20
Heard a coworker say '1984' is just a boring old book
We were grabbing coffee and someone mentioned they had to read it in school and found it dull. It made me think about how a book that gets banned in so many places for its ideas can just feel like homework to someone else. The whole point is that it's a warning that gets silenced, not a boring story. Does anyone else get frustrated when people miss the real reason a piece of art is important?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
taylor_fox1mo ago
Does @victor219's fire alarm comparison make you think about how some warnings age better than others? I'd gently push back on calling it a "manual they try to hide" since 1984 was sold in regular stores for decades before anyone tried to ban it. The book gets banned now because people in power don't like being reminded that surveillance and language control are real threats, not because it was hidden from the start. But I think the original point still stands - calling it boring misses that Orwell wasn't trying to entertain, he was trying to scare us straight. And honestly, a lot of modern dystopian fiction owes its plot points to this book, which is like a parent who gets called boring because their kids went and told the same stories with flashier clothes.
3
victor2193mo ago
Honestly, "boring old book" made me stop reading for a second. The whole point is that it's not a story, it's a manual they try to hide. Calling it boring is like saying a fire alarm is just a loud noise. It means you missed the whole building burning down.
2
Yeah, it's like watching someone use a smoke detector as a coaster. The warning is the whole product. If you find the manual boring, wait until you have to live through the actual problem it's trying to prevent.
-1