The Nineteen Eighty-Four we know

Before I read 1984 I had heard people characterize things as "orwellian". I knew people talked about "Big Brother" and that that reference implied a society with total surveillance of its citizens. But the sheer amount of concepts in our culture that come from 1984 is stunning.
Room 101 for instance, we all seem to know what room 101 is even if we haven't read the book. I now seem to have lost interest with my original train of thought and so I will devote this blog to Room 101. Orwell's inspiration for Room 101 was a conference room in the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation amadáin). It would appear that the meetings Orwell attended in Room 101 were exceedingly boring or otherwise "unendurable". The building has since been demolished but the room has been immortalized in art as can be seen at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/entertainment_enl_1068725504/html/1.stm

We now know Room 101 as the worst place in the world, or more specifically as that which houses the worst thing in the world. The idea of the worst thing in the world being individual instead of universal links back to the fear essay we wrote, I doubt that any of us held the same thing as our worst fear. Though it does seem that the fears exploited in Room 101 are "irrational" or unlikely, such as crucifixion or burial alive, and as far as I know most of the essays focused on more common and probable occurences.
Interestingly, the last head of the Stasi in the GDR (you'll have to look up the initials this time) changed the way the rooms of Stasi HQ in Berlin were numbered so that his office would be 101. This man, his name was Erich Mielke, was a known fan of George Orwell, despite the fact that Orwell's works were banned in the GDR.

Newspeak continued

All right, time to consider newspeak. Unfortunately the flash of insight I had into newspeak came while listening to Alberto Manguel's 2007 Massey Lectures being replayed on Ideas, so not only was it well past nine at night but it was also 12 days ago. In my last post I talked about how Winston is unable to communicate the ideas he has because of fear, newspeak will eliminate the need to maintain that fear in order to stop communication. If there are no words for rebellion, no concept of rebellion, there will be no rebellion. Newspeak is chillingly ingenious. It is also most conducive to doublethink, twisting as it does, language in such a way as to distort reality. I once read a book by Ursula K. LeGuin (it was A Wizard of Earthsea, most worth it despite the slightly dubious title) in which she talks about language being used so that falsehoods sound true, the exact words were "it is their own language and they can lie in it, twisting the true words to false ends. Catching the unwary hearer in a maze of mirror words, each of which reflects the truth and none of which lead anywhere." (punctuation is my own, I am working from audio memory). Of course with newspeak the words were never true in the first place. Oh sure they are innocuous enough, words like: hit, run, dog, tree, sugar, house, field; but these words are corrupted so as to lose any meaning beyond the concrete. If a person does not have words to describe an experience they are unable to remember that experience, this is supported fact. Thus, with full implementation of newspeak, the people of Oceania will be unable to think, let alone communicate beyond that which the Party deems it appropriate for them to be able to conceive of. Let alone rebel.