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Lalwendë · 12-23-2006, 02:54 AM

It's a long time since I've read 1984 now too. To understand that sense of greasy, dingy despair it's useful to read The Road To Wigan Pier and its depiction of the abject poverty of the 1930s, the greasy, dingy digs that Orwell found himself living in, the soot-grimed streets of Wigan and Sheffield, scenes of people scrabbling for remnants of coal on dangerous slag heaps, existing hand to mouth on the dole. 1984 was also written following the war and the realisation of how extreme regimes both left and right were dehumanising, reducing people to mere cogs in the machine. And the final influence I think that's important is wartime Britain with its directives (to be fair, such directives were probably necessary during war), propaganda, identity cards, drudgery, and the misery of rationing, which went on into the 50s and was actually worse and more restrictive after the war.

Engels and Marx believed that the British people were ripe for revolution but in contrast Orwell saw that British people were more than willing to submit to being oppressed and subject to punitive laws. Personally I think there's a bit of both, and Orwell may have seen that in having Winston rebel. The Orcs are like that. When the two Orcs are discussing 'retiring' they are letting their inner rebels show through; in front of the boss and their charges they are part of the machine, but underneath these Orcs lies a love of freedom. I often wonder how Sauron would have managed the peoples of Middle-earth had he gained total control, as if even in Orcs there was the need for some liberty, how would Sauron have controlled all these other people?

That's at the root of dystopian fiction - stories always focus around a person or a few people who for some reason rebel. 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World etc, of course there would be no story if someone did not rebel, but what writers are doing is showing that people are individuals and simply cannot be part of a machine. There are stories set in ostensibly 'perfect' worlds, and ones set in grimy worlds, but all of them share this sense that the individual is greater than the machine.

Tolkien's work is well placed in comparison to novels such as 1984 and the Time Machine (especially with its Morlocks and Eloi - Orcs and Elves?), note how when Aragorn comes to power there is acknowledgement of the other realms and he will leave them to rule independently, and there is acknowledgement that the Fourth Age simply will not be 'perfect', that other evils will come and go. Tolkien even gives us a hint of the dystopian 'perfect' world that could arise when he shows us how dreadful it would be if Galadriel got hold of the One Ring; she might rule over a beautiful world, but the power she possessed would be terrible enough to ruin it.

12-23-2006, 02:54 AM	#4
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	It's a long time since I've read 1984 now too. To understand that sense of greasy, dingy despair it's useful to read The Road To Wigan Pier and its depiction of the abject poverty of the 1930s, the greasy, dingy digs that Orwell found himself living in, the soot-grimed streets of Wigan and Sheffield, scenes of people scrabbling for remnants of coal on dangerous slag heaps, existing hand to mouth on the dole. 1984 was also written following the war and the realisation of how extreme regimes both left and right were dehumanising, reducing people to mere cogs in the machine. And the final influence I think that's important is wartime Britain with its directives (to be fair, such directives were probably necessary during war), propaganda, identity cards, drudgery, and the misery of rationing, which went on into the 50s and was actually worse and more restrictive after the war. Engels and Marx believed that the British people were ripe for revolution but in contrast Orwell saw that British people were more than willing to submit to being oppressed and subject to punitive laws. Personally I think there's a bit of both, and Orwell may have seen that in having Winston rebel. The Orcs are like that. When the two Orcs are discussing 'retiring' they are letting their inner rebels show through; in front of the boss and their charges they are part of the machine, but underneath these Orcs lies a love of freedom. I often wonder how Sauron would have managed the peoples of Middle-earth had he gained total control, as if even in Orcs there was the need for some liberty, how would Sauron have controlled all these other people? That's at the root of dystopian fiction - stories always focus around a person or a few people who for some reason rebel. 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World etc, of course there would be no story if someone did not rebel, but what writers are doing is showing that people are individuals and simply cannot be part of a machine. There are stories set in ostensibly 'perfect' worlds, and ones set in grimy worlds, but all of them share this sense that the individual is greater than the machine. Tolkien's work is well placed in comparison to novels such as 1984 and the Time Machine (especially with its Morlocks and Eloi - Orcs and Elves?), note how when Aragorn comes to power there is acknowledgement of the other realms and he will leave them to rule independently, and there is acknowledgement that the Fourth Age simply will not be 'perfect', that other evils will come and go. Tolkien even gives us a hint of the dystopian 'perfect' world that could arise when he shows us how dreadful it would be if Galadriel got hold of the One Ring; she might rule over a beautiful world, but the power she possessed would be terrible enough to ruin it. __________________ Gordon's alive!