1984

No man... you've got it all wrong. Brave New World, now THAT's how the future's gonna be....

Some of the ideas in the book are definitely worth looking into.
Others are used completely for the wrong reasons. The alternative to corporate oligarchs fucking over people is not a communist dystopia.

I've never understood this thing about gold and any other mineral held in high regard.
imho I can't seem to understand how they have intrinsec value on their own.
Aren't the people that give them value?
And considering a sort of end time, wouldn't that imply a shift in human need for precious metal?

It's not the intrinsic value that makes the gold valuable in a "gold standard" economy. It's basically the same as paper money but less inflatable.

Orwell is easy to dismiss bc of how overt his symbolism is, but imo by getting his symbolism out of the way easily, he has more time to talk about shit that is actually interesting

Yet the left tries to use it as one.

it's almost like things don't have to wrapped in a 50 layers of allegory and subtext to be good

Which version of the book do you guys think is the definitive?

2 + 2 = 5
Or
2 + 2 =

the first copy I read was the latter and when I found out that the "proper" version had Winston completely accept the brainwashing I was a bit disappointed. It's already depressing enough, I liked the idea that they could break him, but couldn't completely re-write him.

It was based on what was already apparent.

"The left" as in who? The pseudo-left neoliberals and their oligarchic masters? The fanatical faux-left state-authoritarian capitalists who call themselves communists?

>implying it isn't already

a true technoracle Cayce you are/were/will be

Probably his worst book. It kills me how seldom people read Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out, Homage to Catalonia, etc. compared to this and Animal Farm.

The so-far-right-they've-gone-extreme-left nu-conservatives trying to make Fahrenheit 451 the future instead of 1984.

implying Huxley wasn't completely on point about Human sexuality and Soma (pharma and pills for everything)

That's not how any of this works.

>implying huxley's future wasn't literally perfect in every way

The neocons? They're just the pseudo-right, also lapdogs of the oligarchy.

These books aren't prophecies, they're warnings. Stop thinking so biblically. Y'all watchin' I, Pet Goat II too much.

He explicitly said this in essays about English language and politics. Western democracies are subtly coercive

...

I enjoyed Keep the Aspidistra Flying more, but 1984 has some extremely influential ideas. It's worth knowing from a cultural standpoint.

Rugmuncher

I see the fucking butterfly poster got to this thread also.

the greatest book in history.