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.
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