Hi Claire & Emma,
I'd love to know why you picked 1984 to read for my class. It's a great sci fi book, though very dense (and it can be slow).
How are you liking it so far?
One of the most important cultural ideas that permeates our society, now, comes from this book: the idea that "big brother" (the government) is watching you. People fear the govt being in our business and policing our thoughts....
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI'm about half way through 1984 right now and am loving it! At first, it was a little slow, but now that I'm in to the story it's great. I think that I chose to read 1984 because you do hear many references to it today. I knew the general concept of "big brother" but now that I'm actually reading the book myself, I can relate and understand to the analogies that are often made to this book!
One of the most frightening things about the book so far is how society was described in the text books (in 1984).... and how similar the descriptions were to what life actually is like. Granted, they only mentioned the worst things about london (the capitalists who own everything, and their black suits, and how everyone else was very very poor) But it's scary to think of our society that way. Are we all like the Party in 1984, allowing our lives to be ruled by "big brother", and giving up our personal freedoms?
Reading this book has made me think twice about the amount of knowledge the government has about our personal lives.
I read in an article somewhere (or saw on tv or something...) how target can predict when a girl is pregnant before her parents, based on the patterns of her shopping habits. I didn't really think about how buisnesses have so many records about us, and that they know more about us than they think we do.
It also caught my attention, that the reasons that search engines are so valuable, is that they have records of everyones searches, that can be sold ( I think, im not sure how this all works) to marketing companies that will use the information to cater their goods and services so that you will want to buy them (or something along those lines!)
Anyways, I'm so glad I'm reading this book now! It is really opening my eyes to see how powerful, and how eerily all knowing our government really is.....
I'm reading over what I just wrote now, and am seeing lots of mistakes... sorry about that! I mostly just wanted to get my thoughts down!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Emma, I completely agree!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at the airport on Friday, there was this message on one of the posters about adding more video cameras to public places to stop crime. Before reading 1984 I wouldn't have thought much of it, but it reminds me of the telescreens that were everywhere in the book. It really freaks me out that people are being watched that often in real life.
The other thing that really makes me upset is that in the books about government control and things like that, they always end up getting rid of or tampering with books in some form. It made me loath the government in the book even more because even though the people in Oceania were allowed to read, the government altered everything that was out there so that the people wouldn't form their own ideas.
I also don't understand how the people of Oceania can be so ignorant. How can they just go along with what Big Brother wants/says? And with the war, how do they just "forget" that the country that they are "fighting" keeps changing?
I've finished the book, and it's one of the best books that I've read. Emma, I can't wait for you to finish it!!