The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
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The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
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Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#2[flagged]
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#3[flagged]
Orwell was a leftist, but also opposed totalitarian societies. "1984" was a dystopia to expose such totalitarian societies. Unfortunately, much of what he described as a horror scenario in "1984" is already reality today, without people being bothered by it anymore.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#4This appendix, along with the chapters that are except from "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism", are actually my favorite parts of 1984. I enjoyed how "Principals of Newspeak" is written in a past tense when describing the language and the events of year 1984, it feels like a glimmer of hope that somehow mankind did indeed escape the horrific dystopian world otherwise presented in the book.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#5I hope this gets more traction.
The true takeaway to 1984 was this appendix and it’s implications. The panopticon of Oceania merely a side-effect and tool for enforcing this new world of Newspeak.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#6This appendix, along with the chapters that are except from "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism", are actually my favorite parts of 1984. I enjoyed how "Principals of Newspeak" is written in a past tense when describing the language and the events of year 1984, it feels like a glimmer of hope that somehow mankind did indeed escape the horrific dystopian world otherwise presented in the book.
I do hope that Orwell intended to do this, and was not merely an oversight or an enforcement of grammatical norms by his editors.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#7[flagged]
Orwell was a leftist, but also opposed totalitarian societies. "1984" was a dystopia to expose such totalitarian societies. Unfortunately, much of what he described as a horror scenario in "1984" is already reality today, without people being bothered by it anymore.
How do you define 'leftist'? Orwell also wrote Animal Farm, which is critical of communism.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#8[flagged]
1984 and The Giver (both featuring dystopian societies with strict rules on language usage) has left me with a distinct distaste for the constant skirmishing over terminology currently active in our current “culture war”.
It frustrates me to no end that English teachers, while assigning both books with high frequency, completely miss the language control part of both novels and focus instead on the other things. It frustrated me as a student, it frustrates me as an adult, and more importantly it frustrates me as a friend/peer to many schoolteachers of English.
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Orwell was a leftist, but also opposed totalitarian societies. "1984" was a dystopia to expose such totalitarian societies. Unfortunately, much of what he described as a horror scenario in "1984" is already reality today, without people being bothered by it anymore.
How do you define 'leftist'? Orwell also wrote Animal Farm, which is critical of communism.
How would you define "leftist" in a way that doesn't contain Orwell?
Animal Farm fits very well into
> opposed totalitarian societies
Re: The Principles of Newspeak (1949)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Orwell was a leftist, but also opposed totalitarian societies. "1984" was a dystopia to expose such totalitarian societies. Unfortunately, much of what he described as a horror scenario in "1984" is already reality today, without people being bothered by it anymore.
How do you define 'leftist'? Orwell also wrote Animal Farm, which is critical of communism.
If only we had a record of him stating what he's advocating for...
Let's see, perhaps an essay titled Why I Write[0] could give us some hints:
> Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.
That encompasses both Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949).
[0] https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...