The Golden Country

This is probably the theme most obviously linked to Utopia. To Winston, "The Golden Country" is an image of a patch of countryside that recurs in his dreams. He described it as "an old, rabbit-bitten pasture, with a foot-track wandering across it and a mole-hill here and there."[pg33] He characterises it again later[pg129] when he actually sees it, in waking life, in much the same words.

It is quite clear that this is a form of utopia to him. I'll now try and speculate as to why, to Winston, this should be such a beautiful place.

Firstly, I suppose that being, as he described it, "a creature of the indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin"[pg125], a place out in the clean natural environment could easily become a place of great beauty to him. Also, being one who has memories of the past and remembers things being better before the Party took over, he would naturally find that what the rabbit-bitten pasture represents, a part of the world that has survived from the past and is yet unsullied by the influence of the Party(since it's not cultivated, with the only sign of civilisation being a footpath), a paradise. It is a statement of hope to him that the Party is not all-powerful and has not been able to change everything from the past, that the evidence of the past truly exists.(a curb by which to keep him on the path of sanity?)

Another likely reason is because the place is out in the countryside and is thus free from telescreens, though "there was always the danger of concealed microphones"[pg123], there is a greater sense of freedom and privacy impossible to be experienced in the telescreen-ridden cities. At least it was possible to remain unidentified by not making a sound or by not speaking and there is no need to hold his face in a recommended expression. It is probably because of the preciousness of the relative freedom and privacy in that place as well as the way these feelings reminded him of the vanished past that the place is Utopia to him.

A simpler reason may simply be that the place is more scenic than the "grimy landscape"[pg5] that formed London and therefore beautiful and wondeful by contrast.


Why it is his "Golden Country":
-b/c rep what had existed before the Party, rep the old world
-more free from being spied on-freedom
-scenic unlike squalid London


Points to note:
hope /desire occurs early in bk
what utopia is is dif for dif ppl
his golden country not perfect,not describes in absolute terms or high sounding terms thus what he truly desires is sth else? sth more down-to earth?

Language, Self and Politics

This theme is linked to the previous theme of "Language and Self".
As shown earlier, language and self in Oceania are linked as the former was shaped around the mind of the latter. Politics is as it is the one in power who is able to forcefully shape the language of a country, in order to shape the self, in order that he may remain in power. Thus the politics of Oceania can be said to involve shaping the language since through the specific shaping, the "selves" under the one in power can remain subservient and thus ensure the perpetuation of the power of the one in power. They are linked in a cycle.

Language and Self

*Linked to Newspeak. See Notes on NS*
The language of Newspeak is probably the more concerned with the individual user than any present day language. It was "devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc"[pg312] of which the primary purpose was to maintain the control of the Inner Party(the High) over the masses(The Outer Party[Middle] and the proles[Low]) . As such, it was devised so as to break what George Orwell termed "the ancient cycle" of the "Middle" rising and overthrowing the "High" and the newly formed "Middle" seeking to dethrone the new "High" and so on, ad infinitum. Its purpose was to make impossible the conception of heretical thought and so preserve the structure of the society, thus it was painstakingly tailored to the individual's mind so as to reduce thought("NS was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought"[pg313]"), via euphony etc, and prevent unorthodoxy, via increasing the rigidity of meaning etc, to the maximum extent. That is how the language is intimately linked to the self. It was created for the express purpose of making the self an unthinking follower of Ingsoc.

O'Brien and Politics

O'Brien is a member of the Inner Party. Like the average Inner Party member portrayed in the book, he is one who depends to a large extent on doublethink. I find that who he is in the novel is also defined to a high degree by the concept of doublethink. His job in the Party makes it necessary to constantly use doublethink. For instance, being at the helm of the Party, he needs to be fervent in believing that the war could be won when he knows that it cannot be. Also, in demonstrating to political prisoners their need to employ doublethink so as to be one of the mindless drones under the Party, it is likely that he would have demonstrated its use himself, as he did with Winston with the photograph of Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford.

Also, being the only Inner Party official developed and explored, his mentality represents the mentality of the Inner Party, and thus the Party itself. He believes in the doctrine he preaches=>The Party believes the doctrine of Ingsoc. Thus, it would appear that the Party itself is not truly the one at the top of the heap since the basis of their power is their enslavement to the very ideas they had created.

Politics is defined as the ideas and activities that are concerned with the gaining and using of power in a country, city etc.

In Oceania then, the politics concerning the perpetuating of the Party's power is done by means of inculcating a manic worshipful loyalty towards the Party in the children of Party members. As they grow up with such beliefs bred into them, they will see the world as the Party means them to see it and any future rebelliousness from them against the rule would be either impossible or extremely difficult to evoke. This brainwashing of the youth also serves as a means for the Party to infiltrate the fastness of the home and spy out all potential traitors, gaining near omniscience.

The politics of the Party also involve the use of pre-emptive action against political criminals among its members. This is tied to its not believing in punishing the act but punishing the thought("The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about."[pg265] and "the endless purges...are not inflicted as punishment for crimes). That is the reason why even something only suggestive of thoughtcrime; even "a single flicker of the eyes could give you away"[pg39]. Perhaps that is why the Party seeks to utterly crush and annilhilate all Party members with incorrect thoughts while allowing crimnals favouritism. ("...the gangsters and the murderers...formed a sort of aristocracy."[pg239])This is linked to my next point.

The Party is able to maintain its power over its members simply by training into its members the mental discipline of crimestop. Through crimestop, the Party member becomes mentally guarded against any erroneous thought that may occur to him, thus effectively guarding himself against his own mind. The discipline of crimestop trains the member to stop thinking along any line of thought as soon as it approaches an undesirable thought, to become incapable of understanding any heretical idea, thus elimianting the possiblity of opposition to the Party's rule.

Finally, in dealing with political criminals who have somehow escaped their mental "conditioning", they torture them to the point where their minds actually believe whatever the Party demands of them, just so that the body can be spared more torture. These people are then made further use of by the Party in that they are force fed lies, made accountable for the deficiencies of the Party, made another focal point(apart from Goldstein in the Two-minutes Hate) for the discontent of the masses which should otherwise have been directed towards the Party. This is in part how the Party is able to perpetuate its power.

Julia, Sexuality and Love Part3

On Love:
The love that we are familiar with does not seem to exist in Oceanic society. In its place, a kind of tainted love exists. Love is but one of the many emotions that the Party has polluted. Winston himself admits that the pure emotions from before the Revolution no longer exist. (" "[ ])

Personally, I do not find the affection between Winston and Julia to be the effect of real love, just tainted love. The open show of "love" in the clearing seems to me to be simply an outpouring of the repressed sexual impulse in both of them. Possibly more in Winston than in Julia who had arranged such meetings "scores of times"[pg131]. The attraction was not directed exclusively to each of them as an individual. In fact, I believe that had Julia been sensed a fellow rebel in Syme, she would just as willingly have sought him out. Besides, the fact that she has met with so many others before Winston speaks for itself.

Julia, Sexuality and Love Part1-(cont'd)

More about Julia:
Well, thinking about Julia again, I guess that her aforementioned trait of living in and for the present is partly responsible for this next point.

Being someone who does not enjoy looking ahead, especially when the future is so bleak("sooner or later the Thought Police would catch her and kill her"[pg142]), she tends to dwell on the moment, to believe in the possibility of its perpetuating, even though she, like all party members, is engrained with the belief that triumph against the Party in no matter how small a way, cannot escape punishment. "She realised that she herself was doomed"[pg142] yet simultaneously "she believed that it was somehow possible to construct a secret world in which you could live as you chose"[pg142], a direct challenge to the omniscience of the Party. Which brings me to my point(whew) that though she is consciously opposed to the Party and what it represents(its doctrine and its harsh rule) she is nevertheless actively employing the use of the Ingsoc concept of doublethink in her rebellion against them. It may be subconscious.

Does this mean then that the very act of rebellion by any Party member involves using one of the Party's own ideas? Can this truly be rebellion then? Does this also prove the extent of the grip the Party already has on the minds its members?

Of course, there is another possibility. Is this seeming act of doublethink actually just simple hope? Is the hold of the Party not truly absolute then, being unable to extinguish this most basic aspect of the natural human mind?

Julia, Sexuality and Love Part2

There is a part in the book where Julia discussed the inner purpose of this smothering of sexuality. "With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality"[pg139] Julia is thus closely linked to the theme of sexuality. I might touch on the relation later.

It was for two reasons, one was preventive. "...the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control"[pg139]-which I guess means that the power of sexual pleasure, when not suppressed psychologically beforehand, becomes too strong for the individual (and therefore the Party) to control, thus working against the Party's aim for complete seamless sway over their workers.

The second reason is uhh, well to create a power source with which the Party could make the populance participate in the endless activities that inspire the delusion and hysteria it finds useful. "Sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship"

Julia, Sexuality and Love Part2

Sexuality:
Basically, party members, especially the women, are required to deny their sexuality while the proles are perfectly free to express theirs. This unspoken rule(since there are no laws in Oceania)is enforced among the women in the form of the Anti-sex Leagues. With the men, there are no such leagues and the rule seems to be more lax with them. The unspoken guideline is that fornication with prostitute proles was fine but never with another party member unless they are married.

Julia, Sexuality and Love Part1

Ahem. Julia, Sexuality and Love. Hmmm. I don't know how accurate an accessment I can make o this theme but here goes:

Well, for Julia, I find that she is a creature of the present. She lives for the thrills of the present, giving little thought to what may come in the future; only focusing on enjoying what's happening now. For instance, she seeks out Winston. Why? So that she can have sex? Either that or she simply desires companionship with someone who, like her, hates the Party. Whichever the case, she is risking her life, as she is well aware, for the pleasure of meeting and forming a relationship with Winston.

Winston too shares this trait, though it is tempered with the more philosophical and outward-looking attitude that usually controls him. The former streak can be seen in his opening the diary(to "transfer to paper the interminable restless monologue that had been running inside his head" despite the knowledge that "it was reasonably certain that it would be punishable by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced labour camp") and in his assenting to form the relationship with Julia, the latter from his having deduced the entire contents of Goldstein's book concerning the structure of the world.

note quote:"You're only a rebel from the waist downwards"[pg163] pt: Julia only rebels in areas which concern her directly(her personal sexual freedom, her want of companionship) and is not concerned with resisting for the sake of the future("I'm not interested in the next generation, dear. I'm interested in us"). Note that this is unlike Winston. She uses rebels via her sexuality.

Winston-characterisation

Winston's Character:
I can't really figure out what Winston's charcter is since I feel that the emotional stunting brought about by the Party to control its citizens must be admitted as the reason for many of his reactions. For example, by growing up in a society where everyone is potentially his neighbour's betrayer, it would be diffficult and dangerous to develop any feelings of sympathy towards thesuffering of another. It is more likely that this was the reason Winston so dismissively "kicked the thing(the severed hand)into the gutter", rather than that he was by nature contemptuous of human life.

Having establised this difficulty,...(cont'd in next entry)

1984 dissection

Overview of 1984:
I've never read another book as dreary and depressing as 1984. The heros(Winston and Julia)are not really heros because they do not actively rebel against the tyrannical, twisted system of Big Brother. Though it is said that they rebel in their small way by meeting and starting a love affair, it accomplishes nothing really. Not for the greater good. Only for themselves for a brief time before they too are erased. Hardly heroic. They do so not for the sake of some high ideal that they wish to uphold but simply because they desire to indulge in the imagined inviolatabilty of their sanctuary and snatch at moments of forbidden pleasure(real coffee, sugar, sex)before their "inevitable" destruction.

Their spirit is not admirable, I feel at this point of my reading. They live in desperate but vain hope of the possiblity of perpetuating their relationship but are convinced in their cores that they are doomed. They in fact do not truly hold any real hope of a better life as they believe in their minds that any hope of overthrowing the party is pure fantasy, no matter how much they may want to believe in it at times.