An year before I was born

1984- a book written in 1949 by George Orwell is a sad-almost nightmarish commentary on what the world would be if socialism prevailed.

The animal farm and 1984 both in essence talk about the communism and the impracticability of it, or rather the horrors that it engenders. Former is a book of how the pigs once having taken over the farm alter anything and everything including the tenets on which they rebelled to suit their needs, finally become the same as the humans who once owned the farm. The latter though, is a dark commentary with only the rarest hints of humour on a world where humans arent human anymore, being human is lunacy, and as he puts it -" one who controls the present controls the past","Freedom is slavery", "Ignorance is strength" and " War is peace".

A story of how these seemingly paradoxical principles come to be accepted by all, including a maverick who recognises things for what they are, of how he is broken down in the end, and how "The Party" makes the people believe in all the lies that they manufacture.
One of the most introspective and deeply philosophical parts of the book though is the part when the protagonist reads the book "Oligarchical Collectivism" that talks about the power balance and class struggle.

Acclaimed as the master piece by George Orwell, this is a book one should definitely read.

If this book was a foreboding book about totalitarianism and the menace it can be, "A brave new world" by "Aldous huxley" set in a similar vein commenting about loosing the human identity in a mechanical yet hierarchial world is also a great read.

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shrek