I read "1984" by George Orwell

I do not feel eligible to comment on "1984": This book beat the pants off me.

"1984" is a novel written in 1984. By reversing the last two digits, George Orwell arived at the year when a nightmare world would be run by a totalitarian state. Influenced by Socialistic ideas, Orwell believed in Russian Evolution. However, when the Stalinist treatment of truth - that by controling people's minds the party controled reality - began to leak to the west, he became disillusioned and wrote "1984" as a denounciation of Socialism.

John Winston is the only one. The only one, who is non-existant. That's the first rule of Ingsog - doublethink. He is just the same way as 4 + 4 is five and just as well it may be 5 or 6, if the Party wishes so.

Although the story is literature, the idea - that by controling one's mind, the party controls the reality - seems plausible to me. For, if all the records of history were wiped out or ratified so that they mached the Party's policy, how can one now what is true? What party holds to be true, is true.

I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone. It feels like the better the book, the harder to write anything about it. Now I am on 'For whom the bell tolls" By E. Hemingway. Keep your fingers crossed.

for the posterity

This post was written a week ago but I forgot to publish it. So it goes.
There it comes... I know that noone reads it but the duty to the KJO must be fullfiled.

The echoing sound of an alarm clock wakes me up; “fabulous! I have slept for five hours” - I thought and in an instant reached for the alarm clock to shut it up. What's scheduled for today? Brushing my teeth, eating, school, talking to the people who should be turned into biomass and then into fuel, drugs, sleep.”

Talking of a day from my future what comes to my mind is the movie “A madman's day”. My monthly salary will be equal to 1100 pln, I will have no prospect of having my own place, I will be in a constant fight with lower-secondary school students and I will eventually go insane.

There is not a thing more that I can tell. I hope that what I have told you will not come true. I hope that one day I will win millions of euros (take notice that by this time Euros will be the official currency in Poland) on a lottery or else than this I will discover that my relative, of whose existence I haven't heard yet, will die and I will come into fortune left by him/her.

Someone has recently told me that we – our generation – will be in such a despicable hurry that we will all die of cancer. So it goes.

My readings 2

So, the plan of this week was to read two stories of Auster's trilogy - 'The Locked Room', 'The Ghost' and a book by him 'The Music of Chance', which I have already read.

'The Music of Chance' - is a story of a man, who apparently bored with his daily chores, makes up his mind to set off for a two year journey around the expanses of his country - the USA. Financially backed up by his late father, who left him a heritage worth a lot, he can afford a fancy, a new Saab and an infinite amount of petrol, not to mention accomodation in hotels. One day, on his way, he meets a badly beaten fella, a roboust poker player, with whom Nashe will be now sharing his history throughout the novel.

The story itself is absorbing and, no doubt, worth reading. You can find plenty of coloquial language. It triggers imagination. Me... I was reading the book, savoring its every bit - I really enjoyed it.

But... I see no corellation between the title and the story.

My readings.

Now that I have some free time I've taken up reading books. I read Paul Auster's 'City of glass', a story, which I do not fully understand but find nevertheless interesting and intriguing.

As you may have seen, I've been carrying a book, whose cover is bizarre pink. It's The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński. I saw it in Empik some time ago and there was no way of escaping it - I had to buy it. It's an amazing translation of "Heban". I don't know why the title was not translated literally. There is a word for 'heban' in English - 'ebony'.

For those who are not yet familiar with Kapuścinski's reportages I recommend his works. He was genius in my opinion.

A change?

Since I am not American I have no idea if the outcome of the recent elections in the US should be referred to with this cliche - a wind of change. I will just leave a couples of my thoughts that spring up in my mind when I think of the matter.

A few days ahead of the election day I listened to a radio interview with Prof. Lewicki who claimed that Obama did not offer anything of value besides astonishing PR of his campaign. He went even further and said that Obama's being a president could deepen the racism, though now I cannot recall why he said so. Nevertheless, it then rung true and resonable.

I wished the USA be less engaged in the world's affairs. I know that this country is of utmost significance, because of its size, military power and other earthly riches, but why should then dictate the world what it should do, or send its troops to other countries in the name of something that I cannot understand.

The missile shield. I reckon that the plan of installing it in Poland and the Czech Republic will be abandoned, and the ruling of these countries will find themselves cheated.

The USA is in a need for a president who will show a way out of the financial crisis. The time will show whether or not Barrack Obama will be one of this type and will go down in history.