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The Inverse of Betrayal

  As I wrote my last post, I realised that I was only going into the book from Winston’s perspective. When I started to think from the mind of a loyal party member, such as Charringtion or O’Brien, I realised that, while to Winston, they had betrayed him, to them they were simply holding their loyalty to the party. Since we see the book from Winston’s perspective, we are likely to sympathize with him more, and perhaps see him as more of the “good guy,” but if you think like a loyal party member, Winston is just a criminal; he is the “bad guy” who went against the Party, against the order. On the opposite side of betrayal there is loyalty; just as Winston was loyal to his beliefs and the concept of the Brotherhood, O’Brien and Charrington were loyal to the Party. While I still am biased towards the Party and life in 1984 being quite terrible, I can see how each side would consider themselves the good guys. What do you think? Can you sympathize with O’Brien and Charrington?
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The Idea of Betrayal

  In the end of the second book, and the beginning of the third, there is the huge betrayal by Mr. Charrington, where Winston and Julia are stormed by the Thought Police and then jailed in the Ministry of Love. As I read this, I started thinking about the idea of betrayal, and more specifically why it is so prevalent. I think that betrayal is used so often because 1. It is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, and, as such it is an easy way to introduce tragedy into the story, and 2. Since the reader gets to know the character who commits the act of betrayal, it allows the reader to connect further with the story and sympathise with the betrayed. What do you think? Is it simply a mechanism to connect the reader to the story and introduce more emotion, or is there another reason why betrayal is such a popular trope?
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Themes of Dementia in 1984

 One day while scrolling through the internet I heard about an album called Everywhere at the End of time. I was intrigued by its name and album art and decided to search it up. While I have not actually listened to it ( its over 6 hours long lol), I decided to search it up. The album is split up into 6 stages, representing the 6 stages of dementia, and I found a great video analysis of i t. I feel like the 2nd and 3rd stages have similar tropes to the ideas of memory found in 1984. Stage 2 is described as "the self realisation and awareness that something is wrong with a refusal to accept that. More effort is made to remember so memories can be more long form with a little more deterioration in quality. The overall personal mood is generally lower than the first stage and at a point before confusion starts setting in. " This can be seen as when Winston starts to be discontented with his everyday life, and reflects more on the idea of truth and the past, and just how fallible...
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Forbidden Love In 1984

 When I was thinking of topics for this week's blog post, the first thing that came to mind was Julia and Winston's relationship. They have to be calculating and cunning in order to escape the eyes and ears of the Party, and as such, I felt they could be falling into the trope of forbidden love. The classic example is Romeo and Juliet, and how they also snuck around to avoid the detection of their families. Given the overall grim hopelessness that has captured the book so far, and they're taking more and more risks, I feel like something must go wrong in the future. What do you think? Will 1984 be a tragic or heroic love?
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AOT vs 1984

 *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ATTACK ON TITAN DO NOT READ IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING* ************************************************************************************* In Attack on Titan's most recent season, we get a look into the relationship between Marley, their interned Eldians, and the Eldians on Paradis Island. The interned Eldians are conditioned to believe the Eldians on Paradis Island are devils, they believe they are savages and consider themselves the "good Eldians" in comparison. One character in particular, Gabi, hopes to prove to the Marley that the interned Eldians are "the good Eldians"  through killing the Eldians on Paradis Island.  I feel like this internalised hatred is mirrored in the Two minutes Hate. Where the Marley put into the minds of the interned Eldians hatred of the Paradis Island Eldians, and uses it to uphold their military might and hold over the Interned Eldians, The Party uses the hatred of Goldstein and whatever country they're a...
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Apple Ad: Sensation or Solid?

When I read the book I was immediately reminded of this commercial for Apple's Macintosh computers in which there is a sort of Big Brother figure on the screen who gets smashed by a woman who throws a sledgehammer.  Being that the commercial references the book itself, I don't really get the message. How is the arrival of the Macintosh supposed to fend off the supposed conditions of 1984? It just seems kinda silly to me, and I think it just uses the name of the popular book in a nonsensical way hoping people won't notice. What do you think? Is there merit to this ad or is it just a dumb marketing scheme?   https://youtu.be/VtvjbmoDx-I
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