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Posted by ThedaVamp on Fri 20 Mar 09, 6:58 PM to ThedaVamp's blog.
http://www.online-literature.com/quiz.php?quizid...
there's been a few mentions of Orwell lately and I found this.
Scootch down to take the quiz.
It's actually quite good! (if you love the book and have an element of geekitude)
| 20 Mar 09, 8:22 PM happy_bunny UK, 4 yrs  |
the shame or it! 8 questions correct..i was forced to study it as a child...must read again. Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness? | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 9:59 PM Doghouse_Reilly UK(MK), 6 yrs  |
I did rubbish, but to be fair most of the questions were absolutely irrelevant details. Anybody who says truth is stranger than fiction has never seen tentacle porn. | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 10:14 PM ThedaVamp UK, 6 yrs |
I say! Sore loser? Please check your irony levels before attempting to respond to the majority of my posts. | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 10:21 PM harley_quimm UK, 4 yrs |
6 haha, and my GCSE was based on it.. How the hell did I pass?! "It's like shovelling sand into the sea" | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 10:59 PM subterranean UK, 8 yrs |
I thought i'd have it cracked but 42% sadly! | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 11:44 PM Lounge_Lizard 5 yrs |
Aren't on-line quizzes a bit pointless?... ...I mean,you can cheat so easily can't you?...
Ruin my reputation?... | ||
| 20 Mar 09, 11:49 PM blacksheepboy UK(CR), 4 yrs |
Well, I'm happy enough with 8 out of 20, given that I read it 25 years ago (in 1984 as it happens), as part of my O level literature project on Utopianism. Here's another interesting question: Why did Orwell choose '1984' as the title?
What's the point having cake, if you can't eat it? | ||
| 21 Mar 09, 11:45 AM ThedaVamp UK, 6 yrs |
As a smart arse reversal of 1948 - when he wrote the story.
Please check your irony levels before attempting to respond to the majority of my posts. | ||
| 21 Mar 09, 1:59 PM blacksheepboy UK(CR), 4 yrs |
That's the explanation proposed by Anthony Burgess, and the one I like best. It suggests the book is as much a satire of post-war Britain as it is a warning about the future. Then again, other sources suggest Orwell also considered 1980 and 1982 as possible titles. What strikes me now, thinking back, is how the Party considered it vitally important to destroy all sexual appetites, abolish personal love and the orgasm, so that nothing could compete with Big Brother for the affections of the masses. Isn't this exactly what many religions do? It's also clearly on the agenda of our current Government. The Cold War has been replaced by the War on Terror as our 'perpetual war' of choice. I don't believe in grand conspiracies, but there's a darkness in the heart of human affairs which impels us as surely as a rifle butt down the road to our own collective Belsen-dressed-as-Butlins. Nineteen-Eighty-Four is by far the saddest, most desolate book I've ever read, and it's becoming history rather than fiction. What's the point having cake, if you can't eat it? | ||
| 21 Mar 09, 2:51 PM ThedaVamp UK, 6 yrs |
In my angry activist moments I think that too. In my darker, more reflective ones, I think 1984 has always been here, Orwell just put words to it. The people who read the story and feel the agony of futile rebellion, betrayal and bland homogeny, must also admit that despite their anger and empathy, they are Winston Smith themselves. Despite their fury and resistance and belief in freedom, they too have their own cage of rats... that for me is why I find the book so painful and amazing.
Please check your irony levels before attempting to respond to the majority of my posts. |
