I'm probably going to be hated on for this, but I really did not enjoy this novel.
1984 is classified as a fiction novel and as far as novels go this was bad. While the plot must have been very interesting back in 1949, the characters fell flat, the writing was extremely boring and the book as a whole felt like a political essay. Whole chapters were dedicated to writing down the teachings of Goldstein, which was pretty much Orwell's musings on politics.
One cannot deny that this book is timeless, it brought us Big Brother (for those of you who don't know what that is, it's an unfortunate reality television series) and most of today's Dystopians are clearly heavily influenced by 1984 (The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games) but it should have been placed in the politics section, not fiction.
Orwell can't do fiction. I'm sorry, but he can't. He's too focused on delivering his message to the world to bother with fictional elements (world building, character progression, etc.)
I would give this book a 5 star rating for the theories it presented and the possibilities it lays out. As a novel it will only get 2 because ultimately it bored me to tears and felt like an obligation that I had to get done with.
I'm done with classics. They are clearly not my thing. If it means I can't discuss books with the "intellectuals" anymore, I can live with that.
1984 is classified as a fiction novel and as far as novels go this was bad. While the plot must have been very interesting back in 1949, the characters fell flat, the writing was extremely boring and the book as a whole felt like a political essay. Whole chapters were dedicated to writing down the teachings of Goldstein, which was pretty much Orwell's musings on politics.
One cannot deny that this book is timeless, it brought us Big Brother (for those of you who don't know what that is, it's an unfortunate reality television series) and most of today's Dystopians are clearly heavily influenced by 1984 (The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games) but it should have been placed in the politics section, not fiction.
Orwell can't do fiction. I'm sorry, but he can't. He's too focused on delivering his message to the world to bother with fictional elements (world building, character progression, etc.)
I would give this book a 5 star rating for the theories it presented and the possibilities it lays out. As a novel it will only get 2 because ultimately it bored me to tears and felt like an obligation that I had to get done with.
I'm done with classics. They are clearly not my thing. If it means I can't discuss books with the "intellectuals" anymore, I can live with that.
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