Questo è l’inizio di 1984, capolavoro di George Orwell conosciuto in tutto il mondo. Nel testo si descrive Londra, la capitale dell’Oceania, uno stato totalitario in cui gli uomini hanno perso il controllo del loro essere interiore e del loro privato. L’unica persona che cerca di resistere all’indottrinamento è il protagonista Winston Smith.

THIS WAS LONDON

It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions...The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster was fixed to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide; the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was rarely working. At present the electric current was cut off during the day. It was part of the economy plan in preparation for HATE WEEK.

The flat was seven floors up and Winston went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures where the eyes follow you when you move...

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

was written under the picture...

A voice came from inside the flat. It came out from a metal plaque placed on the opposite wall. Winston turned the switch to lower the loud voice. It can never be turned off completely. It comes from an instrument, the telescreen, (a television) that gives data on the production of the country and repeats mottos of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The telescreen is always switched on to see what you are doing at home...

Outside the world looked cold and though the sun was shining in a blue sky there seemed to be no colour in anything...

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