Pathetically Comical Conservatist Rant. 1984 is so
2015-03-11
Disgusts me to no end. How could people call this "dystopian" in any sense? At most has certain value as a half-assed, comical critique of his own era(social stratification etc.). Its projection of the future is just so pathetically bullshit. Advancements in technology has, and will continue to liberate and empower individuals, instead of creating a totalitarian and collectively mindless future as projected by the book. They say there is a mindless "consumerism" nowadays. That's partly true. But just reflect upon the time of Huxley! Weren't the vast majority of people living an even more controlled, uninformed, and mindless modes of life? Also, what the author intended to describe as "depravity" in the book are *exactly* the right, natural, and liberating things to do now (Even the word "depravity" itself, which is just a social construct specific to certain eras, in the same vein as "marriage" or "family", reeks of archaic hypocrisy and restraints on human nature). Such appalling conservatism against the liberation and empowerment of individuals, such stubborn aversion and even denial to the power of rationality over primitive emotions, are doomed and to be ridiculed. The proclaimed "moral" acts of the protagonists, if carried out today, will be deemed as nuts and detestable. Especially the rejection of the most natural of human behaviors, and subsequent violent assaults of "The Savage", on a female! A "dystopian" novel itself portraying anti-humanity acts in a kind of a positive light, that's just plainly horrible. I know the author intended that to be a tragedy, and probably a slightly exaggerated satire, but is there any "tragedy" more unnatural, uncalled-for and laughable than this one? That actually served as the best illustration of just how pervert, distorted and inhumane those conservative ideas are.
No wonder 1984 is so much more acclaimed than Brave New World. This book just comically confuses cheese for chalk, and is simply irrelevant to our world. Though saying so as a leftist liberal shouldn't come as any surprise. Just never thought this book could be so rightist beforehand.
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Was reading Brave New World and struggled really hard to comprehend the astonishingly conservative and archaic values of the protagonists. It just doesn't make any sense, especially considering that this book doesn't sound very antique. Finally it occurred to me that it could have something to do with the history of contraceptives in relation to the time when the book was written. It seems that in the 1920s and early 1930s, condoms were still not in mass production and the mere notion of employing any contraceptive measure was quite blasphemous. No wonder. It's amazing how advancements in contraceptive measures have been able to bring about such a great liberation in a span of less than 100 years, that values which were expected to be the norm at that time can appear hilariously outlandish nowadays. The world at that time must be horrible to live in, though. As of the book itself, it looked to me more likely a critique of the author's own era(social stratification etc.) than anything of a "dystopian novel". At least for now, we can pretty much rest assured that advancements such as contraceptive measures, and, hopefully, the eventual abolishment of the institutions of "marriage" and "family", will empower and liberate individuals, rather than create a totalitarian future as projected in the book.