1984

1984 by George Orwell is a timeless classic because as more time passes from it's 1949 publication date, the less fictional it becomes.   The book abounds with Orwellian bon-mots like: "Who controls the past," ran the party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."  and:  "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever."  This book reveals how power uses technology to trap, enslave, and control mankind.  These traps: eternal warfare, media manipulation, surveillance, spying, brainwashing, and torture, are maybe more pervasive than ever. 1984 details the "persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living."   Winston and Julia, the main protagonists, undergo terrifying, thrilling, truly scary ordeals.  Their scientific destruction is troubling because they really are heroic figures brought low by overpowering forces, and because the book is so well written, sometimes it's hard to remember that they are fictional characters.  The world of terror Orwell creates is one of the most compelling reasons for the existence of Science-Fiction: to be a reminder that dehumanizing traps of life are everywhere: sometimes in plain sight, but more likely to appear slowly over time, and are sometimes impossible to discover until it's too late...

This book is a case study in how power maintains power by using technology as a tool of pain to maintain the state of control.  1984 is a mirror, and really should be read in tandem with another English science-fiction classic, Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which is a study in how power maintains power by using technology as a tool of pleasure...two sides of the same coin, both books cannot be recommended highly enough.