Book Club

You nailed it on your first guess.... tiredness has nothing to do with it. I'm reading it, wide awake at 10 in the morning, and it still makes almost no sense to me... I recognize the words, but not the arrangement of them...

So still not sure if we are suppose to do 1 chapter or 3 per week. So I guess I'll just give my chapter 2 synopsis here a day early (or 6 days late) and if we only do one chapter a week then this will be sufficient for tomorrow, and if we do 3 chapters a week I'll go through the next 4 chapters throughout the week starting tomorrow.

Chapter 2

Winston is relieved to find the knocker on his door is not the Thought Police, but rather an old tenant Mrs. Parsons (though he notes it is taboo to refer to women as Mrs., but rather "comrade" is the acceptable title, again another Soviet reference.) Mrs. Parsons sink is having a problem. We are shown the immaculate condition of the Victory Mansions are not so victorious. Plaster is peeling off the walls, the pipes have problems, the roofs leak, the heating is subpar. Unless one can fix it themselves they need special approval from a committee of the Party to do basic repairs.

Winston helps Mrs. Parsons, and we learn a little about her husband Tom whom also works with Winston at the Ministry of Truth. Winston regards Tom as a typical Party sycophant which the Party needs to stay alive. Unlike Winston, Tom enjoys working with his hands, is very active for the Party, and very loyal to the Party. We meet the Parsons children whom seem to be having cabin fever and are joyfully imitating the military parades they see on the telescreen. The children are in the uniform of Spies, and as we know before the Party uses children to inform on their own parents. The children are pretending to be thoughtpolice and playfully accuse Winston of being a thoughtcriminal guilty of thoughtcrimes, and they are not totally wrong even though it is just play. Mrs. Parsons excuses their behavior as them being restless for not being able to see a public execution of Eurasian war criminals. Winston leaves the scene as the boy hits him in the back of the neck with a "catapult" (a slingshot maybe?)

Winston returns to his flat and ponder on how the Party sets children up against their parents. The Party is very successful in turning children against their parents. The Party makes them into informants, the Party gives the children authority, the Party takes the children on hikes, the Party makes the children distrust foreigners and domestic enemies, the Party gives them fun and impresses their minds with slogans and activities. Children that inform against their parents are called "child heroes" by the Party and the press. The children of 1984 are rebellious against their parents, but they are utterly loyal to the Party.

Winston ponders a dream he had. In the dream a figure told him "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." Winston admits he does not know who the figure in the dream was, but he is convincing himself it is O'Brien.

The telescreen interrupts Winston's thoughts to inform the public a major victory against Eurasia has been won in India. The telescreen posts inflated numbers of dead and prisoners. The telescreen also informs the public that the chocolate rations will be reduced. After the special report ostensibly the nationa anthem of Oceania, Tis of Thee plays, of which it is expected for people to stand. Winston is a lil too tipsy to stand, but is supposedly hidden in his alcove, so it does not matter. A bomb goes off in the distance which seems to indicate the war is a bit closer to home in Oceania than we are being told. We are told about 20 to 30 bombs fall on London per week.

Winston begins questioning if his diary project is futile. Winston lives in a world of lies. Everything is a contradiction in 1984, the past is subject to change, the future is uncertain. Big Brother is everywhere, Winston owns nothing, Winston has no room for private thoughts except in his skull, and even there he is not totally untouched by the Party as Winston begins to ponder he will be discovered sooner or later, his diary destroyed, never read by future generations, but by the Thought Police, and he himself will be annihilated. Winston resigns to his fate that he will die, but shows he is still committed to his thoughtcrimes. against the Party. The telescreen informs him of the time and Winston prepares to go back to work (what a lunch break!)

I think we see the theme of 1984, the theme of Truth vs Lies, and of Winston's unique character in this one quote:

"He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear."

Hi Galatea and all,

I was hoping I could fit the book club into my schedule, but I'm doing two bible studies. They each take 5 hours per week to finish a lesson so that's 10 hours per week.

Hopefully I can join in the next book club discussion. I hope you're all enjoying the book and the discussion.

Good synopsis, I would like to point out a couple of things that appeared to be salient to me. The Spies are VERY like the Hitler Youth, and I had to look this up about Stalin "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."

And this was significant to me, Winston's diary entry "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."

Winston feels very alone, as he knows no one who is against the party, nor of a way to communicate with someone against the party. He is pretty much isolated.

That's quite alright. 1984 is kind of bleak and depressing, to tell the truth. It's not a happy book. Perhaps the next choice will be happier. If all the women would have voted as a bloc and voted for Pride and Prejudice, we'd have a happier book to discuss.

Yes it is partly from the Hitler Youth, but I think more communist influenced. It was a common practice of the communists in the USSR and China to use the children as informants against the parents. Mao's Cultural Revolution took this concept into over drive, using students to shame and punish party officials, their parents, and their teachers to res-establish his control.

Yes I agree on that entry indeed. As we can see, thoughtcrimes are the only crimes in this society. Winston thinks he is a dead man, but in this certainty of doom, a sort of hope also for him to continue.

Oh yea, so are we suppose to do 1 chapter a week, or 3?

That's quite alright. 1984 is kind of bleak and depressing, to tell the truth. It's not a happy book. Perhaps the next choice will be happier. If all the women would have voted as a bloc and voted for Pride and Prejudice, we'd have a happier book to discuss.

Make sure it is one of the communist persuasion. I guess if we could vaporize Kim Jong Un, it would be a safer world.

That's my book report for the week.
Knock, knock, Neo.

Hmm I am puzzled on the connection between Neo and 1984. Would Neo's thoughtcrime be loving Trinity? Ahem not to spoil the rest of the book that is.

Isn't Grace Slick dead now?

Yes it is partly from the Hitler Youth, but I think more communist influenced. It was a common practice of the communists in the USSR and China to use the children as informants against the parents. Mao's Cultural Revolution took this concept into over drive, using students to shame and punish party officials, their parents, and their teachers to res-establish his control.

Yes I agree on that entry indeed. As we can see, thoughtcrimes are the only crimes in this society. Winston thinks he is a dead man, but in this certainty of doom, a sort of hope also for him to continue.

Oh yea, so are we suppose to do 1 chapter a week, or 3?

To be honest, pride and prejudice don't sound like very happy topics to me, but ok.

Anyone heard of Jane Eyre?

Yes, it is kind of bleak. But, especially at this time in our strangely hypnotically polarizing political views, it IS a bit of an eye opener as to what we, much like lemmings, are allowing ourselves to be "zoned" into.

Most of us are the Proles.

I initially said a chapter a week because I realize people have other things going on in life, work, books they are already reading, school, etc. I am over half way finished- but I don't want to press ahead in case anyone else is not that far.

At this point, Winston has a sort of negative hope. He hopes his diary will be beneficial- but he himself is a "dead man walking" in his mind.

My utilitarianism senses are tingling...

I guess I am a kid at heart.

Thinking of my favorite books

I like Tuck everlasting, island of the blue dophins, the blue sword

I also read a lot of sci-fi books.

Have you started a thread for the first chapter and I missed it?