Daredevil Message Board

Dorian Gray · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject: 1984 or Brave New World

1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are both great books about the future. I you haven't already read them, you need to do so. If you have read them, which did you like better, 1984 or Brave New World?

train · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

1984. creepy, creepy book.

DDmikeMN · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject:

"1984" has a better ending.

Dorian Gray · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:02 pm Post subject:

I liked Brave New World better. 1984 is a great book, but I thought Brave New World was more realistic, which is mainly why I liked it better.

james castle · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:

Brave New World. Hands down. Hands down. It's 100 times more realistic. And it's genuinely creepy in as much of so much of it has come true. People actually say stuff like "oh, I hate my clothes...I need new clothes". That's Brave New World.

1984 is just way too simplistic. It's like Orwell is just hitting you in the face with his ideas over and over again. I actually really, really like Animal Farm but I think that's because of the children's book form of it. 1984 reads like a children's book but I don't think it's supposed to.

Brave New World.
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JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

ozddzealot · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:22 am Post subject:

Hard to split but i'm going with Brave New World, do you know it was written with alternate endings (I was also a big fan of Island) This book amazed me... I remember when I was 14 going to sleep listening to maths stuff to try and learn it...failed miserably..... but anyway my foolishness aside this book is KIP.

But 1984 can still reach out and make me feel fear, there is something about british fascism that freaks me out (clockwork orange is on my miss list)... have to work out why I guess.

As james said BNW is uncanny for its accuracy...makes alan greenspan look like a supermarket astrologer...

Mark

PS James you used to be able to buy the manuscript edition of 1984 which showed that Orwell had more than a little bit going on with his story, I think he purposely kept it lean to increase the despair you feel when you read it, just my opinion as usual though.... cee yee
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batlin jack was not a thug

The Privateer · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:04 am Post subject:

I have never read either, so feel free to poke fun at me in a Bendis Board style if you wish. Embarassed

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Always Out-Manned, Never Out-Gunned

james castle · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:50 pm Post subject:

The Privateer sucks. Haha, what a stupid, stupid, stupid head. Haha. Is that enough? I've never been on the Bendis Board so I don't know if that's how it's done. If more mocking is needed please let me know.

In related news, though, I have to shamefully admit that I haven't actually finished 1984. I got 3/4 of the way through it and then got distracted by something else and just never went back. I know what the ending is and I admit that I find that bit slightly intriguing but over all I just found it a little boring. "There's cameras *everywhere*". Okay, we get it. Plus, there was some super cool stuff in it, like the way in which news/history was contantly editted/re-editted. But that stuff sort of went a little too far into the absurd. Well, actually, maybe it's that it didn't go far enough. Like if it had gone way, way into the surreal like the movie Brazil or, I don't know, Catch 22 then I think it would have been stronger. As it was it just sort of hovered in the middle and was therefore a little boring.

Not Brave New World, though. Ah, Brave New World.

Hey, zealot: are you saying that Clockwork Orange is on your "miss" list as in you haven't read it or as in you didn't like it? If it's the former: read it, it's great. If it's the latter: why? I thought it was really good. Catcher in the Rye of the future.

Alice mentioned it but has anyone else read F. 451? I haven't got around to it and I'd like to know if it's worth the time.

Finally: everyone go read Slaughterhouse Five. So good.
_________________
JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

Kuljit Mithra · Hardcore Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 1530 Location: Canada

It's been a long time since I've read these books, but I'm pretty sure I liked Brave New World better.

I was introduced to a lot of "sci-fi" fiction in high school... I read my first Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451, and also Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five in the same year. 451 is 'ok', I didn't really enjoy it as much as others did. I enjoyed his Martian Chronicles and is still my favourite of his. I can read Vonnegut all the time.
Also read Day of the Triffids, The Chrysalids, Lord of the Flies... interesting reads, which I loved much more than any Shakespeare.

I also was introduced to Clive Barker that year, and that started me on my horror reading... I've pretty much read every Barker, King, Koontz and Straub book.

Hey JC, have you ever read Michael Slade? Lots of cool Canadian references and it's written by Canadian criminal lawyers (as Slade). You actually learn a lot about the RCMP's history while reading about all the murders. Smile

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Kuljit Mithra
www.manwithoutfear.com

Goddess0Whim · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:11 pm Post subject:

Dorian Gray · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:34 pm Post subject:

The Privateer · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:31 am Post subject:

ozddzealot · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 5:50 am Post subject:

No JC by my miss list I meant i was purposely avoiding it, i know its great but some subjects I find kinda hard to watch and the whole nature of the assaults in clockwork orange made me decide to give it a miss. i know this sounds wimpy and it is, i didn't watch breaking the waves for the same reason.
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batlin jack was not a thug

daredevil99x · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject:

Although Huxley may have come closer to describing the future as we live it today, I prefer 1984. It's darker, more depressing, and who knows, maybe it's closer to the truth...

I liked how in the end they ended up betraying each other, and when they later met they could be the same. Very real.
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There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime."

EightiesCartoon · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:25 pm Post subject:

Brave New World - ***.5 (let down by the ending but good in that a lot of it is coming true)

1984 - **** (an amazing ending still debated amongst fellow cohorts and more depth than Brave New World)

Clockwork Orange - ****.5 (amazing stuff, a completely original dystopian world that once past the first chapter is a great read - theres a dictionary of terms in the back of the book for first time readers and anyone daunted byt the prospect of the weird words)

Personally I LOVE "There Will Be Time" by Poul Anderson, its about a guy who can will himself through time and like Being John Malkovich gets better and better as the book goes on
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