Name: The Memory Hole
Item: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Author: court_talisman

Nineteen Eighty-Four →

by George Orwell

The Memory Hole

court_talisman

Jul 18, 2024

Reread this book recently and was surprised to discover it's the origin of the term memory hole. At least I think it's the originator.

In the fiction, the memory hole is a slot in the wall which leads to an incinerator. Shit gets memory holed in order to deliberately abolish the past. In our information saturated times we use the term to refer to the short vanishing distance of our spectacle discourse. The parallel is there, but there's no agency here. Our social degeneration is more decentralized I guess: a grass-roots effort.

Anyway, could an insidious power really seize control of the whole of your interiority? Could they remake you completely with their abuses and dirty tricksProbably not, but it's a spooky idea.

The book is very readable and widely read among midwits so you might even be able to talk about it to other people in your life. It drags at times, there's a sort of lore-dump in the second act, which is complete with what must be Orwell's own political philosophy. The third act is a harrowing and riveting read, if tonally miserable. There are many lovely moments as well. I like this book.