talked about the dictator in front of me again after that day.
It’s been years since I read 1984 but I remember the feeling of the world Orwell painted – it freaked me out, but in a “never here” way. Your reread & thoughts are timely because I do believe truth, objective truth, is harder to establish now.
What we took on faith doesn’t seem to exist (maybe it never did?). And, horrible acts, even when admitted to, now eschew shame. I’d like to believe, given the choice, people are naturally good, naturally protective but the last few years I’ve seen people of faith fall for charlatans.
It’s hard out there for an optimist.
The true horror is that for some this book is not a problem but a blueprint. An aspirational one.