Inside Room 101

I was born in 1984!
This small piece of trivia, although completely useless will help me set the mood for today’s post.
For while I was born in 1984, I wasn’t born in Nineteen Eighty Four, yet I wonder by how much?
Everybody has heard of the book, everybody should have heard about the book. In it George Orwell, the author for the ignorant few, describes a world were privacy is an illusion, trust an error and thinking a crime. It describes a world were love is intended to be disgusting and fathers are afraid of their own kids. It describes a world where history is what they want it to be, and language is systematically destroyed.
Who are they, you ask? They are the party, they are the absolute rulers of Oceania, a superstate composed by the American continent, the British islands, southern Africa, Australia and some other pieces of land. They are ruled by Big Brother, They are Big Brother. The party is immortal, invincible!
This is the world of Winston Smith, a middle age man whose life seems to be void if not for the fear installed in him. He believes to be alone in a world gone mad, or perhaps it is him that is mad and everyone else sane.

The book in itself is divided in three parts, each telling a different bit of the story. Part one is mostly an introduction, showing the world and describing the life lived there. Part two adds a bit more to this but it is mostly about the unavoidable love story in forbidden conditions and the first contact of the main character with the resistance. Near the end of part two you also get to read a sort of essay, showed as part of a book written by the leader of the resistance, which pretty much explains how such a world could be feasible. Part three is the absolute culmination of everything! I dare not say more for it would be a crime in itself.

Some have called this book as prophetic. Although today we know that is not the case, anyone who reads the book knows that it wouldn’t be so infeasible that events had (will?) transpired that way.
Plotwise the book isn’t exceptional, but that’s okay since every situation is only created so a little more can be revealed about the world. That’s where the quality of the book lies and that’s why you should read it.
And remember, not reading is exactly what They would have wanted you to do!

We all know what’s inside Room 101!