Dystopias

Don't burn your knowledge

2009-11-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is an essay by my favourite puppet. We will appreciate your comments, it's a very delicate topic so we want to know what you think. Chew it or spit it, it's your choice. "A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shoot from the weapon, breach man's mind" Said captain Beatty to Montag.

Is really a book a loaded gun? I think this prhase by the captain is very certain, I mean that it is very true. Books are neverending sources of knowledge and wisdom. They have the truth of things, because books have reflected humanity since The Bible was written. Now , Beatty talks about them like a "loaded gun" because knowledge is a very powerful weapon in a world where people are controlled in every sense. We can see that today in our world, in our country; the men in power don't want the people to think or choose, things you do if you have knowledge and formation like a person. I think that books are a symbol too, a symbol of rebelion and self-critical thoughts, a symbol of freedom, while a book stays "alive", we can be sure that there will still be wisdom. Fahrenheit 451 introduces us to a new Alexandria, where knowledge is punished and repressed.

Plokio

Fahrenheit 451

2009-11-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear puppets, i am your master. i'm going to introduce you to the ultimate novel by Ray Bradbury: FAHRENHEIT 451. It is about another dystopia but in a very particular way, here the people are happy, everyone is absorted in their own thoughts and feelings, nobody cares for another human being, so nobody has any preocupation.

This book introduces Montag, a married fireman who has the job of burning books. He doesn't care about anything important in his life, as everybody else. He is a robot that obeys higher orders. But one day he meets a girl who will open his eyes and change his life forever.

Newspeak

2009-10-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

According to Orwell's work, Newspeak aims at destroying language in order to control people. But, is language really necessary for thought? Is there any way in which we can think without using words? How can we fool Newspeak?
I would love to hear suggestions!

Chapter 11: "The Last Man" - Alternative Ending

2009-08-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

Hi people, we have finsh reading the book 1984, by George Orwell, and we don't like the ending.. it's so simple, so boring. So we have created our own alternative ending, A one with much more action. We hope you enjoy it! And if not, go to the hell!

The door opened again. Winston know wath that means: more pain. O'Brien entered the room.
- How many fingers do you see today, my dear Winston?
- You betrayed me and now you're playing with me.
- It doesn't matter now, it's time to suffer. Julia was as much fraid as you. She also cried. - O'Brien laughed very loudly, he wanted to break Winston down.
- Leave Julia alone, she didn't do anithig wrong!
- Both of you are thought criminals, and you must be punished.
He took Winston and lay him in the machine, but when he was just going to tie is arms, quickly Winston took O'Brien's arm and tie it to the machine. Before O'Brien could have any reaction, he turned on the machine and the both recived a terrible discharge for a while. Winston got to stand up, but O'Brien was in very much pain, he couldn't stand up.
Winston left the machine on at the highest level.
- Where's Julia?
- She's dead - answered O'Brien, and received a deadly descharge.
Winston blew up in rage. He didn't want to believe it. He shouted.
- That isn't true! - But he was talking with a corpse.
He left the room very excited towards the hall and start running. He wanted to rescue Julia, but his uncertainty was killing him. What if she was dead? What have they done to her? - he realized there were no guards or any others prisioners on the building.
Suddenly he saw a red door at the end of a hall and entered the room. There was Julia standing in the center of the room with a gun in her hand, crying.
-Julia! You are fine! He noticed the gun.
-Stand back, you're a traitor! She aimed at Winston.
-No, Julia, they washed your head, the party is evil!
-Big Brother is my leader, i must kill every thought criminal.
Winston have understanded.
-A nation can fall, a man can die, but an idea lives on, after me there will be others like me. The party would never kill every one.
A loud noise, a cold piece of metal. Winston had won, he had defeated Big Brother.

At the beginning...

2009-06-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

"The people who entered the new High group were from the professions: scientists, teachers, journalists. They used newspapers, radio, film and television to control people´s thoughts"

The Party recruited people from the higher social group to teach them their philosophies of control. They took professional people, scientists,teachers, journalists, thinkers, etc, from the society; doing this, the Party took out the only possibility of free expression that remains, and changed the great minds into shit or what they wanted. With great minds by their side, they were able to control the proles using newspapers, radio, films and television.

The Party's Philosophy

2009-06-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

"From Winson's flat it was just possible to see the three slogans of the Party written in enormous letters on the side of the building:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"

The Party's slogan presents opposite concepts as the same, to justify their actions. By this way people were bound to believe that the only way they can reach peace is by the war, or the only way of freedom is slavery, or the less you know, the stronger you are. Using these slogans, the Party was able to do what they want, to manipulate informations, to enslave peolpe or to have soldiers in the street, public spaces and bars, arguing that peace will come if war is present.

Winston's diary

2009-05-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

"He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long, as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage. He went back to the table, dipped his pen and wrote:

To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone -to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone:
From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of double think -greetings!"

And this is the boys' analysis:

Alone with his mind, Winston shouted this truth to release himself from opression. He was so sure no one would ever hear his truth because everybody else was controlled.

Winston lived in a uniform world, where nobody can think clearly, but he had a hope, to return to a past time when everyone was free.