Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Two Minutes Hate - 1984

"The Hate rose to its climax. The voice of Goldstein had become an actual sheep's bleat, and for an instant the face changed into that of a sheep. Then the sheep-face melted into the figure of a Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his submachine gun roaring and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backwards in their seats. But in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother, black-haired, black-moustachio'd, full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that he almost filled up the screen." p. 15-6

The sequence of events within the Two Minutes Hate are to a degree baffling. How at this time period, could one think of such an occurrence? I wonder myself if there is no relation to some events in World War II. It sounds a bit like brain washing, as well as doctoring of video footage. The strangest thing to me is that time is taken several times out of the day, almost like prayer, to participate in this Two Minutes Hate. I feel that the violence depicted is in part a hostility incurred by the government that is then directed away from themselves toward some scape-goat enemy.  I find it odd that so many people could lose themselves in the anger of the crowd. In some ways, this reminds me of the stoning in The Lottery. The crowd joins in because it is tradition and if one person is participating, the others are more likely to.

In addition, here is a commercial that is a reference to Big Brother that I didn't understand till reading this novel.




No comments:

Post a Comment