MacGuffin
@bobbinup.bsky.social
Librarian/Researcher. 📚
Teach sometimes.
Love the outdoors, the open road, walking the coast near my home. Inspired by all branches of the creative/performing arts. Trying to remain hopeful in this theatre of the absurd. 200+ Replies to posts👇
Teach sometimes.
Love the outdoors, the open road, walking the coast near my home. Inspired by all branches of the creative/performing arts. Trying to remain hopeful in this theatre of the absurd. 200+ Replies to posts👇
Yes it’s a devastating coda and the fulfilment of O’Brien’s prophecy thus: “You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves”.
October 26, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Yes it’s a devastating coda and the fulfilment of O’Brien’s prophecy thus: “You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves”.
By making the reader carry the emotional truth his characters can no longer bear, Orwell puts it all on on us to see that totalitarian tyrants of any persuasion never get the chance to realise the author’s terrifying vision of a jackboot “stomping” on the best aspects of our humanity forever.
October 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
By making the reader carry the emotional truth his characters can no longer bear, Orwell puts it all on on us to see that totalitarian tyrants of any persuasion never get the chance to realise the author’s terrifying vision of a jackboot “stomping” on the best aspects of our humanity forever.
But Orwell is not finished with us yet. Julia & Winston’s individuality & feelings have been erased but WE remember exactly who they were and therefore We feel their grief, their shame, the devastating loss of their love on their behalf.
October 26, 2025 at 2:41 AM
But Orwell is not finished with us yet. Julia & Winston’s individuality & feelings have been erased but WE remember exactly who they were and therefore We feel their grief, their shame, the devastating loss of their love on their behalf.
At the most primal level humans are hardwired to survive - everything else is subordinate to that fundamental priority when we are placed under unbearable stress.
October 26, 2025 at 2:41 AM
At the most primal level humans are hardwired to survive - everything else is subordinate to that fundamental priority when we are placed under unbearable stress.
I hasten to add that while the lovers still vaguely sense they have betrayed each other, it isn’t really a betrayal at all. Orwell knew from his experiences in wartime that courage can be exhausted & torture does not appeal to reason, loyalty or love.
October 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
I hasten to add that while the lovers still vaguely sense they have betrayed each other, it isn’t really a betrayal at all. Orwell knew from his experiences in wartime that courage can be exhausted & torture does not appeal to reason, loyalty or love.
Furthermore human beings can indeed be annihilated & everything we hold sacred can be taken away from us. Under relentless torture humans will eventually do anything to end the suffering including giving up loved ones. Not a very ‘Hollywood’ ending is it?
October 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Furthermore human beings can indeed be annihilated & everything we hold sacred can be taken away from us. Under relentless torture humans will eventually do anything to end the suffering including giving up loved ones. Not a very ‘Hollywood’ ending is it?
The ending to 1984 is one of the most heartbreaking in all of literature and Orwell achieves this in two main ways. Firstly by reiterating an unnerving truth: Past a certain point & given the right circumstances love cannot save us.
October 26, 2025 at 2:32 AM
The ending to 1984 is one of the most heartbreaking in all of literature and Orwell achieves this in two main ways. Firstly by reiterating an unnerving truth: Past a certain point & given the right circumstances love cannot save us.
Noam Chomsky tells Andrew Marr why he got his job at the BBC
YouTube video by Bebert Legland
youtu.be
October 25, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Syme doesn’t just “tolerate” the act of cutting — he revels in it. His enthusiasm shows how totalitarianism can seduce even the clever and cultured by appealing to intellectual vanity. His enjoyment is itself part of the evil Orwell wants us to see.
October 23, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Syme doesn’t just “tolerate” the act of cutting — he revels in it. His enthusiasm shows how totalitarianism can seduce even the clever and cultured by appealing to intellectual vanity. His enjoyment is itself part of the evil Orwell wants us to see.
With respect, Syme loves language but only as an instrument of control. As he says: “The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought”. So while Syme enjoys the linguistic challenge, it’s a love of linguistic architecture in service of tyranny, not a scholar’s innocent delight.
October 23, 2025 at 12:14 PM
With respect, Syme loves language but only as an instrument of control. As he says: “The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought”. So while Syme enjoys the linguistic challenge, it’s a love of linguistic architecture in service of tyranny, not a scholar’s innocent delight.
Well said Dave. I will never forget. Israeli Zionists have ruptured the moral universe & started an ice cold war with mankind.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
October 23, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Well said Dave. I will never forget. Israeli Zionists have ruptured the moral universe & started an ice cold war with mankind.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
“ADF personnel say they’d be very happy for Tony Abbott to lead the unexploded mines recovery team”.
October 23, 2025 at 10:45 AM
“ADF personnel say they’d be very happy for Tony Abbott to lead the unexploded mines recovery team”.
Their compelling struggles and experiences under the yoke of a brutal all pervasive surveillance state are nightmarishly real. Orwell hoped they’d be real enough to make readers question the stability and trajectory of their own nation states while there was still time to avoid political tyranny.
October 22, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Their compelling struggles and experiences under the yoke of a brutal all pervasive surveillance state are nightmarishly real. Orwell hoped they’d be real enough to make readers question the stability and trajectory of their own nation states while there was still time to avoid political tyranny.
It’s not realistic or particularly plausible that the Party could restrain or completely control the human spirit. But put aside the outlandish setting and you’ll see 1984 is grounded by the very real drama of its characters.
October 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
It’s not realistic or particularly plausible that the Party could restrain or completely control the human spirit. But put aside the outlandish setting and you’ll see 1984 is grounded by the very real drama of its characters.
Julia: ingenuity/creative thinking in arranging secret rendezvous with Winston; smuggling real tea, coffee
makeup; the reclamation of her body and sensual pleasure are all acts of subversive creativity - small human assertions of individuality over stifling state control.
makeup; the reclamation of her body and sensual pleasure are all acts of subversive creativity - small human assertions of individuality over stifling state control.
October 22, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Julia: ingenuity/creative thinking in arranging secret rendezvous with Winston; smuggling real tea, coffee
makeup; the reclamation of her body and sensual pleasure are all acts of subversive creativity - small human assertions of individuality over stifling state control.
makeup; the reclamation of her body and sensual pleasure are all acts of subversive creativity - small human assertions of individuality over stifling state control.
Examples: Winston’s diary, old poetry fragments (Oranges & Lemons) his dreams of Julia & the Golden Country, the coral paperweight, the unrestrained spontaneity of the washer woman’s voice - these are all small acts of rebellious creativity, doomed perhaps, but deeply human.
October 22, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Examples: Winston’s diary, old poetry fragments (Oranges & Lemons) his dreams of Julia & the Golden Country, the coral paperweight, the unrestrained spontaneity of the washer woman’s voice - these are all small acts of rebellious creativity, doomed perhaps, but deeply human.
Since creativity is a form of self-expression and as Syme explains, “Thoughtcrime is death” creativity cannot “flourish”. However a few notable traces of creative rebellion exist above and below the surface of 1984.
October 22, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Since creativity is a form of self-expression and as Syme explains, “Thoughtcrime is death” creativity cannot “flourish”. However a few notable traces of creative rebellion exist above and below the surface of 1984.
There are no explicitly hopeful messages in the novel - quite the opposite:
“If you want a vision of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
That said, 1984 was written precisely in the hope that the totalitarian hell hole depicted in the work would never come to fruition.
“If you want a vision of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
That said, 1984 was written precisely in the hope that the totalitarian hell hole depicted in the work would never come to fruition.
October 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM
There are no explicitly hopeful messages in the novel - quite the opposite:
“If you want a vision of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
That said, 1984 was written precisely in the hope that the totalitarian hell hole depicted in the work would never come to fruition.
“If you want a vision of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
That said, 1984 was written precisely in the hope that the totalitarian hell hole depicted in the work would never come to fruition.
As the personification of Arendt’s “banality of evil” in its most intellectual & self aware form he has no literary contemporaries that I’m aware of except maybe Cormac McCarthys extraordinary Judge Holden (Blood Meridian) a far more
recent creation.
recent creation.
October 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
As the personification of Arendt’s “banality of evil” in its most intellectual & self aware form he has no literary contemporaries that I’m aware of except maybe Cormac McCarthys extraordinary Judge Holden (Blood Meridian) a far more
recent creation.
recent creation.
O’Brien is an original, frightening, extremely complex & compelling villain - a man of great intellect & charisma who also happens to be a vivisector of the human condition and an utterly amoral destroyer of minds.
October 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
O’Brien is an original, frightening, extremely complex & compelling villain - a man of great intellect & charisma who also happens to be a vivisector of the human condition and an utterly amoral destroyer of minds.
Taken out of context mass surveillance of dreams is a rather ludicrous concept but Orwell knew that the Party trick was making people believe you can do it. From here, fear, guilt & self loathing take over. The mind can never be allowed to wander! It must be self imprisoned and guarded 24/7.
October 16, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Taken out of context mass surveillance of dreams is a rather ludicrous concept but Orwell knew that the Party trick was making people believe you can do it. From here, fear, guilt & self loathing take over. The mind can never be allowed to wander! It must be self imprisoned and guarded 24/7.
👆unconsciousness
More overtly the persecution of the loyal, ‘useful idiot’ Parsons is a terror inducing control act designed to say: everyone is always a suspect, no one is safe, ever - not even from your own family in your own bed asleep.
More overtly the persecution of the loyal, ‘useful idiot’ Parsons is a terror inducing control act designed to say: everyone is always a suspect, no one is safe, ever - not even from your own family in your own bed asleep.
October 16, 2025 at 12:46 AM
👆unconsciousness
More overtly the persecution of the loyal, ‘useful idiot’ Parsons is a terror inducing control act designed to say: everyone is always a suspect, no one is safe, ever - not even from your own family in your own bed asleep.
More overtly the persecution of the loyal, ‘useful idiot’ Parsons is a terror inducing control act designed to say: everyone is always a suspect, no one is safe, ever - not even from your own family in your own bed asleep.
As I recall Parson’s daughter dobbed him in for dissing BB in his sleep!
To focus on one aspect of this layered sequence Parson’s subconscious transgression is consistent with Syme’s dictum that “orthodoxy is unconscious” IOW true loyalty means not thinking ever - even in the realm of dreams.
To focus on one aspect of this layered sequence Parson’s subconscious transgression is consistent with Syme’s dictum that “orthodoxy is unconscious” IOW true loyalty means not thinking ever - even in the realm of dreams.
October 15, 2025 at 4:28 PM
As I recall Parson’s daughter dobbed him in for dissing BB in his sleep!
To focus on one aspect of this layered sequence Parson’s subconscious transgression is consistent with Syme’s dictum that “orthodoxy is unconscious” IOW true loyalty means not thinking ever - even in the realm of dreams.
To focus on one aspect of this layered sequence Parson’s subconscious transgression is consistent with Syme’s dictum that “orthodoxy is unconscious” IOW true loyalty means not thinking ever - even in the realm of dreams.