irateplatypus

roachboy,

this really isn't a literary criticism thread... but the perspective given in 1984 seems to be different from the typical dickens method. the reader isn't given much of any information except the protagonist's direct experiences. i wouldn't go as far as you did to discount our ability to recognize orwellian constructs as they happen.

for those who have been following this thread... i think 1984 has not provided a very good outline our progress (or regress). while it's an interesting piece of fiction, Huxley produced a novel far more relevant to postmodernity.

quite honestly, i think it's a copout to discount so many critical observations based on the idea that truth in such social situations is not knowable like cthulu and roach appear to do. that kind of argument is always employed to temper the propositions of another, never a lense in which ones own opinions are viewed. although i won't begin to refute the concept in its entirety (i believe it to have real validity), the application of such principles are often too crude.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill