holy shit, i read that book while i was laying in bed kicking dope cold turkey. not uplifting, but it felt about right.
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I swear I only ordered the one copy!
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Thanks! @daneel just posted this elsewhere:
Also about Arrendt… worth a read, too.
Also… how about a book club here to read On Totalitarianism?
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So, just so you don’t steep yourself too deeply in depressing reading material, you should remember that while Orwell’s 1984 paints a bleak picture, it was written about Stalinist Soviet Union, both of which are now gone. “A boot stamping on a human face — forever” might be a vivid, enduring mental image, but the reality that Orwell was writing about wasn’t.
Ghandi said, “remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”
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Another thing to remember about 1984:
The Appendix of the story is a historical document from a future society that is not that of Oceania (for instance, the historical document was not itself using Newspeak).
As (accurately) cynical as Orwell might have been about the future, he also wrote that the boot would not stomp the face forever.
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He was also inspired by post-war Britain as I recall.
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