Who wants to talk about Winston Smith and Life in 1984?

[6079 Smith, W]

Hi everyone out there! :eek2: :redface:
I would really like to talk about 1984, in general and mostly about Winston Smith and how people lived in the book. :nod: ;) If someone wants to share their comments that would be real great. I am also searching frantically for a website with lots of information and images out of the latest 1984 movie (the one from 1985 with John Hurt) as to see if it's like the book how I imagine it and if it's worth watching. Comments about that would be really nice... :blush: Because personally, from what I have seen so far, which isn't much, Winston seems older in the film as I would have imagined for 39. Also I'd be quite interested how some of you imagined Winston to be like and what you think of all the other characters. Thanks if you reply, :D
Winston.

[almazium]

Hi,
I watched the movie over a year ago. I loved the book, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching it. The movie is really linked with the book. One can not enjoy it if he hasn’t read the book. To me it looked more like an illustration of the book, not much adding to it.
While reading the book I imagined the atmosphere darker, filthier, and more ruined. I was impressed to see everything clean, and not dark in the movie.
True, Winston looks older in the movie, but not that old thinking about their way of life.
lily

[6079 Smith, W]

Hi,
I watched the movie over a year ago. I loved the book, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching it. The movie is really linked with the book. One can not enjoy it if he hasn’t read the book. To me it looked more like an illustration of the book, not much adding to it.
While reading the book I imagined the atmosphere darker, filthier, and more ruined. I was impressed to see everything clean, and not dark in the movie.
True, Winston looks older in the movie, but not that old thinking about their way of life.
lily
Hi Lilly,
Thanks for replying! Is the movie really good? I really want to see it, but truthfully I am a little afraid of watching the scenes in the Ministry of Love. I saw a trailer a few days ago and I think the movie seems pretty good. I think Julia is wonderfully brought to life and ok Winston is really good too, I guess he isnt that old....I really want to get it and watch it but, as I said....
Can you give me a little information on if the Miniluv scenes are really bad?
I exceptionally love the book, I am now reading it for the third time. the first time I read it I finished the Part 3 in one day and immediately started again. i think the ending is pretty sad, because I really like Winston and feel terribly sorry for him in the last 5-6 chapters. The book is one of the best I have ever read, Julia is also lovable and the plot is romantic, exciting, chilling and interesting at the same time. :p :yawnb:
My english language teacher actually recommended it in class and I immediately bought it because the description of Winston somehow stirred something in me. He has become my absolute idol and I am touched by his patriotic and heriotic act. :D :nod:
About the film, from what I have seen, the atmosphere seems very dark and filthy, I didn't imagine that on my first read, the 2 Minutes Hate and the Records Department are very dark but now I imagine it the same as it should.
Thank you anyway alot for answering, Lilly! I await your next answer with great anticipation!!! lol
W.S

[almazium]

Hi WS
I read the book, after a friend told me that the term “Big Brother” comes from that movie (not that I am a fan of “Big Brother” shows). I was surprised by this and that’s why I read it. And I loved since the first pages. Why? Because Orwell, though living in another time, had predicted very well what the Communist dictatorship will be like. Of course he used the Russian model, and I guess that’s why Big Brother has the mustache like Stalin, but it is so similar with the communist dictatorship in Albania, that reading it I couldn’t help myself for crying. Only if people here could have read that book that time, I guess things would have been different. Yes, we had a Miniluv Ministry here in Albania, although called differently, and the things were sooooo similar.
I don’t understand though why English writer imagine the future England like a communist country (I just finished Time Machine).
The movie is not that scary (and believe me I usually don’t watch alone a movie that has scary scenes) I could handle this movie. I was impressed though by the change in Winston in the Miniluv ministry. My advise: go and watch it!

[6079 Smith, W]

Oh my God! Is it really like that in your country? That's really bad, no wonder you had to cry.... Was there really a Ministry of Love where they did the same to people like in the book? Thats really frightening! :goof:
Thanks for replying so quickly. The Big Brother thing was the same with me, but I've never watched the shows.
The thing I really wanted to know is that: are the torture scenes in the film really bad? I mean is it really bad, like in the book or worse when you watch the movie? Because I'm a little uneasy in watching them.....
Thanks if you reply again, sincerly,
Winston Smith :)

[almazium]

Hi Winston:),
Well, yes, people of my country had to live through such a thing. Not to that degree though, but it was similar in so many ways. Like the neighbors would always spy on you, there were cases where the children would spy on their parents too. And there was a Ministry that would torture people, managing to make them accept that they did thing which in fact they didn’t and so on. There was no any room 101 present, but now all the streets and the building look to me like they had the number 101 on them.
Love was a different thing. You could love someone (that looks such a freedom!). Though people were not really allowed to show affection in public. That was considered such a capitalist thing and you could go to jail for it, and divorce was not easily accepted.
It all looks gone now, but there are the same people around, and all this thing of the Big Brother watching seems to be in the genes.
Yes, the torture scenes in the film are bad. For me, I think that if wouldn’t have read the book, it would have been different. But since I liked so much Winston, to see his suffering was something more than the movie showed. Was like watching someone dear in those scenes, and that is scary.
Lily

[starrwriter]

It all looks gone now, but there are the same people around, and all this thing of the Big Brother watching seems to be in the genes.
I have read that Albania's communist dictatorship was the worst in eastern Europe and every bit as terrifying as Stalin's Soviet Union.

But totalitarian politics is not in the genes, fortunately. It's all learned behavior, taught by individuals who are control freaks. And what is learned can be unlearned. Totalitarianism of both left and right was the biggest threat of the 20th centry. It may take the whole 21st century to unlearn. It isn't completely dead yet.

[Fat Mike]

First of all, I have to share with you that I really love this book. 1984 was the major reason that I created an account on this forum. This "novel" is one of the greatest creations I've ever read, although I haven't finished the whole story yet. I'm on the 200th page, cant wait to lay down in my bed and go on reading.

We read the book on English lessons, everyone in my class do. After each 50 pages we discuss what has happened so far and I unfortunatly realised something. The most of the kids in my class are totally blind, they don't see the similarities between the novel and our world today. They just read it like another boring, meaningless and stupid book. No one can compare Orwell's masterpiece with our "precious" world and this kind of frightens me. Sometimes I really feel like Winston...

Does it sound familiar to you?

[mirou]

Hi Winston,i'm a tunisian girl studying english in my country...at the begining i found the book boring but when i visited this site and i read your comments about it i could understand it's purposes and i loved Winston because he's a real hero...
so i'ld like to add one thing that seems to me very important in explaining one of the party's policies which are used nowdays in some countries:
When O'Brien had to teach Winston the technique of doublethink (when punishing him)and he did this by inflicting pain of ever-increasing intensity,he hold up four fingers of his left hand and he asked him how many there are(because Winston wrote in his diary "freedom is to say that two plus two makes four")Winston answered four a couple of times and each time the pain encreases and this is not done to make him lie but to make him really see five fingers instead of four.At the end of the session under heavy influence of drugs and agony,Winston really sees five fingers.that shows that the party wouldn't like people to think,it makes them forget their past and see only what the party exposes....

[mike-eustace]

When reading 1984 I couldn't help feeling an over-whelming sense of claustrophobia. The thought of everything you do being scutinized is bad enough. For me though, the most compelling (and frightening) part of the novel was the fact that your most sacred and private possessions (your thoughts) could be monitered. Room 101 was a lot less scary for me because we can see on the news that people all over the world are tortured in much more horrific ways every day. What did anybody else find the most scary / disturbing aspect of the novel.
ME

[mike-eustace]

I'd really like to see the movie but can't seem to find it anywhere; either to buy or rent. Any suggestions?
ME

[mirou]

hi
me too i read this book and i'm enjoying reading it once again...i'ld like to speak about the great hero Winston,he's a really hero because he knew the danger that he has encountred for example he knew from the very begining that his diary would be found(and things that are written in his book ,like freedom is to say that two and two makes four,are used against him later)..he knew that his "illegal" love affair was an act of revolution,would be disclosed by the thought police.
he connected him self with his past which is an act of revolution in his mind and in his real world,he became more conscious and critical...he rebelled against the party ...he is the only person besides his forbidden lover that knows what's going on but the differnce between him an Julia is that the latter was perfectly willing to accept the overnight changes in Oceania's history and doesn't trouble her pretty head about it ( for exp:if Big Brother says blacks is white fine)(she falls asleep over Winston's reading the treasured book by Goldstein)...she loved her man and used sex for fun as well as for rebellion....
i'ld like to discuss more these characters with you ...that's my e-mail:[email protected]

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