James Deakin

C-Section baby. Not untimely ripped.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@hardclass2020 We might have to go swimming in the afternoon as a class soon.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

In Argentina, during the "Nunca Más" truth commission, memories of the "Madres de Plaza de Mayo" were used in court to compile a "legitimate historical record" of forced disappearance during the Dirty War. The experience/memory of people in a totalitarian regime as legal proof.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

The only evidence that the past has been falsified "is inside my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories" (155). Propaganda from The Party creates solipsism to the point of self-doubt of lived experience.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@Lucas6850 @PVMHardClass for VP!

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

2/2 1. Surprisingly inspired (and cute) description of being in love. 2. Winston has been waiting to rebel; their love "was a political act" (126). Oddly reminded me of John Galt: "Love is the expression of one’s values". Winston's mind and body are no longer alone.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

1/2 "At the sight of the words 'I love you' the desire to stay alive has welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid." (109). "She had become a physical necessity, something that he not only wanted but felt that he had a right to" (139).

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@Giovannacanread @McG_reads “Name one genius that ain’t crazy”. https://t.co/EcjaITU7lo

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@nick_popolizio Well, on that bombshell, it’s time to end!

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

"These rich men were called capitalists. They were fat, ugly men with wicked faces ... You can see that he is dressed in a long black coat which was called a frock coat, and a queer, shiny hat shaped like a stovepipe, which was called a top hat."

The face of evil capitalism:

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@hardclass2020 The issues with Orwell's "totalitarian" paradigm are clear in the stratification of classification of the USSR (even among class tweets). Was Stalin's Soviet Union "totalitarian", "communist", "fascist", or somewhere in between? Reading Bataille before 1984 adds nuance!

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@hardclass2020 @nick_popolizio Whole paragraph is very Marxist. The problem that "The Party could not be overthrown from within" is 'solved' by 3-step plan from M&E's Manifesto: "formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat."

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@liammurphyreads @hardclass2020 Honestly probably not. Didn’t Russia famously run out of food during WWI? I think the February Revolution started by women’s protests over bread shortages. Probably the origin of the rationing he’s referring to. Soviet plans included rationing quotas for this reason.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

Orwell mentioning the "Three-Year Plans" is possibly a direct reference to his opposition to planned economy models of economic development for post-colonial nations. Orwell's fictional plans include "forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods" (50).

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

Ironic (or what we've come to expect in the 21st century) that the British Socialist had a more libertarian worldview than many American Neoliberal intellectuals at the time.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

Orwell's ideological opposition to Planned Economy Models comes from his democratic socialist worldview. Ironically, 1984 is in direct dialogue/opposition with US thinkers at the time, who were strongly in favor of authoritarian models of development (c.f. W.W Rostow, S.M Lipset)

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

@hardclass2020 Seems like today's right and left are at least aware that a modern "Thought Police" exists in both ways that "cancel culture" is understood: either as a "force for accountability" (for racists etc.) or a way to "subvert political enemies of the left".

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

Thinking about Gustave while at the bar.

[James Deakin @deakinbooks]

Crowds: