Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 4 (Chapter 8)

 This chapter starts off with a pseudo-epigraph from Winston's journal, "If there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles."

And then it's mostly him saying they just need to RISE UP. The party doesn't even bother trying to indoctrinate them, or even surveil them fully. (This is a different from the modern age, where the lower class is the easiest to surveil, since they're attached to smart phones 24/7.)

I like that jus primae noctis has become a right of the capitalists in the urban legends of the oppressive future. 

It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the party was trying to achieve.

People talk about how prescient 1984 is, but I don't see this quote passed around a lot, and I think it's relevant. How many people today feel like nothing even matters? How much of the stuff people do obsess over obviously doesn't? He then goes on to describe how they're in a boring dystopia.

It's "the lonely hour fifteen". I'm starting to wonder if they're just in 24 hour time.

It's starting to sound like Oceania is just "The West". They talk about working with New York and Canada.

This is also the, "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." chapter.

I think people think too much about the thought police parts of 1984 and not enough about the denying reality parts.

Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 3 (Chapter 6)

 It's a sex chapter!

I will definitely be making fun of Wilson's attitude towards women and sex when I teach this book. He's got a incel-vice going on, and he seems like the kind of guy who says, "these females" or something. He definitely mad that the woman he paid to fuck is "post wall" as they say. And, of course, his ex-wife is the dumbest person he's ever met.

Villifying sex seems to be something that authoritarians across the political spectrum can agree on. Can't have sexy music, eh Tipper? 

Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 2 (Chapter 5)

 Winston goes to lunch. He hates everyone in the canteen. Production is up (even though it was down yesterday, doublethink)! The girl he wanted to rape/murder yesterday sits behind him and looks at him.

Casually Completing Classics: 1984 Part 1 (Ch1-4)

 The first thing that jumps out about me in 1984 is how disillusioned Winston already is with the Party, and how much he understands the system.

I feel like most dystopian stuff you read, the main character is initially mostly unaware. But Winston already has his rebel notebook, has long thoughts about how the Party's manipulation works, fakes being a good cog, etc.

I would like to know why the UK is in Oceania. I looked it up, the term had been in use for Australia since the 1800s. Maybe it'll make sense later.

I'm keeping a count for every time there's a:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

So far, 3 (pgs 4, 16, 26 in my Signet Classics 75th anniversary edition).

Liquor is often described as oily. I feel like that's a kind of stock description of cheap liquor. I've had some cheap liquor in my life, and I don't remember it ever being oily. I was going to say I don't really know how alcohol could be oily (doesn't it cut grease in real life?) but apparently (for gin) it could be caused by improperly mixing the botanicals. Which would make sense for the shitty propaganda gin he's drinking.

A huge part of 1984 deals with how uncertain Winston is about the past. He's not even really sure what year it is. Most written records have been destroyed, and the ones that haven't have been censored and altered so many times. I wonder how the people who rewrite classic books (I feel like Roald Dahl's are the ones I've heard about most recently) to censor them would feel about those scenes, and if they realize they're doing the same.

Winston really hates women:

He disliked nearly all women and especially the young and pretty ones who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party the swallowers of slogans the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.

On the one hand, I will be making fun of him for being an incel for the rest of the book. On the other hand,  this is definitely a type of woman that very much exists in real life. Fortunately not the majority of women. (Also, not usually the young and pretty ones.) 

The Big Brother chant at the end of the Hate is written the opposite of how it's apparently pronounced:

"B-B!... B-B!... B-B!" over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first "B" and the second

That'd be a closely connected 1, 2 and then a long gap between 2 and 3. 

Continuing with the above, "Winston is an incel" he also hates any physical activity. He's definitely a cliche basement loser. He dreams about his mom, because of course he does.

Something I thought about during the exercise scene is Winston's concerns that he's being watched via the telescreen. While the telescreen can monitor him, I wonder if they actually have the resources to monitor all of them all the time. Later, he mentions that probably no one knows how many boots are being made when he's making up fake numbers, and I suspect this applies to a lot of things within the Party.

Enjoying it so far, more (probably) tomorrow.

15 Minute Classical Music

 We went to the symphony today. I'm not really sure what I planned for the blog with this...

Ummm, have some videos.

Casually Completing Classics Round 2: 1984 by George Orwell (1949)

 Shhhh, Canadians only.

I'm gonna tell my kids this was 1984

I'm going to start teaching 1984 in my class next week, so I figured I should give it a reread. I figured that was a good enough reason to brush of Casually Completing Classics.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

Something I notice right away is the contrast between Orwell's prose and the world he's describing. Winston doesn't just "tuck" his chin, he nuzzles. The wind is "vile." I think a lot of dystopian literature goes for a narrator voice that's relatively constrained to match the society (or goes way in the opposite direction to make them special). He strikes a good balance here. 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 10 Part 2 (18-38)

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book 10 Part 2 (18-38)

Bonus: 

10.33

Summary: They get shorter now! (Also, everyone dies)

Commentary: 

30. When you are offended at any one’s fault, turn at once to yourself and consider of what similar fault you yourself are guilty; such as esteeming for good things, money, pleasure, a little glory, or the like. By fixing your attention on this you will speedily forget your anger, especially if it occur to you that he acts under compulsion and cannot do otherwise; else, if it be in your power, relieve him from the compulsion.

This is pretty good advice. Glass houses without sin and all that.