Choosing the Scene
Upon beginning 1984, my first thoughts were about struggling to read the book itself. The prose was manageable, but sometimes the descriptions were rather hard to visualize. I do think the roundabout phrasing and use of contradictions is an intentional choice by Orwell considering the themes of the book. Still, I tried my best to come up with an image of characters and scenery in my mind. Big Brother came naturally. He looked like this:
Winston, meanwhile, was much harder to think about. Of course, I couldn't help but notice that he bared the same name as Churchill, but he was described as small and frail. Decidedly not like Churchill:
Soon, I decided that I rather did not care for picturing Winston and turned to the world itself--more specifically, London. At first, with the grand names of Victory Mansions, and Ministry of Truth, along with the telescreens and other technology, I imagined an advanced technological world like that of Blade Runner 2049 (except not as advanced):
What do you think about my visualization choices? Are they similar or different from the ones you chose? Do you even visualize when reading a book? (sometimes I don't)
i think the ministry of love looks like the bass pro shop pyramid in memphis https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Memphis_Pyramid.JPG/1920px-Memphis_Pyramid.JPG
ReplyDeleteOK, now I can't unsee that image.
DeleteAgreed...how did Orwell know????
DeleteThis is a super cool post! I hadn't even connected the dots that Winston has the same name as Churchill, but I also imagined him to be much less robust than Churchill. It's interesting that you thought immediately of Hitler to match the description of Big Brother, because I immediately thought of Stalin. I think the overall aesthetic and quality of life in 1984 can be pretty closely aligned with descriptions of East Germany or the USSR during the time when this book was written, and I like that it is much more realistic of a world than Brave New World. Overall, I agree with a lot of your visualizations!
ReplyDeleteThis post is awesome. Probably one of my favorites. I definitely agree with ALL of your characters, especially Hitler being Big Brother. You definitely nailed that character. I will say when reading this book I imagined the setting in black and white. This world to me has no color in it. When I think of color I think of some level of happiness. But this world seems downright awful and dull.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely interesting that most people seem to be "seeing" Big Brother as Hitler, Stalin, or both. Orwell seems to be drawing parallels between authoritarian states and the broken-down infrastructure as you described. I personally agree with your visualizations, and my mind went through a similar process of thinking that the world of 1984 was very technologically advanced—only to be disproven.
ReplyDeleteChurchill looks kinda how i pictured Mr. Parsons tbh
ReplyDeleteI like your creativity in imagining Winston as Churchill. I only see him in my mind as Winston from New Girl, but I will try to imagine him as Churchill now, so hopefully that will help.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. I also made the connection to Hitler, but Charlotte mentioning Stalin also makes sense. Love the visualizations.
ReplyDeleteI think how London is described in the book is important to envision. I at first thought of this high tech civilization but the old Victorian mansion through me off, how do these two coexist. Personally, I see all the ministries as these high tech buildings but besides that everything is kept the same, it's old (from what everyone remembers). It's weird imagining these two different things in the same area but it's like any town. Champaign has these tall skyscrapers near campus, we have the older character of downtown champaign-urbana, and the newer buildings out by the mall. All these things make up a city, so maybe it's not far off from what our world looks like today.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your visualizations. Even though the world of 1984 has advanced technologies, the government cares more about controlling and brainwashing people than making them happy or giving them a good quality of life, which is why the city is so rundown. In that sense, it's kind of the opposite of the World State in Brave New World, which cares so much about its people's happiness that it doesn't allow them to be discontent.
ReplyDelete