1984- A hapless overview
Why relate "1984" to Utopian Writing?
Orwell's classic social critique has long become a hallmark of the Utopian Writing genre, and the underlying reasons are easily observed from the most superficial reading of the text.
The "plot" concerns itself with the misadventures of Winston Smith in the supposed year of 1984. Throughout his struggle against the all-consuming control of Big Brother, "1984"'s central villainous figure, we learn of the government and society in Airstrip One (London). Almost dehumanised, citizens are identified not by names, but by numerical codes (6079 W Smith, in Winston's case), subjected to the continuous surveillance of telescreens and cast into fear of the omnipresent "Thought Police". There is no freedom of thought let alone freedom of speech, and parents live in terror of their children, indoctrinated with Party Principles and fully able to turn adults over to the Thought Police for "vaporisation", perhaps an apt euphemism for obliteration.
What democracy is there to speak of in "1984"? The omniscient figure of Big Brother is "always watching"; he eradicates opposition through his Thought Police and has whole ministries dedicated to keeping the status quo: deleting his mistakes from print, altering history and feeding the people indiscriminate propaganda- successfully galvanising his people into a blind adoration of his principles and person.
Such are the concerns of Utopian Writings in general- that of how those in power of a state of perfection pervert their own principles to their advantage, and how the need for control and the oft harsh means that come along with it, are prevalent in 'perfect' societies that seek to maintain their state of Utopia. I think, though, that the true relevance lies in how "1984" presents a situation that cries out to be corrected. A hellish dystopia, it is just part of the "cycle of Utopia". "1984" uses historical allegories to demonstrate that the world of 1948 was not entirely unlike the strange madness of Big Brother's society, and that prudent correction could lead to improvement.
Then again, this has always remained fuzzy to me. I've always wondered what the "Utopian" message in "1984" is. The only similarity in the societies presented in "1984" and More's "Utopia" seems to be that both are highly improbable, very unrealistic and maybe even impossible. Though the former seems to be the antithesis of the latter. *ponders*
And such is the stuff of my mindless rambling as I strut around in my self-important writing. I'll edit and continue this when I've done more credible reading.
Merry Christmas!
Orwell's classic social critique has long become a hallmark of the Utopian Writing genre, and the underlying reasons are easily observed from the most superficial reading of the text.
The "plot" concerns itself with the misadventures of Winston Smith in the supposed year of 1984. Throughout his struggle against the all-consuming control of Big Brother, "1984"'s central villainous figure, we learn of the government and society in Airstrip One (London). Almost dehumanised, citizens are identified not by names, but by numerical codes (6079 W Smith, in Winston's case), subjected to the continuous surveillance of telescreens and cast into fear of the omnipresent "Thought Police". There is no freedom of thought let alone freedom of speech, and parents live in terror of their children, indoctrinated with Party Principles and fully able to turn adults over to the Thought Police for "vaporisation", perhaps an apt euphemism for obliteration.
What democracy is there to speak of in "1984"? The omniscient figure of Big Brother is "always watching"; he eradicates opposition through his Thought Police and has whole ministries dedicated to keeping the status quo: deleting his mistakes from print, altering history and feeding the people indiscriminate propaganda- successfully galvanising his people into a blind adoration of his principles and person.
Such are the concerns of Utopian Writings in general- that of how those in power of a state of perfection pervert their own principles to their advantage, and how the need for control and the oft harsh means that come along with it, are prevalent in 'perfect' societies that seek to maintain their state of Utopia. I think, though, that the true relevance lies in how "1984" presents a situation that cries out to be corrected. A hellish dystopia, it is just part of the "cycle of Utopia". "1984" uses historical allegories to demonstrate that the world of 1948 was not entirely unlike the strange madness of Big Brother's society, and that prudent correction could lead to improvement.
Then again, this has always remained fuzzy to me. I've always wondered what the "Utopian" message in "1984" is. The only similarity in the societies presented in "1984" and More's "Utopia" seems to be that both are highly improbable, very unrealistic and maybe even impossible. Though the former seems to be the antithesis of the latter. *ponders*
And such is the stuff of my mindless rambling as I strut around in my self-important writing. I'll edit and continue this when I've done more credible reading.
Merry Christmas!
posted by Spatula at 7:46 PM
1 Comments:
First, Merry X'mas to you too, tho' i hope this doesn't mean that I've to wait that long for the next posting!
Would you care to elaborate on what you mean by "cycle of utopia"? Sounds most interesting.
And yes, i share your confusion over the fuzzy logics of this paper - grouping More's Utopia together with Orwell's 1984 - What IS utopian about it? I guess you've unlocked the other implied aspect of the paper (if you haven't already): "(Dys/)Utopian Writings". In 1984, elements of utopia seem fleeting and diffused, highly implied, mostly absent.
You'll realise that the readings for this paper can be loosely group into 3 types - those following More along a more orthodox representation of utopia; those belonging to the camp of orwell and huxley who are preoccupied with dystopias, and lastly those who are ambivalent - such as Dick and Barnes (note that these are later, more recent writers). Our job is to expose ourselves to as many of these 3 aspects as possible. LT
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