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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS OP t1_it8dmnd wrote

Reply to comment by spiderhead in Does 1984 ever dive into how the Party took control over Oceania? [no direct spoilers please] by INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

Thank you!

I’ve read that We, Brave New World, and 1984 were satire parodies of the antithesis to the utopian socialist novels of the time.

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spiderhead t1_it8emc5 wrote

George Orwell was highly critical of the elite socialists who spoke of progressivism but had zero interest in being around working class people, but was himself a committed socialist and anti-fascist.

But yeah, since no one is really giving you a straight answer, that’s how I always read 1984 and what I think is implied based on my understanding of Orwell’s beliefs as a person.

You should finish it tho. It’s bleak and disturbing but it’s also an incredibly prescient book that’s worth your time.

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Areljak t1_it8w2vd wrote

Its pretty directly referencing Stalinism and applying it to the UK, some examples:

  • 2+2=5 was a stalinist propaganda slogan

  • The 180° turns in foreign policy and propaganda mirror similar turns in Soviet propaganda from being anti-german then suddenly pro-german following the signing to the Molotov-Ribbentrov pact to then switching suddenly back to anti-german following the German invasion in 1941.

  • The omnipresent Big Brother mirrors Stalin (although Hitler wasnot dissimilar)

  • Goldstein is Trotsky

...I recommend reading 1984 and then reading Child of the Revolution by Wolfgang Loenhard, an autobiographical account from a then young German on the periphery of party politics in the Soviet Union 1938-45 (before going back to Germany to build up the GDR to be to his defection in 1949), its a long book but well worth the read.

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