BTW, Winston, look how much more people have to say about toilet paper than about books - surprised?
Me neither.
George Orwell's '1984'
by Winston Smith :>D 18 Replies latest social entertainment
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gitasatsangha
There are a lot of miserable-future books that have similar crosscurrents to what we experience as Witnesses and former Witnesses. 1984 is one excellent example. The Mosquito Coast is another that comes to mind. The power of books and free minds in an otherwise safe world: Farenheit 451.
I don't know if Animal Farm (or the often sited Brave New World) really work for me as analogies because they are different scenarios. Probably as many possibly dystopias to write about as they are utopias to wish for. But that's what the New World Society is, in the end, a dystopia.
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Winston Smith :>D
Odrade, I ahve to add Dune to my must read book list.
Looking back, I have a REALLY good JW friend who has read this book and enjoyed it greatly. I wonder if he has allowed himself to equate Dune as you have with the WTS somewhere in his mind?
Fe2O3Girl
look how much more people have to say about toilet paper than about books - surprised? Me neither.
LOL!
When I made the two topics, I knew which one would get more replys.
But I do hope that a lurker would see this thread and then be moved to read the book based on my or other's comments.
Hopefully a more powerful end result if just one JW takes a step out of the high-control group of JW's after reading the book.
And I like that others have recommended similar books. Who knows what seeds will sprout in a repressed mind?
Probably as many possibly dystopias to write about as they are utopias to wish for.
git
Very true.
BTW, Farenheit 451 is another book I want to read.
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Odrade
Farenheit 451 is one of my all time favorites. I've read it many times, and love the steps that Montag goes through on his road to free-thought.
I love the comment Ray Bradbury makes about his book:
(Montag is) a book burner who suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas and cry out silently when put to the torch.
What better way to free a mind than lots of reading...and I don't mean automaton written crapola from the WT publishing corporation.
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Hyghlandyr
Personally I was a fan of big brother. I mean I didnt like the beatin up stuff, unless it had been a hot chick doin it or somethin. But I did like the things like newspeak, thoughtcrime, changing history and so on. Maybe because I could relate to it though.
But I really really am a fan of newspeak. The only language in history that is getting smalller and smaller. And it is an interesting concept that if you remove the ability to use words, to describe crime, then the ability to do it is removed....at least thoughtcrime I mean.
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blacksheep
I read George Orwell's 1984 in college, and I immediately drew connections to the WTS. Then about a year later, I came across a book by (Penton?), an ex-jw couple. It was entitled "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses." Blew me away. I knew I had to leave. I think THAT'S a must read for any JW with serious concerns.
As to Animal Farm, I read that in high school. Wasn't impressed. I think it had more a political/socialist slant. Too allegorical for me as well.
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d
Both George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are good examples of dystopia which are books about world run amok with war.If I had to choose which book was more accurate I would Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is more accurate to our very advanced society here in the United States.
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Markfromcali
From BNW entry on Wikipedia:
Social critic Neil Postman contrasts the worlds of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He writes:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us. -
Hadit
Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behaviour. All patterned behaviour tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.
Wow - that is one powerful statement! When people don't ask questions or are fearful to do so they are kept asleep. Independent thinking is demonized. Very dangerous indeed.
When I read 1984 the similarities with the WTS were staggering. I wish I read it at a younger age. Although I might not have "got" it at that time. You have to be in a certain mind set to see things for what they are.
Chrysalids is an excellent book!
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at the toilet paper comment!
Hadit