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Dec. 9th, 2013
1984 (3,2) Quality Time with O'Brien
Dec. 9th, 2013 04:00 pmAfter having demonstrated convincingly that he can deliver pain with the ease of turning a dial, O’Brien now displays his ‘good cop’ side to Winston. It is not enough to be tortured, for this place is called the Ministry of Love for a reason: Winston is to be re-educated, as though he were a slow student being brought up on the most basic facts of life under Big Brother.
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O’Brien’s manner became less severe. He resettled his spectacles thoughtfully, and took a pace or two up and down. When he spoke his voice was gentle and patient. He had the air of a doctor, a teacher, even a priest, anxious to explain and persuade rather than to punish.
“I am taking trouble with you, Winston,” he said, “because you are worth trouble. You know perfectly well what is the matter with you. You have known it for years, though you have fought against the knowledge. You are mentally deranged. You suffer from a defective memory. You are unable to remember real events, and you persuade yourself that you remember other events which never happened. Fortunately it is curable. You have never cured yourself of it, because you did not choose to. There was a small effort of the will that you were not ready to make. Even now, I am well aware, you are clinging to your disease under the impression that it is a virtue.”
-- “1984” by George Orwell
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O’Brien’s manner became less severe. He resettled his spectacles thoughtfully, and took a pace or two up and down. When he spoke his voice was gentle and patient. He had the air of a doctor, a teacher, even a priest, anxious to explain and persuade rather than to punish.
“I am taking trouble with you, Winston,” he said, “because you are worth trouble. You know perfectly well what is the matter with you. You have known it for years, though you have fought against the knowledge. You are mentally deranged. You suffer from a defective memory. You are unable to remember real events, and you persuade yourself that you remember other events which never happened. Fortunately it is curable. You have never cured yourself of it, because you did not choose to. There was a small effort of the will that you were not ready to make. Even now, I am well aware, you are clinging to your disease under the impression that it is a virtue.”
-- “1984” by George Orwell
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Pop comes into the big room and asks me if I know how to tie a necktie. Jack has taught me twice, but that was twenty years ago, and I had admit that I still do not know how. It never needed to become a habit with me. I said, “I thought I have seen you with a tie over the years.” He says that it was a clip-on. Ah, of course. He says that he is going to a Christmas celebration this Friday with Kay. Apparently he would like to pick up his social game a notch, which is pretty good for someone in his seventies - to still be aspiring in the social world, to still want to look good and be manly.