Group Double U Topia

While all of the books we have read this semester are very famous and well known, I would say that 1984 is by far the most. 1984 has had an effect on our culture unmatched by almost any other dystopian novel to date, having been bought over 30 million times since its publication. Additionally, the book has seen a large spike in sales in the last few years especially and is now possibly more relevant than ever. I think 1984 reflects our own society much closer than any other dystopian novel, and this makes the book much more impactful to us. There are two major things that i think resonate the most with modern readers of 1984: the surveillance of the population (at least the outer-Party members) and the constant manipulation of information. Firstly, the presence of the term ‘Big Brother’ in modern culture reaches much further beyond the book itself, and this is an example of how 1984 reflects our world; the fear of a totalitarian government watching over your eve...

So far in 1984, the two things that have stood out most to me are how little the proles are monitored compared to those like Winston and how controlling the government in Oceania strives to be, even changing the language so that there are no words left that could incite ideas harmful to Oceania, like “rebellion.” On top of those two factors, as we know from what we’ve read so far (up to chapter VIII), some people in the proles might know the true history of the world and how it has changed since Oceania’s beginning, not the falsified stories that Winston has contributed to himself. Despite all this, the government of Oceania, as mentioned before, still fails to force the same extremes forced onto those near the upper echelon onto the proles. They believe the proles pose absolutely no threat, but even Winston has mentioned how if the proles somehow found motivation to rebel, they could take on Oceania (foreshadowing?). With all these factors considered, it makes sense that someo...

In class today (Monday, April 1st), we discussed the similarities between the world of 1984, and our world in 2019. Several people mentioned that the futuristic tech (Relative to the 1930s) in the book is very similar to our modern day tech. Especially the television screen, which not only broadcasts information but also records information, similar to our computers webcams, and the amazon Alexa.  In the book, this tech is used to supervise people, and discourage them from acting against the state. People know that they are being surveilled 24/7, and this forces obedience in every aspect in life, as they have no privacy to do what they want. While this is not the case in 2019, some people are still being unwillingly recorded. I myself did not know of anything relating to this topic prior to the discussion we had in class on Monday, and I was quite surprised to see how many people covered or knew other people who covered their webcams. It for some reason had never occurred ...

     In a strike of something that could be called either unlucky or highly lucky, earlier this year I came across a TV show airing on Hulu called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I saw that it had won many awards, so I proceeded to watch the trailer. That same night, I logged on to my account with the Champaign Public Library, and immediately requested the TV show, and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I picked it up from the library. Within five minutes, I was absolutely addicted. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, and Joseph Fiennes had won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for a reason. The combination of a great plot, great acting, and great cinematography was unmatched (save for Game of Thrones and Vikings) compared to anything I had ever watched before in the realm of television.     When I came back to school following winter break, Dr. Majerus mentioned that we would be reading the Handmaid’s Tale. My first thought was, “Oh great, no need to do the...

Almost all of the books we are reading in this class are Dystopian fiction, and in general, there is just more dystopian fiction than utopian fiction. This made me think about the reasons for this, and why dystopias are so much more interesting than utopias. Firstly, I tried to determine a central theme or connection between various dystopias, and one thing that most, if not all, dystopian fiction takes one, or a few, elements of modern society, exaggerates them, and combines them to make a new type of society, a dystopia. For example, Huxley did this in Brave New World, with the increasing consumerism and industrialization, as well as the Freudian ideas, of the early 20th century. Additionally, Margaret Atwood has also said that she only drew on real events when writing The Handmaid’s Tale. After seeing this pattern in dystopian fiction, why does it make for a compelling story, and why is there a lack of utopian fiction that follows the same pattern? I think this way of drawing u...

Brave New World was an interesting look into a “futuristic” dystopian world in which nothing was left to chance. Everything had been predetermined by the alphas of the society, ridding the world of feelings and spontaneity, ensuring the uninterrupted flow of tasks without distraction. The approach they took, however, is what struck me as bizarre. Having gained inspiration from Henry Ford, these people above the rest of society developed a system of automated reproduction via industrial means, that took the responsibilities of the person being “manufactured” into account. Instead of allowing everyone an equal chance to succeed and prosper, some were made intentionally worse than others; in terms of looks, intelligence, and more. The alphas created castes and trained everyone made after the New World State was established from birth until the time of maturity at which they could work. Knowing the society would not be able to maintain itself in the way it was designed to, by result of h...

As a class, we have finished reading Brave New World. However, I would like to look back at the Islands of the world. The author, Aldous Huxley, did not write anything regarding how Bernard or Helmholtz lived their lives at the island after they were exiled. Instead, he mainly focused on John.  Previously in chapter 15-16, we learned quite a bit about the islands. The Islands of the world were seemingly disconnected from the rest of society and served as a prison-like area for people who did not conform to the social norms of the "civilized" world. For example, Iceland and the Falkland Islands were mentioned in the book as punishment islands.  We can see that the typical person of Brave New World is absolutely terrified of being sent to an island, in the early chapters when the director threatens to send Bernard to Iceland, he expresses his concerns to Lenina and is terrified of being sent there. Later on, when the world controller Mustafa Mond talks about his pa...