Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youāll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutānāpaste it into its own post ā thereās no quota for posting and the bar really isnāt that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned soo many āesotericā right wing freaks, but thereās no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iām talking redscare-ish, reality challenged āculture criticsā who write about everything but understand nothing. Iām talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyāre inescapable at this point, yet I donāt see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnāt be surgeons because they didnāt believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canāt escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this.)
Isnāt Julia a member of some sort of anti-sex league, meaning thereās a lot of bad faith involved in their relationship from the get go?
Also with respect to the attitudes on women and proles, although I donāt think itās entirely written in the characterās point of view it feels like thereās a lot of unreliable narration going on, or at least you get a lot of stuff from the perspective of a person who grew up in one of the most absurdly totalitarian regimes in literature. Which is to say, it didnāt feel prescriptive most of the time to me.
See also: āprolesā, as in the contempt is baked in to the language, which we know the regime is actively trying to hold in a tight leash.
I donāt think itās a coincidence that the only viewpoint you get is that of a middle class bureaucrat. Itās the assumed audience, and itās where Orwell would place himself as well. The narrative loses a lot of impact if you align yourself with the proles. Winston could live a real life if he really wanted to. I donāt think this point is intended by the novel.
Thatās a problem in itself, donāt you think? Itās all very āFeminists hate sex and they want to erase the differences between the gendersā. Julia gets a taste of freedom and her right place in the world by putting on makeup and girly clothes and having a lot of sex.
Also sheās a flighty moron.
Itās been to long for me to be able to tell if that applies to the general context of Orwellās views (which apparently Iām not sufficiently aware of) or if itās also a significant issue with 1984. In principle having the woman character employ cargo cult femininity in a desperate attempt at self expression shouldnāt be unsalvageabl. Being the only woman with a speaking part and also a ditz less so.
Winston being a self-aggrandizing tit who needs things explained to him a lot so the author can soapbox was the sum of my reaction to the character, that he was also supposed to be relatable beyond the basics of his clash with authoritarianship certainly puts a different spin on things.
I have not read it in ages, but did hear somebody has written something (not sure if book or play or etc) of the book from Julias perspective.
Julia, by Sandra Newman
Thanks!
To be clear, I mean to say that in society where itās life or death to be highly guarded and suspicious of everyone any romantic relationship is necessarily poisoned.
Plus I think thereās a whole thing in the book about things being so restricted that fucking for fun is in itself an act of rebellion and thus another thing your partner has over you if they happen to need to give something up to the authorities.