I've been re-reading 1984 with more interest and deeper concentration than in the past.
"Only the Thought Police mattered...How often, or on
what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was
guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the
time....You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the
assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness,
every movement scrutinized." p.6.
“From the table drawer he took out a penholder, a bottle of
ink, and a thick, quarto-sized book with a red back and a marbled cover”. p.8
“He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended
upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984. It must be around that date,
since he was fairly sure that his age was thirty-nine, and he believed that he had been born in 1944 or
1945…” p.9.
"For whom, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder. was he writing this diary? For the future, for the unborn". p. 10.
"The idea had even crossed his mind that she might be an agent of the Thought Police". p.12.
"For whom, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder. was he writing this diary? For the future, for the unborn". p. 10.
"The idea had even crossed his mind that she might be an agent of the Thought Police". p.12.
"Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did
not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just
the same. He had committed - would still have committed, even if he had never
set pen to paper- the essential crime that contained all others in itself.
Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed for ever. You
might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they
were bound to get you." p.19.
I was reminded of the journal/diary I kept when working in Czechoslovakia in the 1980's.
I was reminded of the journal/diary I kept when working in Czechoslovakia in the 1980's.
Some radio programmes:
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