Some spoilers for 1984, but I am sure you all probably know them already.



So I recently finished reading 1984 for the first time, and it was kind of depressing. Surprising, right? No seriously, it was very interesting and I'm glad I did. Anyway, I was reminded of a project that I did in high school where we had to choose to read either 1984 or Brave New World and then after reading a summary of the other we had to write about which depiction of a dystopia we thought was more likely to really happen. I picked Brave New World, and I said that society was more believable than the one in 1984 because the people wanted it - they were oppressed but they liked it.

That was a couple of years ago though, and I'd like to read Brave New World again to compare the two better. At the time I didn't realize the implications of the end of 1984 (because I didn't read it ) - most of the people who are properly integrated into society DO like it ... they love Big Brother, as it were. Consider Wiston's neighbor who also gets thrown into jail - he's proud of his daughter for turning him over to the Ministry of Peace. However, I do still think that the use of promiscuous sex in Brave New World to control the population is more effective that the promotion of total abstinence in 1984 to achieve the same thing. While the world of 1984 is kind of a shit-hole, in Brave New World everyone just spends their time partying and doing drugs, so the fact that people would actively support and desire such a society rings a bit truer to me. Though I suppose that is the power of brainwashing, that the people of 1984 still love the Party and Big Brother ... scary.

But anyway, I pose that same question to you my friends, thought let's not limit ourselves to just two books: what is your favorite piece of dystopian literature, and what depiction of a dystopia do you think is the most realistic/more likely to occur?

Cheerful thoughts for a happy morning.