1984 – Homage to Orwell

I read 1984 when I was 18. I haven’t found the guts to read it again ever since. Not because I found it difficult or heavy; rather, every single word seems to have been branded with fire in my mind.

 

Later on I read Animal Farm, which is probably the most quoted of Orwell’s books; probably its simplicity is structurally superior to the complexity of 1984 (less is more) and yet, I personally feel like I have to tribute to the strength and violence of this futurist dystopia many of the principles which have guided my adult thoughts as they were taking shape.

 

Rather than writing here a critique of Orwell’s work, which is way too rich in meaning and thinking opportunities, I’ll simply relate what I know I have learned from reading 1984 – because you do learn from reading books, albeit it may seem fashionable nowadays to state the contrary.

 

1984 taught me that sex and love are basic and uncontrollable forces, and that it is no chance that regimes have always tried to control and stifle them. It has also taught me that feelings can indeed be destroyed. It has showed me that a systematic lie may become the truth for he who created it.

 

And then, it introduced me to the concept of doublethink: the dogma which accompanies and surpasses any logic or evidence in the name of a perverse dedication to the schizophrenia required to survive inside a totalitarian regime.

 

The slogans of the Big Brother may seem at first sight like incomprehensible paradoxes; and yet a detached look at common political communication will reveal exactly the extent of the mystification that too often characterizes its essence.

 

Ignorance is strength.

Peace is war.

Freedom is slavery.

 

How many times have we heard these orwellian concepts expressed with other words? This is the reason why we still read and love 1984 – because its essence is not merely political, but touches the depths of human nature, and deep inside we can feel how his dystopia is possible and true.