Dystopia

A few thoughts on George Orwell's 1984:

During the "2 Minutes Hate" citizens of Oceania are prompted to scream, spit, and hurl insults as the words and face of The Party's enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, play on the telescreen. If they were attending a town hall meeting, they would be the ones shouting people down.

I especially like the part in which orthodoxy is described as unthinking. Only orthodox views can be expressed in a sound byte. Anything else would require elaboration, arguments, and examples.

Other things I like:
(1) How Winston is captivated by purposelessness.
(2) How sex was, for Winston and Julia, at first a political act. Then emotions enter into it. That it became emotional, that Winston and Julia soon felt a sort of allegiance to each other--an allegiance only broken through extreme torture--was, I gather, the inevitable infusion of humanity, according to Orwell.