Highgate

Thursday

Dystopia much?


Ok, so in the last few weeks i've been exposed to about as much dystopian futurism as any person should have to endure given that it's January and very cold. Children of Men, easily the strongest (on all fronts, theme, style, acting, emotional impact, directing...) movie i've seen in a year - followed closely by Idiocracy, one of the most depressingly effective satires of consumer culture i've ever seen. Those two films, coupled w/ Paul Auster's heartbreaking and bleak "In the Country of Last Things" and well, reading the fucking news everyday. And now these:

Amazon user reviews of 1984:

1 / 5 Nice try George, May 13, 2004
Reviewer: ?
"I truly believe that Orwell's sole purpose for writing this novel was to encourage anarchy, and to convince his readers to be subordinate to authority. Though society and government are not perfect, they are not as evil and as oppressive as Orwell made them out to be. He creates a negative Utopia in hopes to make people hate their leaders and to disagree with any form of government. It is because of people like Orwell that our nation, as well as other nations, are so dramatically torn by the opinions of citizens towards their leaders, and their leader's decisions."


1 / 5 Nineteen Eighty Flub, November 20, 2003
Reviewer: ?

I recently took up the hobby of reading "classics" instead of teenage dramas or mysterys. 1984 was second on my list. But now I'm left wondering why is this book a classic? This book was descriptively crude with its love affair and prostitute, redundant with its thoughts and routine, and overall dull. I admit that this book did have a good message and was thoroughly enforced from the beginning to end. However, thats all that happened. It was just thoughts of a sad man with perverse and suspicouis thoughts. The main character constantly dwelled on how horrible everything was and eventually how he was going to fight against it. But never did.

Here's a winner...

2 / 5 Slow, Boring, and Depressing, October 10, 2005
Reviewer: Deadguy (Peoria, IL)

I was depressed for a week after I finished completing this novel. The torture that the protagonist endures is just too much to digest. I can only be thankful that this terrifying vision hasn't come to fruition...yet.

[The Rest]

Quick someone give me something to hold onto!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

after I read "198whatthefuckfor?" i was so depressed about how orwell hated america, i went right over to my condi rice shrine and masterbated crying for like 45 minutes!