Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 21 (Closing out Part 3, and wrapping up)

1984 in a nutshell. Part 1 good. I think when people reference 1984 it's 90% stuff from Part 1.

Part 2 is one third Orwell sneaking in an essay, one third shitting on Julia, and one third everything else. The argument is that Winston is preconditioned from his horrible facist society to hate women (and thus he's nasty to Julia), but I don't know that I buy it. Julia is, factually, a bad character. She's super devoted to Winston (a loser) and kind of brainless.

Part 3 is mostly the same scene (that mostly just repeats Part 1) over and over.

All told, I think you could keep most of Part 1, and cut Parts 2 and 3 down to a single chapter each and improve it tremendously. Part 1 is really good. Everyone should read it.

In the end, the most important quote is:

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

1984 is about how authoritarians, both on the left and right, deny basic reality. As soon as you give them that toe hold, you've already lost. Marcus Aurelius was right, you have to hold truth above everything else.

 I was on a plane today (and the chapters were short) so pretty easy to close out the end. I've got a couple days to fill before I hop into A-Z. Might dip into the other blogs.

Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 20 (3.4)

 At this point, things are pretty repetitive.

 'If I wished,' O'Brien had said, 'I could float off this floor like a soap bubble.' Winston worked it out. 'If he thinks he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously think I see him do it, then the thing happens.' Suddenly, like a lump of submerged wreckage breaking the surface of water, the thought burst into his mind: 'It doesn't really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.' 

That's the best quote in the chapter, but it's not illustrating anything that hasn't been 10 times before. Winston continues to almost (but not quite) break. 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 12 and Close Out

 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 12 

Bonus:

Summary: WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE AND BE FORGOTTEN!

Commentary: 

 If then, now that you are near your exit, setting behind you all other things, you will hold alone in reverence your ruling part, the spirit divine within you; if you will cease to dread the end of life, but rather fear to miss the beginning of life according to Nature, you will be a man, worthy of the ordered Universe that produced you; you will cease to be a stranger in your own country, gaping in wonder at every daily happening, caught up by this trifle or by that.

Live to succeed, not avoid failing.

Not a ton of comments on Book 12, so I'm just going to jump into the final overview.

I've said it several times, but the basic issue with reading all of Meditations is that it's really repetitive. Some minor variant of "memento mori" is probably in there, on average, every other page.

Again, that's not MA's fault, since the whole thing is basically just his journal, not a text book or whatever.

As a philosophy, I think stoicism is decent. You're gonna die, live up to your virtues, worry about yourself (it's all you can do) is all good advice. I don't think I'd hand someone the whole text as a way of learning it though.

If I was going to construct my own 5FSOB I think I'd probably just excerpt whatever section presents the whole thing the best (11.18?) and call it a day.

Projectwise, I learned not to get in the middle of too many different multi-part things at once. And not to try to paraphrase every line.

I'm gonna finish up 1984 next, then I'm into poetry for April.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 5 (19-39)

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 5 (19-39)

Bonus:

This is dedication right here.

Summary: Listen to smart people from the past.

Commentary:

21. He whose aim in life is not always one and the same cannot himself be one and the same through his whole life. But singleness of aim is not sufficient, unless you consider also what that aim ought to be. For, as there is not agreement of opinion regarding all those things which are reckoned good by the majority, but only as regards some of them such as are of public utility; so your aim should be social and political. For he alone who directs all his personal aims to such an end can reach a uniform course of conduct, and thus be ever the same man.

I don't think it's what he meant, but this definitely sounds like, "commit yourself to being (vaguely) good, and don't change it, ever."

Most of the rest is MA acknowledging smart philosophers from the past. I think T5FSOB selections strike a good balance between listening to smart people in the past, and still acknowledging current advances.

Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 19 (3.3)

 A couple important distinctions in this chapter:

1. "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power."

I think we often feel the need to give people/characters a reason to want to be evil, controlling assholes. Sometimes, they're just evil, controlling assholes for its own sake.

2. "The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred."

Being a hater is so much easier than being creative and tolerant and all those other things. Leaves more time for POWER. Also, they want to "abolish the orgasm."

3. "It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide."

I think Winston is right. Eventually, the whole miserable pile will collapse. Either because it can't maintain itself any longer (can you really motivate enough people this way to build a long term sustaining society) or because some challenge arrives that (in its diminished capacity) it can't face.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 4 (18)

  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 4 (18)Bonus:

Bonus: 

1. This is possibly my favorite 4 minutes in any movie (definitely any Transformers property)

2. I needed this for something else earlier today. It has nothing to do with Meditations.

Summary: 4.18 is most of the book compressed into a couple pages.

Commentary:

Secondly: Consider what manner of men they are at table, in bed, or elsewhere; and especially by what principles they hold themselves bound, and with what arrogance they entertain them.

What kind of men they are... in bed!

The rest of point 18 is yet another repetition of a lot of the normal themes. You're not mad at what happened, you're mad about how it made you feel. If someone is a good person, they must have a good reason for what they did. Don't be a hypocrite, you make mistakes too. It'd be a good section to pull out if you were just doing a single excerpt, since it has a lot of of the content in a well organized way.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 3 (8-17)

   Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 11 Part 3 (8-17)

8. A branch cut off from its adjacent branch must necessarily be severed from the whole tree.

Summary: Be smelly with honesty.

Commentary: 

 A man’s character should shine forth clearly from his eyes; as the beloved sees that he is so in the glances of those that love him. The straightforward, good man should be like one of rank odour who can be recognised by the passer by as soon as he approaches, whether he will or no.

And also have niceness laser eyes.