Most of you have probably already read 1984. I have to say it is the most unsettling book I've read. 1984 and other books like it are particularly disquieting because their plots are just possible enough to make you question the reality you live in and what could happen in the future. You can check out my review on Goodreads here.
As far as information and using technology to spy on and control people, 1984 is definitely applicable, especially after all of these NSA scandals have come about. Who knew our government was spying on the German Chancellor's cell phone! But of course now that our president is aware of such spying, that's horribly wrong, but spying on United States citizens without probable cause is perfectly acceptable. Sorry for the short political rant. Anyway, 1984 follows Winston Smith who is a citizen of Oceania, one of the three world superpowers in the future. All of the party members, a semi-intelligent class of people that work for Big Brother, are monitored day in and day out by telescreens and the Thought Police. The telescreens constantly play Big Brother propaganda and also collect audio and visual recordings of everyone within sight of the screen. Big Brother is a totalitarian regime that has found devastatingly efficient ways to oppress its citizens through brainwashing, distraction, information control, and fear.
One thing I find particularly interesting about the book from a linguistic perspective is the language control Big Brother uses. Big Brother communicates through Newspeak, which is founded on the principles of English Socialism. The intent of Big Brother is to reduce the English language to such a degree that words for rebellion and critical thought will no longer exist. This brings us back to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in a way because Big Brothers seems to think that language structure in part affects people's ability to think or at least structures their thinking to a certain degree. For example, Newspeak morphology is simple. Orwell uses the example of the word "good" to explain it. So there is the root word "good," and it's opposite is simply "ungood." It's comparative and superlative forms are "doublegood" or "doubleplusgood." It's adjective form is "goodful."
I find this morphology interesting for two reasons: Newspeak morphology seems to be mathematical, which in my mind strips language of expressiveness and Newspeak morphology only has root words and standard prefixes and suffixes that attach to change the word, which to me makes it harder for opposing connotations to stick to words. When I say mathematical I mean the root word and its affixes make a symmetrical continuum that goes like this doubleplusungood doubleungood ungood good doublegood doubleplusgood. There are no nuances or creativity possible with such a language, which is exactly what Big Brother wants. Using a root word with affixes to change meaning rather than using a different word makes it hard for bad connotations to stick to the negative word in a pairing. Take some word pairings for example: grateful/ungrateful, smart/dumb, considerate/inconsiderate, nice/mean. Which ones seem to be stronger opposites? To me the ones where the words are not linguistically linked make it easier to assign a bad connotation to the negative words and a good connotation to the positive words. But in Big Brother's world, there is no "good" and "bad." There is just "good" and "ungood." So in a way, everything that Big Brother does is somehow related to the concept of goodness. So Big Brother is never bad or anything with a negative connotation. I hope that makes sense. I realize this is just my own opinion and may not be true for any of you or be true for all word pairings. Perhaps I have been biased in my choice of word pairings, but those were the ones I thought of off the top of my head. Anyway, it's something interesting to think about.
Have many of you read 1984? What do you think of it?
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