Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four, written in 1949, is set in the fictional future nation of Oceana (composed of Britain, the US, and Africa). Oceana is brutally controlled by a very heavy handed government, led by a mythical figure 'Big Brother'. Constant surveillance and propaganda through the 'telescreen' allows the government to monitor not just actions but even emotions.

The novel follows Winston, a worker at the 'Ministry of Truth', where he works on falsifying records. He begins to question the principles of 'Ingsoc' ('English Socialism', the guiding principal of Oceana) and eventually meets a fellow discontent, Julia. They have a secret affair (sexuality is all but forbidden), and things begin to get very tricky from there...

This completes my reading of what I have gathered are the three great dystopian novels (in English at least), 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', 'Fahrenheit 451', and 'Brave New World'. They all have similar themes of a dictatorial, socialistic government dismantling what it means to be human. In all three, the concepts of sexuality and family are distorted. In all three, pervasive surveillance and/or propaganda media enforce the expectations of the government and change the nature of the human mind. In all three, learning and thought are discouraged or prohibited.

There are some significant differences between them, but I am a bit disappointed not to have seen more diversity between them. They all come from a time when democracy was being pitted against various degrees of totalitarianism, in the forms of communism and fascism. They show great concern about the power of government, and rightly so. Still, I think I should read some cyberpunk dystopias now, which tend to focus on the opposite end of the spectrum, where government has little role and things are run under corporate anarchy. Some strange mixture of the two extremes seems to be what we find here in the actual future...

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