Today’s prompt for October is Millenium and I’ve just finished reading 1984 (yes for the first time) so I thought I’d combine the two somehow.
1984 by George Orwell, was written in 1948 (published 1949.) The only other work of his I’ve read is Animal Farm. I confess, I enjoyed neither books. But, he did have some points to make and they’ve been taken and used for many years. With words and concepts of his added to everyday dialect. Everyone knows of Big Brother and Room 101.
I don’t think he believed the dystopian future he thought of would have been possible by 1984 but as it’s based on continuous war I guess it could have been.
1984 to the Millenium (in brief!)
In the actual 1984 I was a happy teenager and my boyfriend proposed to me that year. We got married in 1986. I didn’t follow politics but of course I was aware that we had a female Prime Minister.
Fast forward to the New Millenium and my marriage was over and I was a single Mum of two children. The year 2000 was one of the worst of my life, so many things went terribly wrong, things that I can’t even talk about now. But it did get better, things settled down and by the end of 2001 my personal life was happier.
I’ve had three more children in the new millenium and lost a few family members. It’s how it goes, life and death, the world turns.
Twenty Twenty
It’s been such an awful year hasn’t it. Mine didn’t start too bad. I had a lovely meal out for my Son’s birthday in January. We saw some fabulous decorations from the Chinese New Year. We were tempted to join in the celebrations but the crowds were too big. It’s seems strange now, just 9 months later, even thinking about being a huge crowd.
In February I went to see a ballet with my best friend. Since then the only time I’ve been out is to the hospital, a farm, where we had the place to ourselves, and a trip to Cosford Air Force museum which was brilliantly socially distanced. And the back garden has been our holiday saviour, especially on hot days and when we could get the pool out.
Orwellian Future?
The reason I put 1984 on my reading list is because I kept on seeing people on Twitter claiming that we were heading for an Orwellian Future, that we were entering a bit of a late 1984 life. Well, I doubt it very much. I can’t see how people think that the governments of the world are going to join together in a way to control the people beyond their own self will, and especially not with a virus. I think the people have already shown that they are not going to be controlled. Orwell talks about the Proles being the only ones to retain human free will. The Proles are the working class and he makes them out to be brainless, but he couldn’t be more wrong. I truly believe that the working class would never allow such control.
Orwell was writing a story, it is a story, and in my opinion, not a very good one or even the slightest prediction of how our future will ever become. But, it does give some very stark warnings that we need to take on board.
I could write an entire essay on my opinions on 1984, but I don’t want to bore you with them.
I’m a positive thinking person and even though 2020 has been a bit of a rubbish year, I don’t think life will ever get as bad as it did in Orwell’s 1984.
As for Room 101. I stayed there in 1996 in Sussex university while studying psychology. I’ve certainly faced some of my biggest fears and I’m still here and still free.
My list of books for the 20 Books for Christmas reading challenge
I left school in 1984 after staying on for a year in 6th form and starting my new job
I have heard of 1984 by George Orwell but haven’t read it. At school one half of the year read it and the other half which had my class in read Animal Farm.
It is crazy to think how much has changed in just 20 years and how much has changed just this year!
Don’t bother with it Kim, it’s dreadfully boring, lol. I could think of a lot worse things that would make a dystopian future. He did get one thing right though, you can’t re-write history.