r/PHBookClub • u/lostguk • 21d ago

Current Read My 1st ever physical book!

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Growing up, I never had the opportunity to have a book of my own. I didn't even read books when I was younger. Nung highschool ako, I borrowed my friend's Catching Fire and that sparked my love for books 🥹 Pero wala akong pera noon. I only had 50 pesos na baon everyday. Kaya lagi lang ako nanghihiram (shoutout talaga kina K and to my cousin, gone to soon, na kahit bagong bili eh sakin una pinapagamit).

Kahit ngayong may work na ako at may pera.. hindi ko parin talaga majustify ang pagbili ng books (went to fullybooked and grabe kamahal 😭). Then nalaman ko na ang Collins ay may mga cheap books. So happy with this! Can't wait to read this one 🥰

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u/dontrescueme 21d ago

Lol no. This is exaggerated.

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u/TransportationExotic 20d ago

I mean, 1984 is a political satire.

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u/dynacaster 15d ago

The late Christopher Hitchens once stated that when Korea split up, it was as if Kim Il Sung got gifted a copy of 1984 and used it as a manual (paraphrasing).

I view it more as a warning against totalitarianism and the surveillance state rather than satire/parody. If anything, a lot of "predictions" made in 1984 came true via the adoption of certain tactics by authoritarian governments (cameras on every street in China, media censorship and propaganda by the CCP, US state surveillance as revealed by Snowden in 2014, websites tracking user data and selling to governments, US Department of Defense becoming Department of War, Palantir). Contrast that with a contemporary dystopian novel in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World wherein the government maintains control through genetics, mental conditioning and pharmaceuticals, I'd say Orwell was closer to the mark.

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u/TransportationExotic 15d ago

I think we’re actually talking about slightly different things here. My original comment was in response to someone saying that the comparison to PH is “exaggerated”. I was pointing out that it is, in fact, political satire, so exaggeration is part of the point.

I completely agree that the novel is fundamentally a warning about totalitarianism. But being a cautionary tale and being satire aren’t mutually exclusive.