So many critiques of 1984 seem to boil down to "I'd really like 1984 to be a political treatise in favour of my ideology, but it isn't!"
All of the things this article says are bad about 1984 are the things that make it a good novel:
- It has a complex main character who is deeply flawed and far from an ideal revolutionary.
- It isn't especially concerned with accurately modelling a plausible political system, and instead describes an emotive representation of the author's fears for the future.
- Many of it's themes are aesthetic or subjective.
- It doesn't try to offer a concrete alternative, giving the whole thing a sense of hopelessness.
All of the things this article says are bad about 1984 are the things that make it a good novel:
- It has a complex main character who is deeply flawed and far from an ideal revolutionary. - It isn't especially concerned with accurately modelling a plausible political system, and instead describes an emotive representation of the author's fears for the future. - Many of it's themes are aesthetic or subjective. - It doesn't try to offer a concrete alternative, giving the whole thing a sense of hopelessness.