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[–] 42 points 6 months ago (12 children)

The romantic subplot is weak, and the core premise of its political analysis - linguistic relativity - has since been falsified. Many people were actively mislead by it presenting linguistic relativity as fact, feeding a narrative that by creating queer language (and post-moderninsm in general) we are creating queer people (and other post-modern "degeneracy") that stuck around at least until the 2010s.

It can still be read as a more vague post-truth dystopia where all the other methods of suppression are understated and where newspeak is magically powerful, and its prose is fine, but I definitely wouldn't put it above anything written by Ursula LeGuin.

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  • [+] 4 points 6 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago*

    I don't know if I missed it, but I don't think it's been disproven. I actually think it's true still, though maybe not as dramatic as 1984 would say.

    For example, IQ tests (in particular old ones, as modern ones try to control for this) are built on a modern western sensibility. However, the way some cultures handle different concepts can be different, and it can measure it poorly.

    As an example of this, classic Greek math is built on geometry. Having that basis on math makes solving certain problems significantly easier, but equally it makes some things, like calculus, significantly more difficult. It's much harder to do abstract math when you're mind is trained on concrete shapes.

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  • [+] 1 point 6 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Given how confused Americans are about "freedom," even the weak version isn't to be taken lightly

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    It might not be the best book ever written, but I think it's important to read. It's one of the most cited books to support whatever people want. Once you read it, you can interpret it for yourself, and you actually know what it's about.

    The thing most people know from it is Big Brother watching you. It's just surveillance state stuff. That's a relatively small part of it though. It's more about shaping culture through information control. Yeah, surveillance is part of it, but even that's not just cameras; it's also about having people inform the government about their neighbors, or parents, or whatever else.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    Which was of course already incredibly contemporary with what Goebals, Himmler and Stalin had been up to. Everyone sees the novel as the endgame of the opposing ideology, though it’s basically a warning against those who would seek to cement their power by making opposition impossible.

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