|
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell, (who's real name is Eric Arthur Blair)
... Published in 1949, it's set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. The story follows
the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of falsifying records and political
literature, thus effectively perpetuating propaganda, who grows disillusioned with his meagre existence and so begins a rebellion
against the system. The novel has become famous for its portrayal of surveillance and society's increasing encroachment on
the rights of the individual. Since its publication the terms Big Brother and Orwellian have entered the popular vernacular.
Orwell, who had "encapsulated the thesis at the heart of his novel" in 1944, wrote most of Nineteen Eighty-Four
on the island of Jura, Scotland, during 1947-1948 while critically ill with tuberculosis. He sent the final typescript to
his friends Secker and Warburg on 4 December 1948 and the book was published on 8 June 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four has been
translated into more than 50 languages. The novel's title, its terms, its language (New-speak), and its author's surname,
are bywords for personal privacy lost to national state security. The adjective “Orwellian” denotes many things. It can refer to totalitarian action or organization, as well as governmental
attempts to control or misuse information for the purposes of controlling, pacifying or even subjugating the population. “Orwellian”
can also refer generally to twisted language which says the opposite of what it truly means, or specifically governmental
propagandizing by the misnaming of things; hence the “Ministry of Peace” in the novel actually deals with war and the “Ministry of Love” actually tortures people. Since the novel's publication “Orwellian” has in fact become somewhat of a catch-all
for any kind of governmental overreach or dishonesty and therefore has multiple meanings and applications. The phrase “Big Brother is Watching You” specifically connotes pervasive, invasive surveillance. Although the novel has been banned or challenged in some countries,
it is, along with “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin, “Kallocain” by Karin Boye and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, among the most famous literary representations of dystopia. In 2005, Time magazine listed it among the hundred best English-language
novels published since 1923. The book has often been misinterpreted as an attack on socialism, and Orwell himself had occasion
to refute such claims, both privately and in public. In a letter to Francis A. Henson of the United Automobile Workers, dated
16 June 1949 (seven months before he died), excerpts from which were reproduced in Life (25 July 1949) and the New York Times
Book Review (31 July 1949), Orwell stated the following: “My recent novel [1984] is NOT intended
as an attack on Socialism or on the British Labour Party (of which I am a supporter) but as a show-up of the perversions ...
which have already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism. ...The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to
emphasize that the English-speaking races are not innately better than anyone else and that totalitarianism, if not fought
against, could triumph anywhere.” In his 1946 essay, “Why I Write,” Orwell described himself as a 'Democratic Socialist.'
“Nineteen Eighty-Four” is set in Oceania, one of three intercontinental totalitarian super-states.
The story occurs in London, the "chief city of Airstrip One", itself a province of Oceania that "had once been
called England or Britain". Posters of the ruling Party's leader, “Big Brother,” bearing the caption “'BIG
BROTHER' IS WATCHING YOU,” dominate the city landscapes, while two-way television (the telescreen) dominates the private
and public spaces of the populace. Oceania's people are in three classes — the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the
Proles. The Party government controls the people via the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), the workplace of protagonist Winston
Smith, an Outer Party member. As in the Nazi and Stalinist regimes, propaganda is pervasive; Smith's job is rewriting historical
documents to match the contemporaneous party line, the orthodoxy of which changes daily. It therefore includes destroying
evidence, amending newspaper articles, deleting the existence of people identified as “unpersons.”
|
| ~ The Three Superstates
~ 
Newspeak Dictionary 'Mirrored' From; http://www.newspeakdictionary.com Newspeak and other terminology found in Orwell's novel “Nineteen
Eighty-Four,” with some additional words which only appear in the movie.
Airstrip One - Formally called England. This term
demonstrates Orwell's distain for American influence in Europe. It seems that Oceania (America, England, South America,
Australia) looks upon Britain as little more than an 'airstrip' ... a launching ground into the European theater of war. It
appears that Orwell was predicting the minor role that England would play in the global politics of the future.
Artsem
- Artificial Insemination - The government is pushing this method of childbirth as the ONLY method, to aid in the
destruction of the family unit.
Atomic Wars - The Atomic Wars took place during the 1950's. Colchester, England is the only city that was
specifically mentioned as being nuked, but the book does say that many cities were destroyed in North America, Europe, and
Russia.
It was out of the chaos of these wars that Party emerged and seized control.
Big Brother - Also refered to as simply "B.B.". Similar to America's "Uncle Sam", except this
individual is the leader of the nation. In Oceania, Big Brother is worshiped almost as if he were a god.
And just like the gods of most religions, Big Brother is most likely fictional. Orwell
never refers to Big Brother by his 'real' name, and it would appear that nobody in Oceania possesses this information either.
Winston's memory is a little foggy, but he does share some of the history of BB's rise to power with us:
"The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which
the original leaders of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. By 1970 none of them was left, except Big Brother
himself. All the rest had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter- revolutionaries." But this really doesn't answer the question of whether Big Brother is a 'real' individual
or not. But elsewhere in the book there are hints that Big Brother is a fictional leader:
"Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen.
We may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already considerable uncertainty as to when he was born. Big
Brother is the guise in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world. His function is to act as a focusing point
for love, fear, and reverence, emotions which are more easily felt towards an individual than towards an organization."
It also fits the ideology of Ingsoc to have a fictional leader.
It would go a long way to help the stability of the nation, since it would be difficult for any power-hungry inner party members
to stage a coup d'etat against an imaginary phantom.
This phrase Big Brother has found its way into everyday
speech, and can be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Big Brother, noun, Date: 1863 1 : an older brother 2 : a man who befriends a delinquent
or friendless boy 3 : capitalized both Bs [Big Brother, personification of the power of the state in 1984 (1949) by George
Orwell] a : the leader of an authoritarian state or movement b : an all-powerful government or organization monitoring and
directing people's actions [data banks that tell Big Brother all about us -- Herbert Brucker]
Bellyfeel - Full emotional understanding. Blind, enthusiastic
acceptance of a concept.
Blackwhite- The ability to accept whatever "truth" the party
puts out, no matter how absurd it may be. Orwell described it as "...loyal willingness to say black is white when party
discipline demands this. It also means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know black
is white, and forget that one has ever believed the contrary."
The Brotherhood - see the
resistance
Chestnut
Tree Cafe - The "haunt of painters and musicians. There was no law, not even an unwritten law, against frequenting
the Chestnut Tree Cafe, yet the place was somehow ill-omened. The old, discredited leaders of the Party had been used to gather
there before they were finally purged. Goldstein himself, it was said, had sometimes been seen there, decades ago."
There is a rhyme about the cafe that re-occurs throughout the book:
Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me There lie they, and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree
This is most likely
a "Newspeak Translation" of Longfellow's original poem, The Village Blacksmith Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
Crimestop - Orwell's definition: "The faculty
of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping
analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc,
and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. In short....protective
stupidity."
Chocorat - Chocolate ration. The chocolate ration in 1983 was 30 grams per week. (For comparison, a standard Hershey's
Chocolate Bar is 43 grams) In the year 1984, the chocolate ration went up to 25 grams per week. Winston himself is
charged with the task of re-writing history to make this little feat possible. NOTE: The book differs slightly from the
movie on this. In the book, the the ration was changed to 25 grams as well, but instead or changing history to say that it
went up to 25, Winston simply altered the original 'no-reduction' pledge to state that the ration would have to come down
in April.
Crimethink - To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc. Doubting any of the
principles of Ingsoc. All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. "Thoughtcrime
is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death, Thoughtcrime is death.... The essential crime that contains all others in itself."
crimethinker - One who engages in crimethink.
Dayorder - Order of the day. The "Order
of the Day" was a real-life propaganda technique used by America during WWII.
Disputed Territories
- These are areas of the world NOT permanently included in any of the Superstates : The quadrilateral between Tangier,
Brazzaville, Darwin, and Hong Kong; Equatorial Africa; Middle East; Southern India; and the Indonesian Archipelago. These
area are always occupied by one of the three superstates, but are constantly changing hands. The borders of Eurasia flow back
and forth between the basin of the Congo and the northern shore of the Mediterranean; The islands of the Indian Ocean and
the Pacific are constantly being captured and recaptured by Oceania or by Eastasia; in Mongolia the dividing line between
Eurasia and Eastasia is never stable; round the pole all three powers lay claim to enormous territories.
doubleplus-
- A Prefix used to create the superlative form of an adjective or adverb. (i.e. pluscold and doublepluscold
meant, respectively, 'very cold' and 'superlatively cold'.
"If you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there in having a whole string
of vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid" and all the rest of them? "Plusgood"
covers the meaning, or "doubleplusgood" if you want something stronger still. "
doublespeak - It is important to note that this
term does not appear anywhere within Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I mention it here only due to its similarity
to other Newspeak terms such as doublethink, duckspeak, Newspeak, and Oldspeak. And even
though it appears that the term was not actually created by Orwell himself, it does carry a very Orwellian meaning of "Deliberately
ambiguous or evasive language; any language that pretends to communicate but actually does not."
doublethink - Reality Control. The power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously,
and accept both of them. An excellent example of doublethink in modern society is the
war on drugs. If you ask people their opinion on alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, most
people would agree that it was a complete failure. People agree that it only caused more crime, it made gangsters
rich, it corrupted politicians, and most importantly ... it didn't keep people from drinking.
Yet, we have almost
the exact same situation today with war on drugs, yet most people think that our modern prohibition is a good idea
... and more than that, they believe that anybody that thinks that the war on drugs isn't a good idea must be completely
out of their minds. In order for a person to be effective at doublethink, they must master the art of crimestop.
This word has made its way into the Merriam-Webster
dictionary:
Dou-ble-think ('D&-b&l-"thi[ng]k),
noun, Date: 1949 : a simultaneous belief in two contradictory ideas. Here's how Winston Smith described doublethink in the novel:
"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed
lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them,
to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that
the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again
at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process
itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious
of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.'
Duckspeak - (To quack like a duck). To speak
without thinking. Can be either good or bad, depending on who is speaking, and whether or not they are on your side.
The Three Superstates: Eastasia - Smallest of the 3 Superstates.(Political System: Death Worship/Obliteration
of Self) Comprised of China and the countries to the south of it, Japan, and a large (but fluctuating) portion of Manchuria,
Mongolia, and Tibet. Eastasia was Oceania's ally at the start of the book, and by the end Eastasia had always been Oceania's
enemy.
Eurasia - One of the
3 Superstates. (Political System: Neo-Bolshevism) Comprised of the whole northern part of the European and Asiatic land-mass,
from Portugal to the Bering Strait. Eurasia was Oceania's enemy at the start of the book, and by the end Eurasia had always
been Oceania's ally.
Oceania - One of
the 3 Superstates. (Political System: Ingsoc) Winston Smith's home. Comprised of North and South America, Britain, Australia,
and southern portions of Africa. Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, but standard English is still spoken by many. ____________________________________________________ Facecrime - Orwell's definition : "It was terribly dangerous to let your
thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away.
A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion
of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous
when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime,
it was called."
FFCC - Organization which supplied cigarettes and other comforts to sailors
on the "Floating Fortresses." This organization was suddenly dissolved in March of 1984 without explanation.
FicDep - Fiction Department of the Ministry of Truth
Floating Fortress - Huge sea bases. Gigantic battleships. This term
has its roots in the real-life term for bombers during WWII, flying fortress.
Free - Only exist in the sense of "The dog is free of lice". The concept of political freedom
has been replaced by the word crimethink.
Fullwise
- (adverb) Fully. One of the rules of newspeak is that any word can be turned into an adverb by
adding the suffix "-wise". This allowed the removal of repetitive words such as completely and totally
from the language.
The Golden Country- A beautiful landscape that Winston sees in his dreams.
It is a symbol of purity... A land untouched by humans (and not altered by the government).
Orwell's Description:
"The landscape that he was looking at recurred so often in his dreams that he was never fully certain whether or not
he had seen it in the real world. In his waking thoughts he called it the Golden Country. It was an old, rabbit-bitten pasture,
with a foot-track wandering across it and a molehill here and there. In the ragged hedge on the opposite side of the field
the boughs of the elm trees were swaying very faintly in the breeze, their leaves just stirring in dense masses like women's
hair. Somewhere near at hand, though out of sight, there was a clear, slow-moving stream where dace were swimming in the pools
under the willow trees."
Goldstein, Emmanuel - The supreme enemy of the state. He was once
a high-ranking member of the party, until he supposedly betrayed the party and begin engaging in revolutionary activities.
He is the supposed head of the "resistance". Goldstein is to Ingsoc what Satan is to Christianity... The
embodiment of pure evil.
Orwell describes Goldstein as having "a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy
aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard -- a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile
silliness in the long thin nose, near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched. It resembled the face of a sheep,
and the voice, too, had a sheep-like quality."
There are similarities between this fictional character
and the real-life Russian, Leon Trotsky (shown right). Trotsky was one of the original fonders of the Soviet Union. But when
he dared to disagree with the Soviet Union's version of Big brother, Joseph Stalin, he was exiled from the country. In his
absence, Trotsky was tried for treason and all of his followers were purged from the party.
Another possible root
of the Emmanuel Goldstein character is the real-life female anarcho-socialist Emma Goldman. Goldman, like
Orwell, participated in the Spanish revolution and held a similar view on politics. She too believed in the socialist system,
but remained fearful of what a communist dictatorship would mean to personal freedoms. It is likely that Orwell was familiar
with her and simply altered the female name of Emma Goldman to create the masculine Emmanuel Goldstein.
Goldstein's Book - One of the greatest acts of heresy that a citizen of Oceania can possibly commit
is to read Goldstein's Book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. The government portrays the book as the centerpiece of the Resistance -- the ultimate tome of all that is evil -- which is the reason Winston coveted it so. But when
you get right down to it, all this book does is explain the structure of society in straightforward and honest manner. And
under a totalitarian regime, that is the single greatest act of thoughtcrime possible.
(Note:
"Goldstein's book" is about 10,700 words long. This means that this "book within a book" comprises approximately
10% of the entire novel!. Given this fact, it almost appears that one of the primary motives for Orwell to write '1984' was
provide himself with a vehicle to publish some of his more "far out" beliefs on the structure of society under the
guise of the fictional character, Emmanuel Goldstein.)
Goodsex - Sex for the purpose of producing
children for the party. The opposite of sexcrime.
goodthinker - One who strongly adheres to all of the principles of Newspeak. (goodthinked,
goodthink, goodthinked, goodthinking, goodthinkful, goodthinking, goodthinkful, goodthinkwise, goodthinker )
Hate week - Week in which Oceanian citizens all attend rallies and parades to inflame hatred of Party enemies
and heighten their efforts on behalf of Oceania.
Ingsoc - English Socialism.
Inner Party. Official Party members. Upper class. About 6
million individuals (or 2%) of the population in Oceania fall into this class. They posses most of the comforts of today's
middle class (with the addition of two or three servants and possibly a helicopter).
Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford - Orwell's
Description - "The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which the original leaders
of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. By 1970 none of them was left, except Big Brother himself. All the rest
had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter- revolutionaries. Goldstein had fled and was hiding no one knew where,
and of the others, a few had simply disappeared, while the majority had been executed after spectacular public trials at which
they made confession of their crimes. Among the last survivors were three men named Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford.
It must have been in 1965 that these three had been arrested. As often happened, they had vanished for a year or more, so
that one did not know whether they were alive or dead, and then had suddenly been brought forth to incriminate themselves
in the usual way. They had confessed to intelligence with the enemy (at that date, too, the enemy was Eurasia), embezzlement
of public funds, the murder of various trusted Party members, intrigues against the leadership of Big Brother which had started
long before the Revolution happened, and acts of sabotage causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people. After confessing
to these things they had been pardoned, reinstated in the Party, and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded
important. All three had written long, abject articles in The Times, analysing the reasons for their defection and promising
to make amends."
"Some time after their release Winston had actually seen all three of them in the Chestnut
Tree Cafe. He remembered the sort of terrified fascination with which he had watched them out of the corner of his eye. They
were men far older than himself, relics of the ancient world, almost the last great figures left over from the heroic days
of the Party. The glamour of the underground struggle and the civil war still faintly clung to them. He had the feeling, though
already at that time facts and dates were growing blurry, that he had known their names years earlier than he had known that
of Big Brother. But also they were outlaws, enemies, untouchables, doomed with absolute certainty to extinction within a year
or two. No one who had once fallen into the hands of the Thought Police ever escaped in the end. They were corpses waiting
to be sent back to the grave."
Their story is similar to that of the real-life Soviets Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev
(Trotsky's brother-in-law), and Grigori Zinoviev. These three individuals were the last to oppose Stalin's absolute rule.
Of course, they lost out in the end. Kamenev and Zinoviev capitulated and agreed to sign statements promising not to create
conflict in the movement by making speeches attacking official policies. Leon Trotsky refused to sign and was banished.
Joycamp - Forced-labor camp.
Junior Anti-sex league - Organization promoting celibacy, and the eradication of the orgasm, because these
things cause feelings of ownlife.
Malabar Front - The front-lines in the
war with Eastasia, located in present day India.
Malreported - When the Times
reports a fact which the government later deemed untrue. You see, the government is never "wrong", the paper merely
reported the facts incorrectly. This term was often used in describing newspaper articles that contained references to unpersons, unfulfilled economic projections, or altered government
policies.
Malquoted - see malreported
Memory hole - A system of pipes, similar to pneumatic tubes,
which were used to destroy documents. A document stuffed in the memory hole would be conveniently whisked away to the furnaces
below - quickly & easily wiped from history.
Miniluv - Ministry of Love
(law and order). "The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had
never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official
business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests.
Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed
truncheons... One did not know what happened inside the Ministry of Love, but it was possible to guess: tortures, drugs, delicate
instruments that registered your nervous reactions, gradual wearing-down by sleeplessness and solitude and persistent questioning."
Minipax - Ministry of Peace (war)
Miniplenty - Ministry of Plenty (rationing). The Ministry of Plenty controlled the entire economy.
Minitrue - Ministry of Truth (propaganda) - Department of the government in charge of all record keeping, history
re-writing, and prolefeed "It was an enormous
pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 meters into the air. The Ministry
of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered
about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding
architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of
the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided."
Misprints
- see malreported
Newspeak - The official language of Oceania.
Newspeak is "politically correct" speech taken to its maximum extent. Newspeak is based on standard English, but
all words describing "unorthodox" political ideas have been removed. In addition, there was an attempt to remove
the overall number of words in general, to limit the range of ideas that could be expressed.
The most important
aim of newspeak was to provide a means of speaking that required no thought what-so-ever. It uses abbreviations or clipped
conjunctions in order to mask or alter a word's true meaning. For example, words such as Miniluv and joycamp,
allow the speaker to speak without actually being force to think about what they were talking about.. or at least, not as
much as if they were required to use complete phrases such as "Ministry of Love" or "Forced Labor Camp".
These words just roll right off the lips before the speaker can even contemplate what he is really saying.
Reducing
the number of words also removes any literary value to writing, because there would only be one distinct way to present any
particular concept. It would be impossible to write a book like Common Sense , Uncle Tom's Cabin, or even
1984 in Newspeak. Not only would the correct words for certain concepts not be available, but a lack of adjectives
would cause the writing would be completely bland and unemotional, which in itself would keep people from reading at all.
Here is the official definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: New-Speak
('nIw-"spEk, 'ny'-), noun, Usage: often capitalized. : propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and
the inversion of customary meanings. Etymology: Newspeak, a language "designed to diminish the range of thought,"
in the novel 1984 (1949) by George Orwell. Date: 1950 Oceania 'Tis for Thee - National Anthem
of Oceania.
Oldspeak - Standard English. Newspeak is based on Oldspeak, with all words which represent
unpopular (or politically incorrect) ideas removed.
oldthink - Holding on to old ideas and patterns of thought not consistent with current government policy (Ingsoc).
Maintaining a belief that is no longer acceptable, but was normal just a few years prior.
oldthinkers - Those who engage in oldthink
Those who have not fully accepted the new Ingsoc way of thinking.
Outer Party - Middle class.
Bureaucrats, and other government employees. Comprising approximately 13% of population. There is a huge gap between the standard
of living of Inner and Outer party members. Outer Party members have very little possessions, and almost no access to basic
consumer goods. All outer party members have a telescreen in every room of their pathetic excuse for an apartment.
ownlife - Individualism and eccentricity. A desire to do something for your own benefit. (i.e. hobbies, ownership
of property, love, or any other Thoughtcrime)
Physical Jerks - Morning Exercises. Participation
was mandatory for all outer party members. These exercises took place every day 3 minutes after the morning wake-up call,
which for office workers was at 7:15 am.
Pornosec - Department of Minitrue. Produces
the "lowest-kind" of pornography for the proles. In the Novel, it is described as a "sub-section of the Fiction
Department which turned out cheap pornography for distribution among the proles. It was nicknamed Muck House by the people
who worked in it". They "produced booklets in sealed packets with titles like Spanking Stories or One Night in a
Girls' School, to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under the impression that they were buying something
illegal.
Prole - Proletarians. Approximately
85% of Oceania's population are in this class. Members of the party viewed them as animals. They are not as rigidly observed
as members of the party, and very few (if any) have telescreens in their home. They are permitted to indulge in pornography,
prostitution, and other acts considered thoughtcrime, simply because it would be impossible to observe all
of them as rigidly as the party observes its own members. Plus, allowing them to indulge in these "little joys"
helps to keep the masses content.
Prolefeed - Rubishy "Entertainment"
and spurious news which the Party handed out to the masses. This includes written literature, movies, porn, music, and other
various propaganda created for the proles. (For
a modern example of prolefeed, just turn on your television or radio. With the exception of some scientific programming,
everything else is prolefeed.)
Recdep - Records Department - Department of the Ministry of Truth in which Winston Smith worked. Department responsible
for correcting "mistakes" in past newspaper articles.
Reclamation
Centre - Colony for children made homeless during the Atomic Wars.
Ref - Reference.
Resistance - The resistance was the
revolutionary group which was supposedly led by the arch-traitor, Emmanuel Goldstein. There is some question as to whether
or not this group actually existed. The novel seems to imply that the resistance was simply fabricated by the government,
or at the very least, that the police had agents posing as real resistance members in order to catch possible recruits.
The only thing that is for sure, is that the party blamed every possible woe of society on this group. The resistance
was blamed for spreading herpes, contaminating the water supply, forging government documents (which was the reason for so
many "misprints" in the papers), abducting party members, helping to aim rocket bombs to targets on Airstrip One,
and destroying industrial machinery. Every single thing that ever goes wrong is blamed on this group. For instance: Whenever
the trains don't run on time, it is said that the resistance has alter the train schedule ... When a department does meet
their production goal, it is said that the resistance has altered the original data, resulting in a over-estimation of production
for that year.
Room
101 - The final punishment for thoughtcriminals in the Ministry of Love.
"The thing is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world....The worst thing in the world varies
from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other
deaths..... "
Steamer - Prole word for Rocket
Bomb
Sexcrime - Having sex for enjoyment.
Also, even having sex in the hope to create a family of your own. The only time that sex is considered goodsex is when it is performed in producing offspring for the party.
speakwrite - Voice recognition machines. (A fairly 'futuristic' concept, considering that this book
was written in 1948)
speedwise - (adverb) quickly. One of the rules of newspeak is that any
word can be turned into an adverb by adding the suffix "-wise". This allowed the removal of repetitive words such
as quickly and promptly from the language.
Teledep - The Teleprograms Department
of the Ministry of Truth
Telescreen
- Two way television. All party members has one in every room of their apartment. Because of this, the party member
is never out of earshot of the latest party propaganda, and not one second goes by that they are not under the surveillance
of the party. There was no way to change the channel, and the telescreen could not be turned off except by members of the
Inner Party.
Thoughtcrime - see crimethink
Thinkpol
- ThoughtPolice. Police force in charge of eliminating crimethink. The thought police monitor the public
by way of spies (narcs), helicopters, and telescreens.
Two minute hate - Daily telescreen specials
in which various elements of crimethink were packaged into a parade of horrible images and sounds, at which, the
viewers were expected to boo, hiss, curse. and release any negative emotions upon. Unperson - Person that has been erased
from existence by the government for breaking the law in some way. A unperson is completely erased from history.
All records of their existence is removed from record, and all party members are expected to removed them from memory. To
mention their name is considered thoughtcrime. This eliminates any possibility of martyrdom.
Ungood - Bad. One of the rules of newspeak is that any word can be turned
into its antonym by adding the prefix "un-". This allowed the removal of repetitive words such as horrible,
terrible, great, fantastic, and fabulous from the language.
"After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other
word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take "good", for instance. If you have a word like "good",
what need is there for a word like "bad"? "Ungood" will do just as well -- better, because it's an exact
opposite, which the other is not."
Upsub - Get authorization from superiors (Submit to "Higher-ups" for approval)
Vaporized - The act of being executed by the state, and having all records of your existence erased. Becoming
an unperson.
Versificator - A writing machine. A mechanical device that produced "literature"
and "music" for the masses. This was necessary so that a party member would not be forced to cloud their mind with
such frivolous concepts. It produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational
five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and even sentimental songs.
Youth League - Mandatory
children's group under control of the Thought Police. Similar to the "Hitler Youth". Their member's primary task
is to monitor the activities of their parents.
x yp n quarter - Method or writing a date. x= Year
of the plan, n= quarter of year. (i.e. 3 yp 4th quarter) |
|