1984: The masterpiece that killed George Orwell | Hacker News Reader

1984: The masterpiece that killed George Orwell

guardian.co.uk

74 pointsksvs21 comments

1984 again? I wonder if there should be a "recurring" page? Maybe call it a "classics" page? This might be good for reddit, since it has the semi-random box at the top. Such links of proven interest could be randomly shown there. This would be a great tool for catching the eye of new users, with proven great content. It could then be turned off by veteran users. This would give the best of both worlds. New users could be introduced to great links they missed, and veteran users wouldn't have to deal with "dupes."

As someone who came here from reddit because it was turning into digg, I agree. The quality of the articles and comments on HN is amazing and it's great to be able to come here and actually be interested in every link without having to skip past all the images of cute animals and political trash. I am aware that the number of users and the quality of a site like this is inversely correlated, so I think taking every action to preserve the original idea and intent of HN should be a high priority of the members here. Thanks for bringing me great tech links HN!

The regulars who wring their hands over HN or whatever other site going down hill really should just go find somewhere else to read.

It's not the real regulars who wring their hands over this-- more the users who've been here 5 months or so. It seems to be a phase people go through.

Thank you. Since 5 months will come up soon for me, I'll try not to go through it too :-D

Those that complain and mean it leave. Those that complain and don't will have stopped complaining about it.

The people who stick around aren't so much the ones who didn't mean it when they said, after a bad day, that HN was going to the dogs. I think more often they simply noticed that the next day everything was fine again.

I read Yevgeny Zamyatin's _We_ recently, and recommend. It has a more lighthearted style generally but the ending is still fairly devestating. There's just been a new translation released and it hides most of the cultural problems well and is just honest about the one it couldn't (character using a polite version of a pronoun).

I feel 1984 is the weakest of the classic distopia triumvirate (We, BNW, 1984). We and BNW are both scarier because they are plausible. Many people read BNW in particular and say "that doesn't seem so bad".

Wait, are you saying that 1984 is implausible?

We actually have newspeak, constant surveillance, the bumbling inept bureaucracy and crumbling infrastructure he predicts.

It's a pretty accurate vision as far as I see it and the Department of Homeland Security/CIA/NSA are merely a step removed from the Ministry of Truth.

Long live Oceania!

Can't forget Fahrenheit 451. I think it's more approachable than We and I think more people have read it.

I became a fan of Dystopian Literature after reading that book and have been amassing a collection since.

I'm curious about this new translation - do you know who it was translated/published by?

The most recent edition on Amazon I can find is from 2006, I'm interested in checking out the new translation based on your comments but not sure if this is the same one.

I'm mistaken about this. I confused it with the new translation of Pushkin's _Eugene_Onegin_, now by Stanley Mitchell (2008). My edition of _We_ was published in 1993.

I personally think that personal computing, computing in general and the Internet/Web has moved us far far away from Orwell's nightmare world.

For even a tiny example, logistics software allowing transport costs to plummet and more products deliverable.

And yes, I've read 1984 and various books on Stalin and the Soviets.

Interestingly one can imagine the book's Oceania to resemble North Korea. I.e. it's "just" an isolated dictatorship in England; the image conveyed of the rest of the world is just propaganda.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585153

Cereal Killer respectfully disagrees.

"I used to work for a company"

Note highlights... Company, not government.

That's data protection, not politics.

The companies readily turn it over to the government.

the government is a corporation. it's just a corporation with a monopoly on protection and really good marketing (how many people will die for apple?)

"(how many people will die for apple?)"

On certain message boards....all of them.

Animal Farm is much more to the point today. And it's not Big Brother, but Big Mother, that has taken over.

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