Name: 喬治-奧威爾的《1984》，第一部分。速成文學401 (1984 by George Orwell, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 401)
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Hi I'm John Green and welcome to season
4 of CrashCourse literature.

Today, we're transporting you to one of
my favorite (slash least favorite) dystopias,

The book starts like this:
It was a bright cold day in April and the

Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast
in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped

quickly through the glass doors of Victory
Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent

a swirl of gritty dust from entering along
with him.

(1)
Of course it's not just a swirl of gritty

dust traveling with Winston; like everyone
in 1984, he's never really alone.

In Orwell's dystopian future 1984, which
was published in 1949, the world is vile and

gritty and the clock strikes 13 and citizens
are under near constant government surveillance.

Orwell did not correctly predict the future;
our clocks still stop at 12.

Also, in the novel 1984, people routinely
disappear and evidence of their existence

is erased from public records, and that doesn't
happen much.

1984 is an indictment of specific governments.

But it's also a warning about the importance
of free thought and speech, and in today's

episode, we're gonna discuss the historical
context in which 1984 was written and also

I want to think about whether Orwell suggests,
within the logic of this novel, that the written

word can significantly alter the society in
which it is produced.

And I mean that on at least two levels: Can
the novel 1984 change the actual world in

which we live, and are characters in the novel
ultimately controlled by the language they,

The truth is, as usual, it's complicated.

INTRO
George Orwell's protagonist, the wind-blown

Winston Smith, shares a first name with Winston
Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United

Kingdom from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1955.

And by replacing a lofty, aristocratic surname
(that evokes Churches.

And Hills) with a common one (a Smith is a
metal worker), Orwell puts the fate of England

in the hands of a working man, although this
one bends words, not metal, since he is a

As for whether Orwell's Winston will prevail
as Winston Churchill did in World War II ...of

Now, some dystopias end with the overthrow
of the horrible government, but Orwell's

tend to end with the bad guys and/or pigs
winning.

And 1984 is very much a dystopia -- a dehumanizing
society in which “there seemed to be no

color in anything” and posters of a “black-mustachio'd
face gazing down from every commanding corner”

bearing the now-famous caption, “BIG BROTHER
IS WATCHING YOU” (2).

In this world, the government endorses something
called “doublethink,” which links contradictory

So you see slogans like: “WAR IS PEACE,”
“FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” and “IGNORANCE

The problem isn't that citizens are told
the opposite of what is true.

The real issue is that their experiences have
become so limited that they lack the perspective

and the language to differentiate between
major concepts.

But, let's back up for a second and talk
about George Orwell.

Here's some “doublespeak” for you: George
Orwell is not George Orwell.

He was born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 to English
parents in Bengal, near the border with Nepal.

His father worked in “quality control”
for opium, which is used to make morphine,

codeine, and heroin, and the British held
a monopoly on the trade of opium for years

and exported it to China, both for financial
gain and to subdue Chinese citizens.

Although the Chinese government tried to get
the British to dismantle the India-China opium

trade for 150 years, and there were wars fought
about it, they weren't successful until

Basically, this was one of the largest (legal)
international drug cartels in history.

I guess the original dystopia was actually
hunting and gathering.

I mean, at least for those of us who hate
the paleo diet.

Eric Arthur Blair, soon to be George Orwell!

So as a kid, Blair moved to England and was
eventually sent to Eton, a prestigious boarding

In 1922, he joined the imperial police in
Burma.

In “Why I Write,” he explains that he
rejected imperialism after spending five years

in the “unsuitable profession” of working
in the imperial police force and experienced

poverty himself when he returned to England.

Sensitized to the evils of colonialism, and
now “fully aware of the existence of the

working classes,” Blair was on his way to
forming what he called a “political orientation.”

He changed his name to George Orwell when
he published Down and Out in Paris and London

But he still hadn't identified where he
“stood” politically.

Then in 1936, he declared that he was
“against totalitarianism and for democratic

Democratic socialism basically uses democratic
means to create a political and economic structure

You might think of it as being a rejection
of unfettered capitalism.

Orwell found the “real nature of capitalist
society” abhorrent because:

“I have seen British imperialism at work
in Burma, and I have seen something of the

effects of poverty and unemployment in Britain….

One has got to be actively a Socialist, not
merely sympathetic to Socialism, or one plays

into the hands of our always-active enemies.”

Orwell was against Stalin and totalitarian
strains of Communism as well.

For instance, in 1936, when he went to Spain
to fight the Fascist leader, Francisco Franco,

he joined the Marxist group, POUM (Partido
Obrero de Unificación Marxista).

In Homage to Catalonia, he explains:
“the Communists stood not upon the extreme

In reality this should come as no surprise,
because of the tactics of the Communist parties

These tactics, as seen in the USSR, include
the conscious use of propaganda, the repression

of individual freedoms, and also state-sponsored
murder.

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喬治-奧威爾的《1984》，第一部分。速成文學401 (1984 by George Orwell, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 401)

ultimately

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