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Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

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Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#41

Post by sdwr »

elephanlemon wrote: post #35

Interesting how pedantic he is! > Then, too, Orwell had the technophobic fixation that every technological advance is a slide downhill. Thus, when his hero writes, he 'fitted a nib into the penholder and sucked it to get the grease off. He does so 'because of a feeling that the beautiful creamy paper deserved to be written on with a real nib instead of being scratched with an ink-pencil'. > Presumably, the 'ink-penci…

I don't think it's pedantic, he's trying to make a broad point about his mentality, using the detail as the defining example

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#42

Post by j-bos »

chungy wrote: post #36
neilellis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monarchies

It depends on one's definition of dictatorship. I personally do not believe, for instance, the British Crown is one such instance.

Besides that, multiple ways to read this. "Monarchies" could've been a reference to pre modern monarchies of which many made it through at least 3 successions. Or as a correction to the upper comment, saying that the Kim's are more monarchy than plain dictatorship.

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#43

Post by Animats »

Asimov in 1980 didn't have access to "Orwell, the Lost Writings", published in 1985. That details Eric Blair's ("Orwell" is a pseudonym) jobs during WWII, mostly at the British Ministry of Information. "1984"'s details are partly autobiographical. One of Blair's jobs was to translate news broadcasts into Basic English for broadcast to the colonies, primarily India and Hong Kong. He found that this was a political act. Squeezing news down to a 1000 word vocabulary required removing political ambiguity. It's hard to prevaricate in Basic English, which has a very concrete vocabulary. Hence Newspeak.

The details of Winston Smith's job are close to Blair's job. The rather bleak canteen matches the one at the Ministry of Information. A middle manager above Blair had the initials "B B", and that's where Big Brother comes from. The low quality gin, cigarettes, and razor blades are the WWII British experience.

"1984" is in some ways Dilbert, with more politics.

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#44

Post by janwillemb »

ninalanyon wrote: post #4

I wonder what Asimov would write if he were to re-do that review now? Now that we actually do have televisions that can hear us as well as show us ads and in which governments of every nominal political stripe are falling over themselves in the rush to buy Palantir's products and to inject monitoring software into every mobile phone and 3D printer.

His point is that the Orwellian way of surveillance is impossible to do in practice, and that a proper science fiction writer would have left the surveillance to machines. So I think his critique is about the art of SF writing, not about the prediction of surveillance itself.

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#45

Post by jamescrowley »

melagonster wrote: post #38

>Nor did he foresee any difference in the role of women or any weakening of the feminine stereotype of 1949. This is funny for me. The most common type of criticize for Asimov's work is that people complain Asimov did not add enough women in his book. The world is changing so quickly.

[flagged]

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#47

Post by harry8 »

melagonster wrote: post #38

>Nor did he foresee any difference in the role of women or any weakening of the feminine stereotype of 1949. This is funny for me. The most common type of criticize for Asimov's work is that people complain Asimov did not add enough women in his book. The world is changing so quickly.

I enjoyed reading "Foundation" recently. The total lack of female characters was jarring to say the least. Worth the read if you haven't. Not much like the AppleTV series.

Re: Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980)

#49

Post by nl »

TMWNN wrote: post #39
hvs wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Animal Farm" is a satire of the Russian Revolution.

Correct. More to the point, when it appeared many on the left attempted to wave this away by claiming that it was, as one put it, a "gentle satire" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm#Reception > when anyone who has read Animal Farm knows that it is in no way gentle in its satire. What nl is attempting to do above is the latest iteration of what Animal Farm and 1984 both received from those who could not stand…

> What nl is attempting to do above

Um wow talk about bad faith!

Actually it's been about 35 years since I read Animal Farm, so I took what the review said as valid.

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