I had been meaning to read this dystopian novel for years. Just one of those books that I'd heard smart people speak of often, that I knew was important in literature. However, I knew nothing about it before I read it. I try to have as little background information as possible when I read a book for the first time. It lets me better imagine the work at its time of initial composition, publishing and release, and the author's perspective when writing it. Anyway, it took me a long time to read
1984 because the setting and descriptions were the opposite of romantic and it was pretty void of any kind of humor, which are the types of themes and elements I gravitate towards in literature. The reading of the actual text was kind of torturous for me. HOWEVER, this book was super uncanny and disturbingly poignant to read in 2013. In this story, the government literally is always watching what its people are doing. Similarly, in 2013, I noticed such a rise in the ways people's lives were captured and published by themselves and others. For example, I hate the way that now people's facebook pages are used by news stations in order to reveal information about someone in a news story. I feel like there's a true invasion of privacy now that didn't exist even several years ago. I come across places which have security cameras now which I would never expect to have a security camera. And I know that most cameras were installed for safety reasons, but still...it's like...you're always being filmed wherever you go. Big brother really IS watching! Anyway, irregardless of the uncanny accuracy of Orwell's predictions for the future of our society, I liked the love story within. It gave the plot a nice bit of suspense and was the only reason I kept reading. I was very close to putting the book down and never picking it back up at several times, but the love story was interesting. It's not that I didn't like this book, it's just not supposed to be "likeable"...it's not supposed to be one where you could read it again and again. It is supposed to scare you, supposed to move you to worry about what's going on in our world with the government. Anyway...ever since reading
1984, I've been thinking about books and technology in a whole new way. And that is a huge sign of a good piece of art for me--if I continue to think of it long after I've read/viewed/consumed it. So what to say in conclusion? This was a book everyone should read, even if only once and it takes you an entire year to complete it. (I'm not ashamed that it took me a whole year to actually finish it haha).
