Nineteen Eighty-Four

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Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a 1949 dystopian science fiction novel by the English author George Orwell. It has ranked highly in surveys on best (English-language) novels.

Content

The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, in a world of repressive totalitarianism and extreme mass surveillance and mass propaganda.

While the Stalinist Soviet Union was a main influence on the book, other stated influences include that the "Ministry of Truth" derives from the BBC's overseas service, controlled by the Ministry of Information and that "Room 101" derives from a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House.

One aspect of the dystopian state in the book is using language as method of propaganda and control. "Newspeak" is an official constructed language in the book, having a restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual's ability to think and articulate "subversive" concepts. Opponents of politically correct language and language restrictions have seen similarities.

A related dystopian aspect is thoughtcrime, also seen having similarities to current real-world phenomena.

Another aspect of the dystopian state in the novel (and real-world states) was censorship of history, with only one allowed official version. Revisionists have seen similarities with, notably, official Holocaust history and censorship of other views.

The book has coined or popularized a number of terms, including "Orwellian", "Newspeak", "Big Brother", "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Thought Police", "memory hole", "2 + 2 = 5", "proles", "Two Minutes Hate", "telescreen", and "Room 101".

See also

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