#Winstons larger revolution might have failed but those small acts of rebellion. the diary. the memories. they lived on

[middlering]

Just adding the former Twitter thread of analysis here for posterity.

Actually the implied timeline for the fall of Ingsoc is even shorter than that, on a second look. The Appendix says the Newspeak spoken in 1984 is captured in the 9th & 10th editions of the Newspeak dictionary, and that the 11th edition was the “final” one.  We don’t know exactly when the Party rose to power or started Newspeak, but if they’re already on the 10th edition by 1984 or shortly thereafter, and the Party doesn’t take power until after 1949, that implies new editions being released at absolute most every 3-4 years.  If the 10th edition is released roughly contemporaneously with the events of the book & Ingsoc lasts long enough to produce an 11th edition, but not a 12th, that suggests the collapse of the regime within about a decade of those events.  Another clue: Translation of English Lit classics to Newspeak were planned, and it “was not expected that they would be completed before the first or second decade of the 21st century,” after which the originals would be destroyed.  The use of the subjunctive—and the fact that the future authors of the Appendix assume readers remain familiar with works of Shakespeare, Milton, Jefferson etc.—also implies the fall of Ingsoc before “the first or second decade of the twenty-first century”.  So that’s at least two very strong clues Orwell plants that Ingsoc did not outlast the 20th Century, despite its seeming efficiency at ferreting out and breaking dissenters.

Absolutely amazing money quote too:

The large number of people responding that they did indeed miss this when they read Nineteen Eighty-Four suggests Orwell pulled off a rather brilliant literary prank: He wrote an optimistic epilogue, but hid it in the guise of an Appendix which many (perhaps most) readers either skipped or took at face value as just an essay about Newspeak, rather than a continuation of the story. And this is perfect. It would have been a literary crime to spoil the gut punch of “He loved Big Brother” by tacking on an overt happy ending epilogue. The happy ending is there, but Orwell makes you work for it.

Besties I am reading about the appendix of 1984 by George Orwell and I just re-read the actual appendix last night and I stg I'm gonna scream and cry and throw up because it's fucking past perfect tense and it's the "woulds" and it's the fact that the appendix is written in modern English. 1984 secret ending where Big Brother is long gone it makes me cry.

[itsfreeandthecopscantstopyou]

Besties I am reading about the appendix of 1984 by George Orwell and I just re-read the actual appendix last night and I stg I'm gonna scream and cry and throw up because it's fucking past perfect tense and it's the "woulds" and it's the fact that the appendix is written in modern English. 1984 secret ending where Big Brother is long gone it makes me cry.