As a genre, sci-fi has gotten credit for presenting outlandish worlds that often serve as metaphors for our own. Of the millions penned to paper, the one whose had the most lasting of impacts is George Orwell's "1984." What is it about this book of a dystopian society that has kept audiences returning to the book, finding contemporary allusions almost 70 years later? In some ways, it's a bit obvious on the surface: Winston Smith lives in a society where the individual is frowned upon in favor of a "slavery," or uniformed love for Big Brother. While this would be enough to keep the book relevant to any form of dictatorship throughout the world, what makes the book more timeless and influential is what is done within those limitations. This isn't just a world where everyone has to love a higher power. It's also one where the tactics to get there are barbaric propaganda, but also maybe relevant in subliminal ways.
The world of 1984 is extremely dry and emotionless. The idea of eroticism is so foreign that the human body fails to create desire. With everything formed into Minstries, the distribution of truth has become state-sanctioned and left many not with their own beliefs, but what is considered an acceptable truth from Big Brother. This is something that would suggest that the main land of Oceania is at war, and that having Hate Minutes is important to each person's morale. It's difficult to stand out as an individual, which makes it even tougher to rebel. The sanctioning of law and order has made it in a lot of sense ironic, and it becomes a miserable maze to escape, if just because Winston discovers in the harrowing third chapter of the book what happens when someone deviates too fat from the path. The short answer is: it's inhumane.
What Orwell does especially well within this dry text is find ways to apply the world's hard coded "truths" into practice. There's a lack of emotion, and it becomes terrifying for the reader - an outsider - to discover some of the laws of the land. The breakdown of language, now called Newspeak, is made up of contradictory portmanteaus and slogans that negate any form of independence. It's a happy world, if you can survive among the laws in place. If not, it's a world where the middle class deconstructs itself with no hope of ever dismantling the actual problem. To an outsider, this is all so barbaric, especially since it's a story that holds several moments of illogical scenarios. There's tragedy on the road to "loving" Big Brother, and the fact that Orwell chooses the bleak ending more than shows that he wants this message to be clear. What can happen to Winston can happen to you, that is if you choose to not act against the inhumanity of the world.
But why does "1984" continue to resonate? Unlike most novels, there's no clear sense that this was meant as a specific warning to the titular year. In fact, Winston isn't even sure that it's 1984. What is clear is that this was a warning for any country even a year after publication that was threatened by overpowering forces, ready to change the discourse and beat dissent into a bloody pulp. In some ways, its immediate parallel was Nazi-occupied Germany during World War II. What makes it more disturbing is that in spite of the severity and differences, the book's subtext of censorship and manipulation of language also applies to American politics of recent years, making it more difficult to deny the book's impact. Even if Newspeak isn't quite how it's presented here, there's still conceptual ways that language has been altered for evil's benefit.
The book has stuck around as one of the greatest books ever written in large part because Orwell's "future" was truer than it likely got credit for. Even if the real life predicaments that could be applied aren't exactly the same, they all share the book's bleak outlook on society's collapse. Maybe it's why the book works best both as an embodiment of a conflict, but also as a warning to those who may be threatened by this decision. If it's possible to counteract the oppression of a dictatorship, then try to stop it now. Beyond its disturbing ability to allude to so, so much, it's still one of the most creative, accessible sci-fi reads of the 20th century. It's so influential that beyond the aforementioned allegories, it also may be responsible for several trends of dystopian fiction, including the young adult series "The Hunger Games." The book may be closer to 100 years old now, but it still has a lot of power to persuade. That alone makes it essential reading, if just because it explains so much about how language and actions can impact the change of society for the better and worst.
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