24.1. Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel (1984, 乔治·奥威尔 一九八四, 1949)

Read for free from Project Gutenberg:

This book is very fun to read, and it is not very long.

1984 has coined some amazing terms which perfectly describe aspects of dictatorships:

Quotes present in other sections:

In Part Three, Chapter 3, O’Brien explains the end goal of their evil government system to Winston:

In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy—​everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—​do not forget this, Winston—​always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—​for ever.'

On Part Two, Chapter 5, Winston explains the erasing of the past to Julia:

Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it’s in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don’t know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories.

See also:

With the advent of the Internet and Wayback Machine (web.archive.org, 网站时光机), this has become a bit harder though :-)

There is also a decent movie made released in the year, you guessed, 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(1984_film) starring John Hurt.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=flhggnpCeHw Gravity scene from the 1984 movie.

Related: