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Post by Dominique on Jan 29, 2008 0:56:29 GMT -5
Ok I finished this last week and I've been meaning to start a thread on it ever since. I absolutely loved this book. It was so interesting and the introduction and the original forward from Orwell were so informative and really showed you the deeper meanings of a lot of the story. I'm a huge fan of Nineteen Eighty Four and now this is one of my favourites too so I'm pretty keen to move onto one of Orwell's lesser known works and see how I like it.
My favourite quote from the forward:
"There is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods. If one loves democracy the argument runs one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and conciously, but those who 'objectively' endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines. In other words, defending democracy involves destroying all independence of thought."
I thought this was very interesting and still very relevant today.
What did anyone else who's read it think?
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Post by Pilleriin on Jan 29, 2008 5:44:31 GMT -5
I read it right after I finished Nineteen Eighty Four and I was also amazed. I love that quote too. I also love the last sentence: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." You can take it in two ways Nineteen Eighty Four changed my world-view. I grew up right after I finished the book. I finally relized how bad was my moms or my dads childhood( Estonia is a former USSR country ), ofcourse it wasn't so bad but it was close. I haven't read other books by Orwell yet, but my friend has read Homage to Catalonia and she loved it.
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Michelle
First novel published
Posts: 2,563
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Post by Michelle on Jan 29, 2008 9:26:42 GMT -5
I really enjoyed Animal Farm. I think the overall message that any form of government can be abused is important. I read it awhile ago - I'd really like to read it again.
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bookworm
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"Everything you can imagine is real" - Pablo Picasso
Posts: 973
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Post by bookworm on Jan 29, 2008 15:04:50 GMT -5
Yeah, I want to re-read it too! I read it years ago for school, it was one of the few decent books we had to read... I think it's a book that's always relevant...
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Post by tahlia on Jan 29, 2008 16:25:09 GMT -5
this is a great book. i love the irony, made me laugh a bunch of times. i think the story is cute as well. I may re-read it soon.
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Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
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Post by Isa on Jan 29, 2008 22:31:32 GMT -5
I read it a few years ago and I loved it! I remember spending a lot of time on the Web as I was reading it because I really didn't know much about the Russian revolution before I read that book. I almost cried too when they ran Snowball out of the farm - I know it was supposed to be a metaphor for when Trotsky had to flee from Russia, but I couldn't help but imagine the poor little pig running away!
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Lu
Administrator
Posts: 5,469
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Post by Lu on Jan 30, 2008 8:14:24 GMT -5
I loved Nineteen Eighty-Four and I really want to read Animal Farm, so I'm glad to hear you good things about it.
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Post by tahlia on Jan 30, 2008 13:50:35 GMT -5
I read it a few years ago and I loved it! I remember spending a lot of time on the Web as I was reading it because I really didn't know much about the Russian revolution before I read that book. I almost cried too when they ran Snowball out of the farm - I know it was supposed to be a metaphor for when Trotsky had to flee from Russia, but I couldn't help but imagine the poor little pig running away! i cried! i felt so bad for him!
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Post by Dominique on Jan 31, 2008 19:43:59 GMT -5
I haven't read other books by Orwell yet, but my friend has read Homage to Catalonia and she loved it. I might keep my eye out for that one then, I read a bit about it in the forward and it sounded good I felt really sad when they drove the pig out too! poor snowball.
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Post by mockingbrid on Feb 5, 2008 16:15:48 GMT -5
I read it in 9th grade and hated it. I think I'll have to re-read it again to see if my views have changed. It was totally irrelevant to us and many people didn't understand or like the symbolism. If I take AP English next year I will be readin 1984. I am hearing a lot of good things about it from the people here and many other places. Even if I don't take the class, I still may read it.
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