By Mufaro Dube | Staff Writer
Years ago, I came across this quote by Mark Twain, “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read, and nobody wants to read.” It rang true for my case and wasn’t bound to change until Valentine’s Day celebrations two weeks ago. The English Department hosted a booth in the Jafet Library under the banner “Blind Date a Book.” A couple of questions on MLA citations later, I had received my first Valentine’s present, neatly wrapped and tied in a red ribbon. Very romantic. I couldn’t wait for classes to end, so I unwrapped the present during my Physics lab. It was what I imagined classics had to look like. Boring. Old. Yellow pages. Everything that showed the touch of time. It was a copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell.
Despite several childhood interactions with snippets from Animal Farm, I was surprised that George Orwell was the author’s pseudonym. However, it does make sense that he wouldn’t go by Eric Arthur Blair given the political nature of his writings.1984 is quite special for being the last book George Orwell wrote, as it was published in 1949, seven months before the author passed.
The introduction of the book mentioned that there are variations in some content in the original American and English versions of 1984. Although it may be intuitive the same way animation movies like Moana get changed for different countries, I was just astonished to learn that the audience determines how the same book is presented using different language choices even for countries that speak the same language (English).
I am taking a philosophy class, and the idea of living in a fictitious, simulated, and dreamy world keeps recurring in the concepts we discuss. In 1984, the world is simultaneously real and not real. The people are being denied access to their consciousness. So, they only see, do, and think within limited parameters according to what the ruler “Big Brother” and his ministers want. There are people set in place just for changing the past and erasing history. This made Winston, the main character, wonder why he was the only one who could see the remains of the truth when most other people believed in the propaganda. Winston phrased the phenomenon as, “who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.”
The first line of 1984 is very famous for being a stellar start for an essay and chances are you have heard of it: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” The clock striking thirteen is a perfect symbol for the bizarreness of the rest of the content in the book. One main thing you will hear so often is that Winston Smith had a varicose ulcer above the ankle. Whenever the situation got stressful or Winston contemplated the chances of him being killed for still being independently conscious, you will hear about the varicose ulcer starting to itch and Winston bending to scratch it. The ulcer itching is a way for him to express the emotions he is not allowed to have.
I found it amusing that in 1984, a book written seventy-five years ago, they were complaining of electricity shortages leading to power cuts and we, in the modern day, are still doing the same. This links to Winston’s question on whether a good time ever existed in time. Because it lies in neither the past nor the present, and we predict with changes in climate and everything the future could be just as doomed per se.
One creepy thing was the presence of telescreens everywhere. They could not be switched off or muted. These allowed for people to be monitored by the government and every tiny body movement and sound was recorded. There is this crime called “thoughtcrime” that was punishable by death or vaporization as they called it. With “thoughtcrime”, you just had to be perceived as having questioned Big Brother’s authority. Thought was equivalent to action, so whether you acted on it or not, one was a criminal. Everything has blindspots, and that is how Winston managed to sneak into a corner and be able to write a diary in which he was reflecting and possibly trying to preserve his memories before they were all eroded by heresy.
Big Brother was still thoughtful of people’s health. There was a mandatory morning exercise that Winston found very painful to participate in but which was also closely monitored through the telescreen. There were interjections from the person watching telling you to do more stretches and extend yourself more.
In two weeks, I managed to read to page 80. I often read and complete books overnight, so this is a surprise. But it doesn’t mean classics are bad or that 1984 is a bad book. My English teacher loves the book, and so does one of my friends. I also know someone aged fourteen who completed 1984 a long time ago. So, 1984 is a wonderful book.
Blind dates are unexpected, and many have crazy turnouts that keep you from dating forever. Thankfully, my blind date with 1984 was a success. It might take a while to finish the remaining 240 pages, but it’s a slow drive into the unknown that I am looking forward to.