Reviews

after reading a bunch of silly goose books i needed to reread a classic because my book list this year was thoroughly lacking in the intellectual department. also listened to ethel cain & hozier while reading this, and i have to say that ptolomea seems to radiate the same sort of desperate nostalgia and hopelessness that george orwell writes with; or at least the hold on memory and the past that winston clings to. that's me, always connecting everything i see and do to my spotify playlists.

the first time i read this i remember being outwardly shocked by the violence and the sanctity with which it seemed to be described. this time, almost like winston, i have become more desensitized to the general gore and sense of disgust, whether through my previous read or the tv shows i watch, which is so interesting to me.

i can't quite remember what part of the book this is from, but i wrote down the phrase "mystical truth and a palpable obscurity" while i was reading outside the other day. it seems to portray the final goals of this mysterious "big brother and party" in ethereal terms that i could see myself using in the future. because it is true, the truth is mystical not necessarily in the way the book describes, but in that the pursuit of truth is so important to human development, or the avoidance of what seems to consume the world in this novel. here, innocence is synonymous with idiocy. in the past year, i've found myself wanting less and less to know news, truth, and the general state of the world because its negativity consumes me and seems to bring me down. but orwell's outgrown warning somehow maintains its grip on the possibilities of the world.

not sure if i will revisit this one to be honest because it wasn't a pleasant read short of the intellectual stimulation that i so desperately needed. i don't know why i insist on reading orwell because although i appreciate his writing and the warnings he provides to society, i simply don't like the way it makes me feel. so because of that 3.5? stars. i'll leave it at four because i've been ranking books so high but those are my thoughts.