Mayahuel Utopias & Dystopias

As we come to a closing on 1984, the question remains: Are we next? Our world heavily revolves around technology similar to 1984, and one can argue the class distinctions are almost worse than what Orwell depicted. So as we think about the future, post-pandemic, how can we avoid becoming another Orwellian horror story? I think realistically, as people who don't have a lot of power, there isn't all that much we can do for some parts of this potential nightmare. Since so much relies on technology there's not a lot we can do to avoid getting sucked into that part of 1984, which we partly already have. Although most of us like to ignore it, all our information has already been taken down and passed around the internet. The government could watch us (maybe they already do) if we became interesting enough, and our complete "freedom" on the internet could change with government restrictions. So for this portion, we don't have a lot of control. However, I don't th...

 At the end of the book, we are introduced to the ongoing process of implementing Newspeak as the one true language used, finishing around 2050. In the process, Newspeak is somewhat explained, in all its complexities and the definitions for the vocabularies starting with different letters. the point of Newspeak is to eliminate any possible idea of rebellion, through the removal of negative words in general. Moreover, the complex nature of Newspeak, heavily "censored", makes it difficult for people to translate English texts, and possibly understand a world before newspeak.  While I see how that could work in this theoretical sense for newer generations under the party, I am confused by the idea of English speakers simply forgetting a language. Moreover, language is ever-changing with time and people, I can't imagine a language itself preventing forms of communication or thought, simply because of the existence of slang and the creation of new words. This makes me wonder h...

Towards the end of the book, we finally learn what's in Room 101, Winston's worst fear. This appears to be a dark room with a cage of rats that are unleashed as he is strapped into a chair. As many of us predicted, the room with unspeakable horrors preys on the victims worst nightmares. What confused me at this moment was the mechanism by which the party knows each victim's fears. From what I understood of the "thought police," they aren't actually able to see what every person is thinking.  Therefore, my confusion lies in how Room 101 manifests such accurately horrifying things, without the victim having shared that information earlier.  Though I may have just missed a crucial portion of the book, it made me wonder what would happen if someone were to lie about their worst fear.  Would room 101 be so terrifying? or are the thought police much savvier than I am thinking? As I think more about fear, I began to play with the idea of perception and reality. If O...

In the third chapter of the third book, Winston inquires how the party can remain in complete control, and on a quest for total power, if they do not have the ability to shift things like the universe and larger aspects of the world. O'Brien explains how this does not matter because the party controls everyone's mind, the most crucial part of everything, and if needed the party could alter everyone's perception of the universe and the stars. This idea is really interesting because I feel like it parallels some theories in our world. Everyone is familiar with UFO stories and people who believe in "crazy conspiracy" theories, from the lizard people who control the universe to the Illuminati and such (I would even group flat earthers in this category). When we think about our perception of reality and its extension to the "supernatural" world, we have largely been told that we have no proof of alien life, supernatural things probably don't exist, etc., ...