content: I had 1984 ruined for me because I was FORCED to read it for school. Looking back, it is a truly great book. Like many of the enduring works of Science Fiction, its lasting popularity rests in the powerful archetpyes and metaphors it tapps into. Big Brother, The Two-Minutes Hate, Room 101 are all here. What's scary is how some of this seems to be coming true - but Big Brother isn't so much the government as it is Corporations. Just try getting away from a viewscreen nowadays. Also, we watch the TV, but the TV also watches US. Advertisers, the Internet, and MTV control us more thoroughly than the Government could ever hope to espire to. Instead of telling us "We are at war with East Asia. We have ALWAYS been at war with East Asia!" they tell us what our values are, what music we listen to, what movies we watch, etc. "We listen to Britney Spears! We have ALWAYS listened to Britney Spears." Orwell would've been so proud.