1984 The Novel and Current Events

The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past,"' ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it; in Newspeak, "doublethink."

Road Less Travelled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveller, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference...

Robert Frost

Excerpt from Book, All Rights Reserved, Credit to Iris Murdoch, Author

One of Iris Murdoch’s more successful novels, A Fairly Honourable Defeat combines elements of realism and allegory to create a commentary on the moral shortcomings of the individual and society. The book opens as Hilda and Rupert Foster, an ostensibly happily-married couple, anticipate their forthcoming twentieth anniversary party. Murdoch sets the scene and introduces the main characters in the first chapter of this novel as Hilda and Rupert talk about Morgan Browne, Hilda’s sister, who has devised a new linguistic theory called Glossematics. Morgan has just returned to England from South Carolina, where she had a two-year extra-marital relationship with Julius King, one of the “power figures” in Murdoch’s fiction. Tallis Browne, Morgan’s estranged husband, is not aware of her return to Britain. Hilda and Rupert also discuss their rebellious and somewhat disturbed son, Peter. Finally, they also have a conversation about Rupert’s brother, Simon Foster, and his relationship with Axel Nilsson, who is Rupert’s colleague in the civil service at Whitehall.
When Hilda goes to visit Peter, who is living with Tallis and Leonard, Tallis’s terminally-ill father, she is shocked by the squalid, chaotic condition of the flat and tries to persuade her son to return to his studies at Cambridge. Unknown to her husband, Hilda is financing Peter. She implores him: “For heaven’s sake don’t tell anyone, not even Tallis, that I’m giving you that extra money, because I haven’t told your father! He wouldn’t stand for it, and I daresay quite rightly” (58). Murdoch’s representation of lying and secrecy is integral to the moral themes at the centre of this novel, and Hildas deception of Rupert emerges as only one example of the lies that pervade the so-called loving relationships in this book. The lying and secrecy continue as Julius joins Simon and Axel for a meal at their home. Upon saying their farewells for the evening, Julius arranges for Simon and himself to meet clandestinely without Axel’s knowledge. Echoing Hilda’s deception, Rupert then loans Morgan four hundred pounds without Hilda’s knowledge.
In addition to portraying the impulses of low Eros that lead individuals to deceive one another, Murdoch depicts especially well in her charaterisation of Morgan the manner in which human beings succumb to self-centred illusions in matters of love. We learn that “Morgan had loved Julius with her whole nature and in the first shock of that love she had found it impossible not to believe that Julius loved her. Such is the natural illusion of a lover” (132). Having a firm belief in gender equality, Murdoch shows that both men and women fall prey to self-deception, particularly when in love. Further, the author makes an oblique commentary on gender roles and women’s reproductive health concerns in this novel. As Morgan and Julius ha

We Are One But We are Not the Same!!! TG!

Is it getting betterOr do you feel the sameWill it make it easier on you now You got someone to blameYou say...One loveOne lifeWhen it's one needIn the nightOne loveWe get to share itLeaves you baby if you Don't care for itDid I disappoint youOr leave a bad taste in your mouthYou act like you never had loveAnd you want me to go withoutWell it's...Too lateTonightTo drag the past out into the lightWe're one, but we're not the sameWe get to Carry each otherCarry each otherOne...Have you come here for forgivenessHave you come to raise the deadHave you come here to play JesusTo the lepers in your headDid I ask too muchMore than a lotYou gave me nothingNow it's all I gotWe're oneBut we're not the sameWell we Hurt each otherThen we do it againYou sayLove is a templeLove a higher lawLove is a templeLove the higher lawYou ask me to enterBut then you make me crawlAnd I can't be holding onTo what you gotWhen all you got is hurtOne loveOne bloodOne lifeYou got to do what you shouldOne lifeWith each otherSistersBrothersOne lifeBut we're not the sameWe get to Carry each otherCarry each otherOne...lifeOne