1984 by George Orwell

Despite being 75 years old, this novel holds up remarkably well.

I think people can relate 1984 to a variety of things in their lives - an abusive family life, an impossible workplace, or even the society in which they live. But the book is actually about a dystopian future society (which was 1984 according to Orwell, who wrote this novel in 1949). After an atomic war in the 50's, the world condensed itself into three nation states: Eurasia, Oceania, and East Asia.

Airstrip One, formerly Britain, is a province of Oceania, which is run by the Brotherhood - a nebulous entity without a visible, known leader, but only the mysterious Big Brother who is constantly watching you. The society has four main branches - the Ministry of Truth, which deals with news, education, entertainment and fine arts, the Ministry of Plenty, which deals with economic affairs, the Ministry of Peace, which deals with war, and the ministry of Love, which maintained law and order - and was the really frightening one.

If you can't tell already, Big Brother is a study in contradictions. It's the tormenting sibling who declares  it's opposite day or the annoying co-worker who takes contrarian views just to be a troll. Take the party's slogans, for instance: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. 

As an employee of the Ministry of Truth, for instance, Winston edits newspapers, inserting the "truth" as the Ministry sees it and destroying older, contradictory copies of news reports. Down into the memory hole they go (sadly, I'm not talking about a good night out on the town). Winston might be instructed to declare that Oceania is now at war with East Asia, and has always been, which requires a lot of rewriting and editing to remove any reference to the previous war with Eurasia.  

"All others accepted the lie which the party imposed, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth. Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future, who controls the present controls the past." 

This was known as "reality control" or "double think" and is one of the most infuriating concepts I've heard. I was also surprised to learn it wasn't something invented by my boss.

The Brotherhood not only sought to control society's behavior, but every aspect of life, including  language, adopting a language called "newspeak" that slowly and systematically eroded standard English. Each revision of the dictionary involved removing "extraneous" words and simplifying language: 

"Take good for instance, if you have a word like good, what need is there for a word like bad? Ungood would do just as well. Better because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again if you want a stronger version of good, what sense is there in having a whole string of vague, useless words like excellent or splendid and all the rest of them. 'plus good' covers the meaning, or 'double plus good' if you want something strong still."

The society's prevailing ideology is EngSoc, or English Socialism. It is a society in which private life came to a halt, private money didn't exist, people called each other comrade, were constantly surveilled, and gathered for monthly hangings - so it may surprise you to hear there are no laws - in fact nothing was illegal. But somehow the Brotherhood still manage to punish people for things like face crime (not having the right expressions in response to something) or thought crime (which can lead to future crimes). Any disobedience resulted in correction, which could include forced labor camps and even vaporization.

This brings me to the great words of Princess Leia, who warned Tarkin, "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." And while Oceania is a lot smaller than a star system, you get the point. Not everyone will fall in line.

And we find one of those falling stars in Winston, who, in a subtle act of rebellion bought a diary and started recording his misgivings about Big Brother. Worse yet, he found himself falling in love. Marriage had to be approved and was less likely to be approved if the couple were attracted to each other, which didn't bode well for Winston and Julia. And working in the Ministry of Truth, he knew the outright lies that the Brotherhood espoused, but didn't understand the reasoning behind it all - until he reads a manifesto written by the Brotherhood's greatest enemy, a man named Goldstein.

In his book, Goldstein breaks down the rationale behind EngSoc - the division of classes, the constant need for war, and how the inner party manages to stay on top. The mental gymnastics are so complex, they make Simone Biles look like an amateur. And although this book within a book put Julia to sleep, I found it fascinating.

1984 is a heavy read, and sadly a relevant one. There are elements of the Brotherhood in societies today. And while Winston's story is interesting, I feel like it is more a subplot compared with the overarching ideas of the Brotherhood and EngSoc. Winston's story is a small piece of what a society as a whole faces when the wrong people take power. And while I could quit my job and run for the hills if things got too bad, when bad people get numerous and high enough in a government, there may be nowhere to run. 1984 is a cautionary tale that we would be wise to heed, in 1949, 1984, and today.

Dune by Frank Herbert

I can't say if I liked the movie or the book better. I fell asleep during the first (new) movie and I'm just meh about the book.

I don't know, the story was fine. It's grand in scope, literally spanning the universe, but dealing mostly with one planet, the sand planet of Arrakis, inhabited by the Fremen and spaceship eating sandworms that produce something called, spice, which is necessary for interplanetary travel. Herbert writes about the struggle for power over Arrakis between two powerful families, the Harkonnens and the Atraeides while also throwing in corporate interests, the emporer's military force (the Sardaukar), and a quasi-religious order called the Bene Gesserit.

I enjoyed the chapters more that were about the Harkonnens. They just seem like the more dysfunctional, interesting family. There's more intrigue and plotting and dinner parties. When we are on Arrakis with Paul and Jessica, who are Atraeides, it's dust and worms and honor killings and spitting. And the obsession with water! I get it, but I just got sick of the "giving water to the dead" and "taking their water" and the nose plugs. I just can't with the nose plugs.

I will say, I feel there was a real missed opportunity to come up with various terms for sand. On a planet where everything is so dry and sandy, shouldn't there be a multitude of terms for the various iterations of sand? Like how Inuits have dozens of terms for ice? Shame.

And what's with the names? You have some great names like the Harkonnens and the Atreides, and Arrakis. These are names I've never heard before. They help take me out of normal life and bring me to this new society and world order, but then you have Paul and Jessica for your two main characters. Like what? That douchey guy I met back in college and one of the Sweet Valley twins? C'mon. That's just lazy naming. I don't get it.

And I'm hoping I'm premature with this, since there are a multitude of books after this one, but why, in an ancient, mysterious, mystical sisterhood, which prophesies a chosen one, would it end up being a dude...named Paul? There's already a whole savior complex vibe going on with the outsiders coming into the native population and saving them, so it's really rubbing dirt/sand/spice into the wound when Paul is the apparent savior and not his female relatives. But as this article points out, that might be the reaction Herbert intended. 

Maybe I'm just nitpicking here. I didn't hate it. And it sounds like subsequent books further explore the issues and pitfalls of Paul's rise to power. While overall, I think there are a lot of interesting ideas worth talking about, I'm not ready for a long-term commitment to this series. I might just try the second movie instead - but I don't care what you think about Timothee Chalamet, he still looks gross with the nose plugs.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

"Buy my step-father's ghost." You'd think this was a novel idea, but it is something you can find on ebay today. I was going to link something here but got the heebie jeebies just searching for haunted items and don't need the bad vibes right now. Although I have to wonder, does it increase the value of an item to describe it as haunted? In either case, buyer beware!

Heart Shaped Box is Hill's first full-length novel, published in 2007 (he also published a collection of short stories two years prior to this called 20th Century Ghosts). I had read Hill's Horns and liked it. I have also heard good things about Nos4A2, but haven't gotten my hands on it yet. In the meantime, Heart Shaped Box landed on my bedside table.

The owner of said box is Jude Coyne, a rock star who likes to collect macabre items like the skull of a trepanned peasant which makes for a good pencil holder, apparently. And after looking up what trepanning is, I get it. So when he sees an ad for a ghost, he can't resist, throws caution to the wind, and goes all in with the "buy-it-now" button - to hell with bidding! Of course, the seller doesn't believe souls can be sold, so they send the dead man's suit, hoping the ghost will follow.  

Jude quickly starts experiencing strange things. Some subtle, like how his girlfriend pricks herself on an unseen pin in the suit, and some more obvious, like seeing a man sitting in the chair in his hallway. The action starts quickly and doesn't let up in this story. And Hill is great at taking fairly mundane things, like describing eating a chocolate covered cherry, and turning it into something macabre - like biting into an eyeball.

This is a fun story about a haunting, but it also involves deeper questions about the things that tie people to one another, in this case death. Through his characters, Hill addresses various stages of death - pre with Coyne's love interests, post a la the ghost, and peri through Coyne's father who is on his deathbed. Hill explores how decisions you make in life can affect all of these stages. 

I am of two minds about this book. There are some really great things going on that I dig - like how Hill can transition so quickly and seamlessly into horror. While I wouldn't describe the book as scary, it definitely has satisfyingly creepy moments and the pacing of the story is just right. There aren't long lulls in the action. 

But there are other things that give me the ick - like a scene that mixes violence and sex, references to a snuff film, child sexual abuse, and the ~30 years age difference between Jude and his girlfriend.  

So while I think overall it's better than it was worse, consider yourself warned!