Significance of the year "1984"

[Thudlow_Boink]

@whitetho

@minlokwat

It’s also a pretty decent song by McCartney and Wings. It’s off the Band on the Run LP and its got a nice piano riff.

Actually this catchy tune commemorated the next year – it was titled Nineteen hundred and eighty-five.

Yes. Not to be confused with “Animal Farm,” which is a song on the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society LP.

[ChipsNDip]

@What Exit?

The first Mac was sold.

And, in one of the most critically claimed commercials ever aired, Apple showed an “Orwellian” technical dictatorship overthrown by a hammer-throwing athelete : link.

[What_Exit]

@ChipsNDip

And, in one of the most critically claimed commercials ever aired, Apple showed an “Orwellian” technical dictatorship overthrown by a hammer-throwing athelete : link.

Shown once during the superbowl and playing on the George Orwell 1984 Theme IRC.

[Colibri]

@KGS

Wow, seven simulposts. Perhaps a record?

Depends on how you define “simulpost.” I would limit it to answers with the same time-stamp, in which case we have four. But still, seven correct responses within two minutes - and within six minutes of the OP - is pretty impressive. I am sure I have seen four simulposts before, but not for several years. I don’t believe I have ever seen five.

I once managed to achieve a “simul-answer,” an answer to a question in GQ with the same time-stamp as the OP. I felt like I had hit a holi-in-one. Admittedly, it was a question almost as easy as this OP, though.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I think it’s probably because of the book by George Orwell.

…oh, did someone else already answer the OP?

I once saw a big coffee-table-sized book which filled with life-size photographs of Orwell’s original manuscript. He wrote, rewrote, re-rewrote, and re-re-rewrote the opening page over and over again before settling on just the words he wanted. The first manuscript page was practically a solid mass of ink. The rest of the manuscript wasn’t nearly so heavily rewritten.

[Anaamika]

@Colibri

I once managed to achieve a “simul-answer,” an answer to a question in GQ with the same time-stamp as the OP. I felt like I had hit a holi-in-one. Admittedly, it was a question almost as easy as this OP, though.

I was going to say, usually your answers aren’t short enough to give in one minute!

I’m kidding of course. Don’t hit me! I love your answers and your contributions to the board.

[Marley23]

@Derleth

It’s also about language, and the idea that you can use the destruction of language to make thinking itself impossible. Briefly, Orwell had observed in his lifetime the power of clichés and canned responses to let people say absurdities and ignore atrocities.

1984 also contained satire of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, sometimes in ways that are related to this point. One of Oceania’s slogans is “Slavery is Freedom,” which seems to echo the “Work Will Free You” slogan that hung over the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

[TheBoneyKingofNowhere]

@Diamonds02

I’m in college.

I do not recall reading this book in HS. I might have and forgotten. I hated almost every book we had to read in literature class. I’m not a fan of fiction books and never was.

We didn’t read this in high school either. But I went and found a paperback in college and can only tell you that it’s worth the read. Fiction or not, it’s more than just a “made up” story. It’s the messages/meanings behind it. The current state of things gives you an opportunity to read it now and get more out of it than if you had read it in high school, or any time prior to the mid-90’s probably. Just read it.

[Excalibre]

@Dinsdale

Diamonds and Lamar
Just curious - if you don’t mind, how old are you and what is your education level?

Just asking because as someone who read 1984 when it was set in the future, I pretty much assume every HS grad is familiar with 1984 and AF. It is always a little surprising to learn that the general curriculum has changed so significantly. Of course, back then pretty much all we studied were dead white men, with an occasional invisible man tossed in.

Come to think of it, we never read 1984 in school, though I think my English class in seventh or eighth grade read Animal Farm. I don’t think 1984 is really ubiquitous on high school reading lists, though at the same time, virtually everyone I know has read it, and if I found out someone my age hadn’t, I would be pretty shocked. It seems to be the most popular answer to “What’s your favorite book?” amongst folks I know.

And I think phrases like “1984”, “Big Brother”, “doublethink”, and the quote “Oceania has always been at war with East Asia” are common knowledge whether or not you’ve read the book. Of course, very little “common knowledge” is universal. I have a little pet theory that there is so much “common knowledge” - the kind of thing that 80 or 90% of the public would regard as obvious - that even very educated people can’t know all of it. I think there’s too much common knowledge nowadays for any of it to be truly common.

@Anaamika

Now that you mention it, we did read the first three. And that stupid, stupid book Old Man and the Sea. So just no Orwell… I wonder why that was? I read Animal Farm on my own, too.

If your teacher had you read The Old Man and the Sea rather than 1984, I’m thinking he had his priorities out of whack . . .

People ought to read 1984 if for no other reason than that it’s a cultural touchstone. The fact that it’s a well-written and interesting piece of literature is just the bonus.

[mnemosyne]

I finished high school in 1998, and although I did read “Animal Farm” as part of an English class combined with a History course, it wasn’t part of the regular curriculum. I bought 1984 just a few months ago, and read it for the first time. I will likely reread it in the future.

According to the copy of the book that I have, the title wasn’t intended to be a simple reversal of the pubishing year. The majority of the book was completed in 1947, was reworked and revised throughout 1948, and published in 1949.

As a result of Orwell’s novel, the year 1984 became a legend long before it arrived. However, that was not the year Orwell initially intended. He first set his story in 1980, but, as the time taken to write the book dragged on (partly because of his illness), that was changed to 1982 and, later, to 1984.

“A note on the text” written by Peter Davison, Albany, London (Included in the Penguin edition that I have).

[minlokwat]

@whitetho

Actually this catchy tune commemorated the next year – it was titled Nineteen hundred and eighty-five. I first heard it played on a jukebox–it was the B-side of the “Band on the Run” single.

Well crap on a stick. You are correct.

What WAS I thinking.

[Captain_Amazing]

@Alive At Both Ends

Had he suffered from writer’s block and not finished until 1950, he’d have had a problem!

Largely because he’d be dead.

[Colibri]

@Anaamika

I was going to say, usually your answers aren’t short enough to give in one minute!

True, I usually try to find a link first or give a somewhat detailed answer, which slows me down. Answering that particular OP was sort of like skeet-shooting.

I’m kidding of course. Don’t hit me! I love your answers and your contributions to the board.

Thanks. In any case, I would hardly consider your comment to be a criticism.

[jjimm]

I studied 1984 at school, and took my exams about it in 1984.

@Leviosaurus

Orwell predicted that by 1984, the world would be overtaken by a totalitarian government which would refer to itself as “Big Brother”.

Correction: the government isn’t called Big Brother, but the head of state, a not-so-subtle caricature of Joseph Stalin.

[AskNott]

After the misstep about McCartney & Wings, I’ll remind you that David Bowie had a 1984 song on his Diamond Dogs album.

[OKFMDOA]

I would estimate that in junior high and high school we studied about 3 books per year. If that’s typical, there’s no way you could assume that someone had studied any book in school, no matter how classic.
What’s with the disrespect for The Old Man and the Sea? It’s a beautiful story. I didn’t study it in school though - I ended up hating most of the books we studied because of overanalysis and being forced to write b.s. essays about them.

[Alive_At_Both_Ends]

@Captain Amazing

Largely because he’d be dead.

Stop bothering me with these petty details!

[Mister_Rik]

@Derleth

It’s also about language, and the idea that you can use the destruction of language to make thinking itself impossible.

My sister recently posted a bit on her blog about this kind of thing. Some kids at her church had read Curious George:

@Sister42

The first graders pointed something out that I found interesting. They were reading Curious George and one student had a book printed in the 40’s. The first page was different than the other books printed more recently. It read something like - Curious George was a little monkey with a fault. He was too curious. The change is drastic in the newer versions. They read - Curious George was a good little monkey, always very curious.

Hmmm. The definition of good just changed . If you remember, CG was always getting into trouble. He caused big messes and ruined things. I don’t think that is good. Curiousity may be good, but only when it’s filled responsibly. CG was the bad kind of curious. I wonder what the author would think of this change made to his work.

[elfkin477]

@Dinsdale

Diamonds and Lamar
Just curious - if you don’t mind, how old are you and what is your education level?

Just asking because as someone who read 1984 when it was set in the future, I pretty much assume every HS grad is familiar with 1984 and AF. It is always a little surprising to learn that the general curriculum has changed so significantly.

I think things have changed. I have a BA in English and have never read this book! Though by the time I started high school, the book was set in the past. (I was in 2nd grade in 1984)

OTOH, I first read Animal Farm when I was 11 and later had it assigned while in middle or high school. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of schools see Animal Farm as the more “timeless” of his novels.

[JRDelirious]

@elfkin477

I think things have changed. I have a BA in English and have never read this book! Though by the time I started high school, the book was set in the past. (I was in 2nd grade in 1984)

OTOH, I first read Animal Farm when I was 11 and later had it assigned while in middle or high school. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of schools see Animal Farm as the more “timeless” of his novels.

Yet, when you think about it, within the world described in 1984, it could really be ANY point in time – just as the clocks strike thirteen, Oceania’s rulers could decree the year to be whatever year they say it is (it’s even admitted so much in the text). In that world, the mechanisms of total control of people’s lives through surveillance, deliberately manufactured crises, editing and reqriting of history and of news and even of the lexicon and grammar of the language itself is designed to make the people exist w/o a frame of reference other than Ingsoc. BB could order that the next year be again “1984”, make all references to there having been a prior 1984 disappear, and make it clear that anyone who claimed otherwise was doubleplusunright or engaging in crimethink.