A comment under the video

In the December of 2021, I decided the theme should be dystopian fiction because I liked the tautogram - Dystopian December. I must say that the order of the books was perfect and all these classics live up to the hype.

1984 by George Orwell depicted methods of a power hungry totalitarian regime and human conditions under such a regime. It is a dark book, compared to the rest. While Brave New World by Aldous Huxley felt more of a utopian world with the ideas like everyone belongs to everyone else and soma. The book conveys the idea that there is more to life than immediate gratification of the senses. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, out of all three, was a bit difficult to read due to excessive usage of literary devices. The book is about the moronic influence of mass media and the irreplaceable importance of books, walking and talking.

These books have been popular for decades and will continue to be popular. What makes these books stand out is not just ideas well ahead of their time, but also the writing. Orwell and Huxley, ideas and writing of these two men have strong potential to leave a thumbprint in the ridges of reader’s mind.

The aim of a dystopian novel is to take an idea to the extreme and depict the human conditions. While each book had different ideas to convey, the common theme of the books encourages one to find common patterns.

1. Spectrum of Orthodoxy

In such extreme conditions, you will have a spectrum of characters exhibiting different behaviour. On one extreme, you have a character that moves through the system as fish through water. On the other extreme, a character that attempts to ponder the meaning of things around him.

1984 spectrum

Parsons… Syme….Julia…Winston

Brave New World

Lenina….Bertrand…Helmoltz…………………………………………….John

(I think John has to be on a different scale)

Fahrenheit 451

Mildered….Faber…Montag

2. The guy who knows it!

In all three books, there is a character who is well aware of the extreme conditions in which they live, yet they believe that this is how the system should be. These are not men who follow the system blindly but are the ones who have the upper hand and ensure that system doesn’t break. In 1984, it was O’Brien. In Brave New World, it was Mustafa Mond. In Fahrenheit 451, it was Beatty. There is at least one conversation between the protagonist and such a character to reveal the intentions of the government and convince him that the prevailing system is best for humanity(with an exception of 1984, where party does it for sake of itself).

Language and Books

Anyone who has spent enough time with books understands the influence language can have on one’s thoughts and emotions. Writers know it best. In each book, it has been shown how books and language can shape thoughts. In 1984, the government tries to limit one’s thoughts via a new language Newspeak. In Brave New World, John’s clarity on his emotions gets amplified when he reads Shakespeare. Fahrenheit 451 is a book about books. Conversation between Faber and Montag greatly depicts why books are important.

Favourite Quotes from each book

1984

Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing

Brave New World

the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge

Fahrenheit 451

Good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her to flies.