1984

I opened at the store today. It was Mother's Day (Happy Day to all reading, by the way!) and not surprisingly, busy. We opened 15 minutes early due to the small mob collecting outside long before we opened. Everything opens late on Sunday down South, (if it opens at all,) but that doesn't stop people from showing up early and peeking through the window like it's a giant aquarium. It always amazes me how many people would apparently prefer to spend their weekend perusing mattress pads and can openers rather than go to one of the beaches, islands, wild life preserves, or endless other outdoor activities available down here.

After work and an hour at the gym, Nate and I came home and made buffalo chicken pasta for dinner. Which brings me to another note. I'll be posting on another page in addition to writing here. Final Fitness is a place to share fitness plans, advice, and encouragement. Right now, it's just on Facebook; we'll see where it goes from there. The page is my husband's brainchild, but, as the resident person-in-charge of all things food-related, I will be posting recipes and food ideas daily. These will come from my combined experience working in restaurant kitchens, cooking at home, and from taking food science courses in college. I'm kind of excited to share my ideas and hope people will enjoy the recipes! Feel free to visit Final Fitness for the recipe, and "like" us if you're interested in following along.

No, not that one.

I have also finished and reviewed my latest conquest, 1984.  No, not that one. This one. Orwell's piece was assigned reading in one of my high school English classes. We did sort of a tour-of-dystopias with 1984, Brave New World (great book), and A Clockwork Orange (one of my all-time favorites). We were even asked to write a convincing essay in favor of either George Orwell or Aldous Huxley. I vaguely remembered something of a distaste for 1984, but couldn't quite remember why. When the opportunity arose in my Goodreads book group to read one of a list of internationally acclaimed books, I decided to give it another shot. My results? On the one hand, I am glad that I re-read the book. There were definitely a lot of things I missed out on in the rushed high school classroom setting, as well as things that have very different meanings to an adult person as opposed to an adolescent. On the other hand, the format in which I chose to re-read the book was rather painful and reminded me of exactly what I disliked the first time around. If you've read the book and are interested in my thoughts on it, read on. If you intend to read it and know nothing of the plot, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs to avoid "spoilers."

I do a lot of my reading via audiobook, a format which my Dad introduced me to at a young age with pieces by Jack London, Stephen King, and Lillian Jackson Braun, among others. For the most part, I love it. A good narrator can really bring a story to life, without hijacking one's ability to imagine certain elements of a story the way a film interpretation can. Audio allows me to read far more often, and to utilize otherwise wasted mental time (while driving, doing dishes, etc.) It also assuages my compulsive need to acquire books without contributing to overflowing shelves. The downside of audio reading primarily presents itself with unskilled narration. My copy o f 1984 was one of those unfortunate cases. It was a highly acclaimed recording, but I felt the entire time as though I were listening to a dramatic reenactment of the story courtesy of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. Not good. Especially when I found out, two chapters from the end (when my geriatric iPod ceased to cooperate), that there is a recording by one of my favorite narrators, Frank Muller. This caused me to have my own two-minutes'-hate. But I digress.

The book gets off to a promising start. Orwell paints a pretty dire picture of Winston Smith's post-revolutionary world. Winston's job is primarily to turn out rubbish for the ironically named Ministry of Truth. We are introduced to a few key principles in the Party's slogan (see right). Telescreens and embedded microphones monitor every moment's activity. War and violence are a constant part of the scenery. "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." No one really knows what year it is, but Winston estimates it to be 1984, and so begins his forbidden diary. As it turns out, this seemingly bland cog in the machinery holds some pretty strong feelings against The Party and its symbol, Big Brother.

Now, where Orwell started to lose me was with the introduction of Julia. I won't give the scene away, but let's say that Winston's first impressions of her are less than favorable. In a plot twist, Julia and Winston discover their common disdain for The Party and eventually become lovers. However, I found their relationship, at best, unconvincing. I was not anticipating a bodice-ripping romance between the two of them, but I barely got the impression that they liked each other. It seemed more like they were using each other for independent motives. This is a big problem, because their relationship should dramatically heighten the stakes as the book progresses.

The section of the book which nearly convinced me to give up and "shelve" it comes a little after the halfway point. Winston and Julia meet with O'Brien, an Inner Party member who is apparently connected to The Brotherhood, a secret resistance movement. O'Brien arranges a complex drop-off so that Winston can read resistance leader Emmanuel Goldstein's manifesto. This was where I felt like Orwell really went off the rails. Instead of intimating the contents of the book and keeping some sense of intrigue intact, he includes a lengthy section where Winston reads the book. I found this pedantic and redundant, and more than a little annoying given the previously mentioned narrator. But I got through it. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief that we were returning to the plot, Winston mentions the book to Julia, who lazily rolls over and tells him to go ahead and read it to her. Which he does. In grueling detail. I seriously considered throwing my iPod out the window at this point. Why this textbook in the middle of a perfectly decent plot? All I could think of was my high school creative writing and AP English teacher, Mrs. Bucholc, and her enforcement of the principle "show, don't tell." The first third of the book clearly illustrates everything included in Goldstein's explanations; the reader gains nothing from the repetition except perhaps the beginnings of a migraine.

When the agony of Goldstein's book finally stops, things quickly turn around. The scene where Winston and Julia are betrayed by Charrington is probably the second most chilling in the book. (If you've read the whole book, you know without a doubt what the first is.) The last third of the book is an extremely intense psychological rollercoaster. You know what is going to happen... you can see it coming, but it is hard to wrap your head around it. My only issue with this last segment relates to the weak bond between Winston and Julia. When they finally give one another up to the Thought Police, it is a dramatic statement about human will-power and self-preservation. It would have been that much more powerful if I had felt convinced that they actually felt more than a sexual attraction for one another.  

While this still did not turn out to be a favorite my second time through, I am glad that I re-read it as an adult.   It is surely a book that belongs in school curricula, and carries important messages about the value of knowledge and personal freedoms. That being said, there are aspects of the book that could have been much improved upon, and I would still take Brave New World or A Clockwork Orange over 1984.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. If you're tuning in, and have read 1984, what are your thoughts?
Thanks for reading!