I reread it every few years. My favorite section is Goldstein's analysis of oligarchical collectivism.

Unfortunately, with the recent NSA global surveillance scandal, it has become more instructional than imaginative.

There truly are at least half a dozen solid parallels to draw between the book and the current societal structure. Not to go too deep into it, because we would be beating a dead horse here, but newspeak is the one that scares me the most. How "terrorist" has become the new bogeyman scare word that guides all "security" changes. The fact that the T-word works as a funnel for everything from shootings, to hacking and bombing fits the criteria for newspeak even more. Fewer words to describe more things.

I plan to reread it in the very near future as well. This time to look for more current similarities.

I would think the government would have found a way to erase its existence by now if it truly had any insight into their plans. In fact, isn't book banning a central theme of 1984?

Why not cause people to simply stop reading books at all? And that is exactly what they did.

If you have never read it, or if you haven't read it since you were a teenager, now is the time.

E-book: http://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/1984.pdf

I recommend Brave New World instead (though everyone should also read 1984). It's far more accurate.

http://i.imgur.com/nmOtpJV.jpg

I think the two books complement each other. The police state in 1984 and consumerism in Brave New World are all firmly in place.

I read both back to back a while ago and 1984 is, by far, the more important work. But yes, read both, as they are both being used as an instruction manual.

Our dystopian future is a mash-up of "1984" and Huxley's "Brave new World". Feels like we are getting the worst of both.

spoiler - the govt is watching you !

The government is watching. Pay attention.

Spoiler: doublespeak is bad, mmkay.

You are a Double Good duckspeaker.

I've never read it either. Maybe I'll pick that up and The Road. That'll go ahead and prepare me for the apocalypse, in the head anyway.

1984 has nothing to do with the apocalypse.

I know.

The Road is ok, but nowhere near as important as 1984.

Plus McCormak never uses quotation marks.

That bothers the hell out of me.

The whole point of quotation marks is so that you can identify speech.

The pretentious git.

Yeah, don't know why they prefer the ambiguity.

He's being writerly.

It's pure affectation.

Give me Philip K. Dick any day.

You just mentioned my two favorite books.

You can listen to it on youtube

I think I have a used copy somewhere.

I haven't read it since 2008 or so.

I might give it a browse.

The afterward that discusses NewSpeak is probably my favourite part of the book.

It was originally titled 1948, but the publisher wanted to avoid controversy; Orwell compromised with an anagram that kept his title, but allowed the publisher plausible deniability when confronted by her majesty's still very oppressive post-war government.

I'm glad I got to read this book for school and I discovered this sub this year. Amazing book if you ask me, I have a mere 16 years.

Why? You are in it right now.

I read it again last year. I live it now.

Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World seems more apt for today's world. We'll accept things that the powers that be do to us because we're so distracted by bullshit.