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This book was one of the worst books I have ever read and I am 64 years old. The theme was very boring and not captivating at all. The story took along time to pick up and then it went back down as soon as you started to understand it!!! Never Again!!
Hello Jack,
I am with you on this. Despite the accolades I struggled with it and found it a yawn.
I'd like to know what was a zinger in your opinion. For me whatever the subject, whatever the setting I am always drawn to a story that has some form of redemption in it.
you two should go read harry potter perhaps; very easy to understand and the main character gets all the redemption he wants; oh and dont forget the quidditch!!!
Frankly I prefer to read Harry Potter it's more entertaining :)
But 1984 should make people think ... but do they ?
I, on the other hand, think 1984 was one of the best books i've ever read. It was an accurate prediction of the future. I also found the story captivating and well told. If that book doesn't get you thinking, you haven't done enough drugs.
It cannot be anywhere near one of the worst books you have read. Even the underlying context should stir even the mildest feeling in all of us. Any book that provides feeling cannot be the worst you have read.
Over-reaction my friend.
How can you say such pittyful nonsense about THE book!!!
I don't know where you people live, but if you have never had to wait a month to eat a piece of chocolate,then you probably can say that 1984 is a dumb book!!!
Some of us have lived in circomstances similar to the ones in the book,so we understand and find it completely captivating and true!!! :flare:
I found '1984' to be highly thought provoking as it goes, and that was the aim of the book all along; to sow the seeds of doubt about our own future.
I have read 1984 this year, for an Informatic essay and I found it quite interesting. I was told to read Brave New World too, and that one I found boring.
Brave New World and Great Expections I am ashamed to say are the only two books I have never finished... I am sorry, but 1984 is definatly much more etertaining. I loved this book, the symbolizm, the metaphors, the betrayal, the insight the creation of a culture of the few, brilliant, entertaining. A book though I thouht had many simularities was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyQuote:
Originally Posted by Guida
I absolutely adored 1984, and thought it was one of the most interesting reads I'd ever had the pleasure to come across...unfortunately, I can't say the same for the Orwell novel I'm reading at the moment, Coming Up for Air. Dull and a bit slow-paced. Sigh.
I actually liked both Great Expectations and Brave New World, though I have yet to read 1984. I've never been one to actively dislike a book--there's always something I find enjoyable (or at least interesting) about it, and ranking them relative to each other (besides being a comparison between apples and battleships) only demeans the efforts of the author to create something worth attention in its own right.
personally i didnt like the book... i couldnt get into it at first and found it really hard to stick it out and continue throught... once the first boring part is over it was much better but the ending was painful!! but it was for my school essay so if anyone could be of any help to me.... can you help me by giving me some hints as to why the book still alarms readers in 2006 when it was set 22 years ago? that is my essay question and i need some serious help!!!
1984 is definitely still relevant to whats going on in our world today. and the book was written in 1948 so its even more amazing that it is still relevant 58 years later. With terrorism and other crap going on in our world our governments are trying to take away our basic freedoms, privacy, speech, press and other good stuff. i live in the US so i have some examples of the government tryin to take away our rights. the patriot act gives the government the power to tap our phones and basically watch us which is what Big Brother does in 1984. 1984 is basically a nightmare of what could happen if we take our freedoms for granted and allow our government to take away our freedoms in exchange for "safety." hope this helps and sorry if i sound too political. its hard not to.
"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
I started read "1984" when it was in our "Book club", as I was reading online I couldn't go on with screen more than 2 chapters, decided to wait untill to get the book. (still waiting :rage: )
i don't know how right it will be to make comments based on 2 first chapters, but i didn't find anything about future, it was the real life what soviet people had at the time of Stalin, especially at 1937. many people were killed or arrested for being accused to be against the system in that year. People were scared even to think about certain subject. I think Orwell just based on that in 1948. and Big brother with his moustache is prototype of Stalin .
...did you read the entire book? When i started reading this i thought it was horrid nonsense, but if you keep dealing with the rather dull story and get to the theory such as Goldstein's book near the end, this book delivers. The problem is that it's really boring; even the climax isnt all that great or at all unpredictable. That isn't the idea or the point of the book anyway, though. Read it for the theories-understand each party slogan, understand Newspeak, the figureheads, etc. Orwell makes some really good point's that not only make most readers compare it to today, but most of it is concrete reasoning you can apply to any study of government or social science. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack
I enjoyed 1984, it was thought provoking time passer, and I've ingested my fair share of psychedelics so maybe thats why I liked it, i dunno.
First read it when I was 13 and read it three or four times since. With respect, I think to say it is a bad book goes beyond having no taste and into the realms of completely lacking any sort of awareness. That isn't meant to be offensive, just the truth!
1984 isn't so bad. I guess everyone will have mixed feelings towards, for example is it a warning or prediction? Orwell himself admitted that the book would have been more...optimistic (?) if he wasn't so ill. But i like the rhyme or is it song: Under the chestnut tree, I betrayed you and you betrayed me...
is that how it goes?
I like his view of love, it isn't enough to just say it, we all love someone, but how many of us would stay loyal to the one we love in Room 101??? Raises some very deep and meaningful questions about nature of love.
The reason that the "book" seems so dull, is it reflects the world in which it takes place; look hard at the settings, post war - everything is dull and grey, no one has any hope, the life is slowly being crushed out of the world. It is not meant to be "Uplifting and Interesting", it is meant to frighten and depress.
If nothing else, read the appendix about the newspeak - many people totally miss that the "newspeak" and the "Doublethink" are what is happening now. In particular look at the "B Vocabulary".
"For the purposes of everyday life it was no doubt necessary, or sometimes necessary, to reflect before speaking, but a Party member called upon to make a political or ethical judgement should be able to spray forth the correct opinions as automatically as a machine gun spraying forth bullets."
This is what we see now, in the Media - a pol spits out words, which everyone knows what they are supposed to mean, but no one thinks of what was said - thus we have the Six Second Sound bite, and fantastical named iniatives which mean nothing but sound wonderful. Many people fail to realise that 1984 was not the year it all started in; even in the book, he makes it clear that this has been happening for a number of years now - the date is merely to show what year it is in Winstons life.
i couldn't agree more, still in a different way, it was quite disappointing that the author value the human spirit as nothingness.
for your reason, you haven't been reading it carefully or focused on finishing the book rather than taste every words of it. it was quite plausible the way Orwell drew the totalitarian society. i could not have any word, or obejections and the mistakes on the system of the party, it was too perfect? i guess.
The party is in fact not perfect, but the people like O'Brian believe it so, and thus they work to further the cause. The enventual end will be the collapse of the world back to the savagery of the cave man, as soon or later the proles will collapse, and one thing the party can not survive without, is the people to do the manual laber for them.
But the idea was not to show the party was 'perfect' and would rule for a thousand years (the basic Reich) but that people can and do believe in such things - power for powers sake, torture for tortures sake, and they do what they think they must to keep it.
Though when I first picked up 1984 I did find it quite trying to keep interest, once I had read in2 it I really could not put it down. It was written in a time when had England and her allies not won ww2 and the way in which Russian communism began, 1984 could have been a reality. It also gives the reader a sense of their own freedom by entering a world where there is none.
-Tendayi
Changed my first message; I was 13 not 23 - just to clarify.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack
so ... "Hit the Road, Jack!" It's not the best book in the world; along with Brave New World, these two can be quite gloomy, but it's still damn good writing. Have you read anything about the shape Orwell (real name was Eric Blair) was in when he wrote it? During the torture sequences, he was actually looking in the mirror at his own decaying form as he was dying from tuberculosis and other complications ... he was actually holding up a mirror and showing the world what was happening to him. you dig that, right?
1984 was one of the best books i've ever read, other than "The Hitler Virus" by the late Peter Wyden, and "Ghetto in Flames, the destruction of Vilna Jewry".
It is a masterwork of our time, and shame on all of you who said that it was an awful book!!!
When 1984 was written, the ideas were fresh and to some, a shock - people could see the vision could be true and looked at the world in a different way.
Today, the term '1984' has become widespread and books, films and general thinking dealing with the issues are common. So, it is easy to look at this book as a just another in the genre, but of course it was ground breaking in its time, and the now-called 'boring parts' were themsleves a revelation.
What nonsense! 1984 is an amazing piece of literature, in so many ways and on so many levels. Orwell tackles a major issue (the dangers of a totalitarian state), and does so wonderfully, especially considering that this was written in the 1940s, and yet, is still a new and frightening concept that we can relate to even now.
People's opinion can change depend on their personality and ages. I personally think 1984 is a good novel too. But on the other hand, like almost all Orwell novels it's completely depressive and hopeless. If someone doesn't like this kind of themes, he won't likes Orwell novels.
I have to say that I agree with many of the others: I don't understand any dislike of this book, mainly because I see it coming on the horizon for this world, believe it or not, the Earth's an evil place and Orwell's books shows us a bit of forshadowing in his time can also be forshadowing in our time as well.
MissDay
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I have to say that I agree with many of the others: I don't understand any dislike of this book, mainly because I see it coming on the horizon for this world, believe it or not, the Earth's an evil place and Orwell's books shows us a bit of forshadowing in his time can also be forshadowing in our time as well.
MissDay
MissDay
yes you see it coming on in the world now but even before now it has still been here orwell is so right with many of his predictions i mean look the government can zoom in on our houses, theres videocameras in school and that happened a couple years ago but i know in my school we keeping getting more so yes it is happening but it has happened a while ago too. so it justs keeps getting worse:eek2: whats next? well will we ever be able to trust in our society?:confused:
From my point of view I thought this book was amazing. I agree it took awhile to pick up but once you start understanding its very intresting because some of this is happening to us right now. I don't think the government should have the right to tap our phones or put up a million video cameras on the street corners because we have the right to privacy. Orewell was trying to make the point we all have rights.
It's probably cathartic to get ones gripes off ones old chest but might be more interesting to say what books you do like. When Orwell was writing '1984' in Jura he was dying and maybe the low-key tone of hopelessness before power has some connection with his own physical condition as well as the damaged cities and rationing of post-war UK. That may be something that a modern reader finds depressing, therefore boring. It didn't bore me.
i agree tat this book is vary hard to understand yet i have not finished the book i have not gotten on the train
:brickwall What were you thinking when you said this is the worst book you have ever read? This is a great book, at least so far, because it tells about what this world is coming to. Especially how Orwell wrote this book in 1948 and predicted what would the world would be like in 1984 and he was pretty darn close.:thumbs_up The fact that Goldstein shows up on the telescreen and the people can have thier 2 minutes of hate is a brilliant idea, it really shows how the government controls the minds of people, just like in 1984, how 2 minutes of hate brings the people together and unifies them.:idea: You must have been reading the book upside down.:rage:
I agree with you a little bit Jack. The book is very hard to understand at times and is very hard to get into. Orwell although makes so many points in the book that are compared to how are life is today, and he wrote the book in 1948. So many of his points that he makes are easily shown on how some people in the world live. :)
Example: Cameras in T.Vs and in real life you can barely go into ANY store, school or mostly any place without being under surveillance.
I havnt read it since I was 16 ,but remember it as an easy,informative,read.
I'm 56 and probably too intolerant to risk it again .
Its sad ,but as you get older your expectations are more demanding.
By the time I was 18 I reckoned I had read every book in the English language.........you can read anything when you are starting off .Total indiscrimination .Fantastic.
from my point of view i think you are retarded. This book is so right about everything..his perdictions for the future where correct and honeslty if you can find another book out there that is right on with everyhting then you let me know..but other than that this book is one of or the greatest books out there. :thumbs_up
I can agree and disagree because i'm not very far into this book to actually start judging it. The beginning i was thinking "wow this book is gonna be so BORING" but once i get into it, im hoping to at least understand the concept. i can understand that Orwell is making a lot of valid points in this book and i will probably find out more as i continue reading.
I'll talk to you guys later!
~BlueTidus123
i thought that this was a bad book at first but it seems to get interesting after 30 or 40 pages. although i havent finished the book I think it is worth reading