1984 #

Rating: 3/5
Type: Fiction Novel

Review #

It has been a good 10 years or so since I last remember reading it, but it has stuck in my mind a bit. The three key takeaways I took from the book was on the soul-crushing nature that comes with a lack of freedoms, the paranoia that comes with censorship, and the danger of mutating a language so you can no longer properly express things. The former two I don't think are that spectacular as points, but are still a worthwhile reminder of the freedoms we have today, but the latter is quite interesting. Up until recently it has not seemed like the powers that be could meaningfully control language, judging by what I know about Philology, but as it is today it does seem somewhat possible however still wildly uncontrollable. A lot of the more recent linguistic expressions and words seem to come out of revolt, rebellion, cynicism and memes.

As a Dystopia, 1984 pales in comparison to Brave New World. The biggest issue I have with 1984, is that it is a Dystopia that requires a high amount of energy to maintain. In many ways this mirrors the Soviet Union or China and even in both of these, they struggle to maintain this. It's at the point that a fair amount of Chinese folks use VPNs and other tools to be able to talk internationally, and because of the difficulty(and the terrible optics that come with it) in enforcement, they often turn a blind eye. As a result, I believe Brave New World paints a better and arguably more cynical picture of things.

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Published on 2026/02/18