The Simple Things in Life

A month has passed and Julia and Winston are still finding ways to casually sneak around. I learned a bit more about Julia; she played hockey and did gymnastics (quite the opposites!); she worked for the Pornosec for a year (does this possibly explain why she’s had sex so many times?); and she’s tougher than Winston when it comes to rats (and basic carpentry for that matter). Winston seems to have a fear of rats. I’m not completely sure about this but in your passage he started talking about a repeating nightmare, where something is on the other side and I’m thinking it’s rats.

While most of my section focused on Julia, I found it interesting the little bit of information that I got about Katharine, (technically) Winston’s “wife.” The story about how they accidentally drifted away from a hike, found themselves by a cliff, and suddenly Winston wants to push he over the cliff. Of course he does! I must admit, I was thinking that he would want to have sex with her, unorthodoxly. These violent thoughts that Winston has never fails to surprise me. Let’s just say that while he seems like a nice enough guy, I’m glad that I am not Julia.

However, Winston’s feelings for Julia seem to have transitioned from lust to love. He talks about wanting to put his arm around her in public without fear and wishes that he could be married to her. He imagines for a moment the normality of holding Julia in his arms after they make love; wondering if it is what people did before the Revolution. I don’t know if it was your purpose but it got me appreciating those simple things in life that we often take for granted. To have the ability to take a walk with someone you love, or talk freely about anything your heart desires is a beautiful thing.

This section left me with a deep satisfaction and appreciation for the little things in life. They are so easily forgotten. Sometimes it takes a peak into another (fictional) world for us to realize that we have it good! Thanks for the reminder!

Julia

This entire section seems to focus on the brunette. Winston has another quick run in with her at work, in which she quickly trips and runs off, secretly leaving him a note. Later we find that it says three words that most people yearn for: I love you. This is definitely an interesting approach because the two of them have never spoken before. It makes me wonder why she chose those words. Winston seems so flustered and caught off guard by all of this that he can barely sleep. Why is this that a few days ago he wanted to bash her head and how suddenly feels love? Or it is just lust?

You can tell that Winston has a negative self-image of himself in the way that he is constantly trying to tell himself that she has changed her mind about him, even after a couple of days. And again, later on when they finally meet in the grove, the first thing that he tells he is that he has five false teeth, varicose veins, and a burdensome wife. I think this also explains his extreme hatred for women, especially young and attractive women. They represent something that he cannot have.

Speaking about them meeting in the garden – oh ya, we finally find out that her name is Julia – I find it quite awesome that Winston blurts out every single thought that he has had about her when she asks (including rape and murder). She awesomely takes it with a grain of salt, maybe even as a compliment. Julia has quickly become one of my favorite characters. As I assumed before this, she is an amazing actor. She loathes everything having to do with the Party, yet volunteers for the Junior Anti-Sex League, actively participates in Two Minutes Hate, and any other roles the Party expects their most upright citizens to have.

Yet, it is clearly indicated that she is not an amateur when she tells Winston that she’s had sex with hundreds of other people. An interesting thing about this is how much that turns Winston on. He was hoping she’d say something more like thousands. (Yikes!) In a world that I am only a visitor to, it makes sense to think of this in his mentality. Sleeping with multiple partners for the act of sex in itself represents a true rebellion. You easily put it into perspective in that sex in an animalistic act, something that Big Brother has been trying to destroy. In coming back to one’s animalistic traits, one transforms into a new way of thinking. Independent thinking can lead to an open rebellion.

Whoever thought that sex might be the key for a rebellion to break out?

On The Precipice

In my opinion, Winston keeps acting irrational and I don’t know how the Thought Police haven’t caught him yet. Buying the diary was risky. Now he’s writing in the diary. He skipped his activity with the Community Center for the second time in a few weeks. In a world where everything is monitored, I am having a tough time believing that they haven’t noticed his suspicious attitude. Maybe they have and things are about to escalate.

I found Winston’s walk through the proles’ neighborhood a bit long and boring at first. You just gave a decent description of the proles and now we are seeing their neighborhood again, and nothing about the beginning impressed me. In fact, I was about to take a break from reading when Winston’s eye caught that of an older man - somebody around the age of 80, heading into a pub. (Again, you keep mentioning that all of these irrational moves that he makes is punishable by death. I’m beginning to wonder if I should have been tallying these up.)

I found the brief conversation of Winston and the older man really intriguing. I was rooting for him to find out more information about life before the Revolution. It made since that the guy didn’t have much information to give, since the Thought Police would have already killed him if he were capable of delivering valuable information.

If it were so easy for Winston to leave his side of town and enter into the prones’ neighborhood, which is a place without telescreens, wouldn’t the place be more censored? It seems that all a person from the Party has to do if he wants to commit a crime without Big Brother seeing from the telescreen is go into this neighborhood where there are no telescreens. Sure, most people wouldn’t do it because entering this area is punishable in itself. But if a person wants to commit some kind of crime than he must not be loyal to the Party anyways. It seems to be an easy way for rebellious types to commit crimes with only a minor chance of getting caught, and this doesn’t feel like something that Big Brother would let slip.

And another Party member is seen in the neighborhood. Winston in spotted by the brunette girl that he works with. (Yes, the one whose throat he wanted to cut during climax.) Although he is convinced that she is spying on him, I think that she is actually on his side. Maybe she’s a better actor than he is.  

All in all, this felt like a slow episode for me. Slow episodes don’t always mean disappointment. I very much enjoyed the characters that Winston came into contact with.

Winston is playing with fire and it feels like he is on the precipice of complete mental agony.

Proles and Newspeak

All toothless prostitutes aside for now. Let’s talk about proles.

The casual but vague mentions of proles earlier hadn’t peaked much interest. But now we just got a much more vivid explanation than anything else you’ve given us thus far. At first I was convinced that they were robots; proles kind of sounds like a robotic name and their lack of cognitive function might make one infer that. I got really confused when you mentioned that they made up 85% of Oceania. (Yes, I am assuming that this nation is called Oceania. Still kind of strange I think.) This definitely makes me infer that they are humans, but deemed as robots by the people (since they are considered “unconscious”). But why mention that the “Party could not be overthrown within?” It seems that they are a part of the population but not a part of the Party? This makes me confused. 

You also said “proles and animals are free.” It’s an interesting slogan since it seems to be one of the few slogans that are true. Yet it seems to be an unwanted quality. If proles can roam around in their poor infrastructure and do pretty much whatever they wanted, it makes me wonder if I was living in this world would I want to be in Winston’s position (part of the Party I think) – slightly better off but brainwashed – or as a prole – very bottom of the food chain but free to do what I feel like and think mindlessly? I think I would be a prole.

And now we know – along with Winston – that Winston is writing his journal addressed to O’Brien. O’Brien is apart of something big. I can feel it!

I recently discovered that this book has an appendix containing “The Principles of Newspeak,” and decided to add this into my reading. Newspeak is the developing language, in which will be the only language used by 2050. Its main purpose is to wipe out unnecessary words, which will prevent people from committing “thoughtcrime” since the word will not exist. It is also something that someone would not understand if they don’t have a complete understanding of Ingsoc, English Socialism. (Thank you for clarifying this one for me!) I find it interesting, the extreme limits that Big Brother goes through to make every single person incapable of independent thinking.

The Newspeak vocabulary has been split up into three sections: the A vocabulary, the B vocabulary, and the C vocabulary. The A vocabulary is everyday vocabulary. The B vocabulary is political vocabulary. The C vocabulary is considered to be a “supplemental” vocabulary, entailing “scientific and technical terms.” What I don’t understand is that you said that the word “science” is completely removed from Newspeak. If this is the case, how can you contain scientific terms if no such thing as science exists? These seem to contradict one another.

Finally, I enjoyed you example at the end of the appendix explaining that even by some chance a person came into contact with a piece of writing from the past – we are assuming that everybody speaks only Newspeak – they wouldn’t be able to understand it. I think this is the ultimate security on making sure that nobody can hold proof that Ingsoc is a liar, since they won’t be able to understand what any of it anyways. You are really dumbing down the nation to be worse than prones. What intellectual level will the drones be at by that point?

Thanks for the extra bit of insight for a hard-to-imagine world!

A Toothless Prostitute

The plot thickens a little. You’ve given a great overall description of how people think. The conversation that Winston had with Syme was perfect in that. The smallest flinch of doubt on Winston’s face and his “comrade” would turn him into the Thought Police without hesitation.

Syme is an interesting character to think about. On one hand, his intelligence seems above average. Yet he loves the idea that by destroying words people won’t even be able to think for themselves (and commit Thought Crime). Big Brother is dumbing down the intelligence of this nation (Oceania is it?) and the people are more than happy to do it for them (or him?). This example really sets in the complexity of the nation and how hard it would be to live with unorthodox thoughts like Winston has.

Then again, is this really something that is remotely possible? I find your writing to feel very real but the scenario is so extreme.

I am curious about what is the rest of the world like. The world is too large to have one kind of monopolizing government. I’d like to get an outsider’s perspective on this unusual world. Currently, it reminds me of an extreme North Korea (will they win the World Cup again?).

I think the dinner conversations between Winston, Syme, and Parsons dragged on for too long. I was really excited to leave that conversation.

And now on to a much better topic: sex! I was wondering how love and sex would work in this community since it leaves us with strong emotional ties. I guess only allowing two people who aren’t attracted to one another is one way of achieving this. And to convince the people that the act is not pleasurable and disgusting. Does this mean that they don’t allow masturbation?

What an awesomely sickening way to end the section! What started out to be a slow section for me ended with me giggling in disgust. The undertone of humor is present but it’s vague and rare. I was intrigued to read further, thinking that this woman that Winston writes about was the love of his life, only to find out that she was an old hooker with no teeth. Still makes me laugh! J

I’ll catch you on the flip side!