Reread 1984 after 10 years and it hit way different as an adult

I picked it up for my book club last month after not touching it since high school. Back then I just thought it was a boring dystopia with a love story, but now I couldn't stop noticing how the manipulation of language and history mirrors stuff I actually see online every day. My whole group had a huge debate about whether the ending is actually hopeful or just completely grim. Has anyone else had a book totally flip on them like that with age?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_taylor321mo ago

...and the whole language thing, man. That part about Newspeak and shrinking the vocabulary to control thought, I keep seeing it play out on social media where certain words just get twisted or banned to change how we talk about stuff. Like how "gaslighting" used to mean something specific and now it's just "you disagreed with me." Or how they keep renaming controversial government programs so nobody knows what to call them anymore. It's all around us if you look for it. The ending hit me harder too because it made me wonder if we're already past the point of no return where nobody even remembers what real freedom felt like.

seth_shah1mo ago

But isn't forgetting what freedom felt like the whole point for them, or is it just a side effect nobody planned for?

allen.kai1mo ago

That part about renaming government programs hits different when you realize they've done it with whole wars too. The Patriot Act was sold as protecting freedom while it gutted the 4th amendment.