1984

I just finished 1984 by George Orwell.. It has got to be the most mood-affecting book I've ever read. Reading the end kept me depressed for hours. Excellent piece of work. Tell me your thoughts if you've read it, and how the movies are if you've seen either one.

kind of funny, i recorded the movie when it was on and i had to go to work and never got around to watching it. ill have to pull that tape out one of these times.

I've seen parts of Equilibrium...struck me as a Matrix rip-off but I probably should see it beginning to end.

heh, there was a catch phrase on the Equilibrium dvd at blockbuster which stated "better then The Matrix" .... i think the concept of both 1984 and Equilibrium are better, but both are lacking in certain areas as movies. 1984 (the book) is absoutely terrifying, when it was writtin it was strange, depressing and a bit scary, but now that you can almost see this "alternate universe" truly on the rise... well its just horrifying.

After what I've been hearing and seeing recently, I think that book is starting to become my bible.

I think 1984 was a great book, but the movies sucked. The terror in 1984 is in the mind, not the eye. Back in the day, we had all kinds of 'dooms day' books. 1984 was just another one. "Animal Farm", "Brave New World" (or almost anything by Aldous Huxley), "Level 7" (by Mordecai Roshwald), "Alas, Babylon" (by Pat Frank), Nathanael West's "Day of the Locust", and Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" are others that spring to mind. Our science fiction was holocost oriented with just the glimmer of one man's strength of purpose as hope for our future. It seems that now that lot has fallen to movies (Mad Max series, Riddick, Terminator etc.) and that the books are more upbeat. I loved the misery of reading that I had no future, washed down by a Coke in a glass bottle on a hot day so that when you opened it it froze up and you got an icee long before we knew what an icee was and the last drop got hot in the bottle and tasted so good and wiped away the depression. For fun, try reading Orwell's 'Down and out in Paris and London'. Real life. Even more depressing.

I read 1984 last year and it was freaky to see how the power concept has and is being manipulated in today's world. Just look at the 'Big Brother's' like Pol Pot, Hitler, Bush, 'God', the media....the lists just goes on and on. Propaganda is everywhere, when the power of the state can bend reality. The psychological force is interesting- that it is far better to persuade a group to do what you want by making them believe it is what they want....a form of brainwashing- shown in Manipulation of thought, newspeak, doublethink. I also thought the erosion of relationships and emotion was powerful. Western society is pretty much based on these concepts, unfortunately. Today's society is quite fear-based indeed.

Just finished this one a week ago. Really awesome. Oh yeah, and the movie did suck.

lol i have the book, its currently under my bed collecting dust. it was given to me as a birthday gift... tried reading a page of it but found myself drifing faster then sand thru an hour glass,. But yes i will pick it up and finisht it off.