Midterm dicussion

1984

— compare Winston to some of the noir protagonists that we’ve seen.

Similarities
—– cf. Sam Spade — diff. from all others around him; diff. purpose than those around him following rules;
—– cf. Dix in Asphalt Jungle – dream of horse farm – cf. Winston’s dream — family, real love
—– cf. protagonists w/femme fatale — cf. Julia –
—– masks his feelings — cf. sam spade
—– alone a lot
— Walter Neff doing one job, working against it on the side; Winston working for the Ministry, wants change
— Winston’s personal quest — diary —

Can we consider Winston a detective of sorts w/in his own society? looking for clues to past, to see through the party’s lies
— cover-up — perpetrated by autocratic government
— winston putting 2 and 2 together
— looking for clues, leaving clues

Differences
—– W. wants others to take charge — more passive from film noir protagonists — more aggressive, take charge
—– physically — in film noir – 20s, 30s — strong. Winston 39 — has ailment, acts old — sees himself as ugly>
— film noir protagonists tend to work for themselves;
W. works for party
— noir protagonists – need to find evidence; W.’s job involves destroying evidence (rewriting records/history)
— their job is to find the truth, his job is to alter it

— compare the settings between 1984 and some of the noir texts we’ve seen/read
— urban cityscape — W. still in large city
— both corrupt societies
— contrast – noir films – dirty, gritty part of city and luxury environments. gave people lower down something to aspire to. in oceania, everyone lives in dirty dilapated broken-down environment — nothing to aspire to
— two settings – proles and party figure

— tensions between the individual and society in 1984/noir texts

– W. resents party for rewriting history – newspeak, doublethink
— applauds wrongdoers – people going against the government
— but doesn’t have the courage to stand to stand up on his own
— Sam Spade – stuck between the law, trying to prove his case and what happened to his partner — cf. Winston – putting on face for the party, also trying not to forget information from the past –
— Thought police
— W. wants relationships, wants to feel loved. cf. noir protagonists
— police vs. thought police. in noir – some corrupted. not about reporting to govt as own personal gain
— thought police can be the neighbor, know not to trust them
— VISIBILITY
— thought police – pure surveillance

ambiguity
noir – don’t know who is good or evil. cf.
— doublethink – thoughts ambigious

— language – what is distinctive about noir language? how does language differ in 1984?

— 1984 – creating Newspeak, dumbed-down version of english so that ppl can’t express
— expressed in negative things vs. the good

— language in noir is usually direct == shocking in its directness

— doublethink – opposite == FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

— find three separate paragraphs or lines in 1984 that you think the class should discuss as a whole