Paranoia in Control: China's Censorship Struggles

1. 1984 : Book II Ch 3-6 George Orwell

2. Time for your 2 Minutes… • Of Paranoia!

3. Time for your 2 Minutes… • REMEMBER THIS STORY FROM LAST WEEK? • In Beijing, ‘Big Brother’ Now Sees All • "Video cameras manned by over 4,300 officers trained at 'every corner'"

4. Time for your 2 Minutes… • Leaving China? Your books, maps and DVDs may be confiscated • An odd thing happened when movers came to box up Ruth Kirchner's furnishings as she was preparing to return to Berlin after a decade in China. The chief packer made a beeline for the German journalist's globe to see whether it was politically correct. • "Where's Taiwan?" he asked, checking whether the island — which has de facto independence but which China's communist leaders regard as a breakaway province — was rendered in a different color than the mainland. Next he demanded: "Where are the Diaoyu islands?" referring to uninhabited specks of land long administered by Japan but claimed by China. • "I said, 'Oh, come on, man, the Diaoyu islands are too insignificant to be shown on a globe,'" Kirchner recalled of the summer incident. • Finally, the packer picked up a road atlas of Britain and asked where Taiwan was. "I said, 'That's a road map of England; there is no Taiwan in there!'" Kirchner said. Satisfied, the packers completed the job; Kirchner flew back.

5. Time for your 2 Minutes… • Leaving China? Your books, maps and DVDs may be confiscated • "I didn't really think about it much; I thought he was just a bit strange," she said. • Weeks later, though, Kirchner's moving company called to say that customs authorities inspecting her shipment found a book that included an objectionable Taiwan map. Kirchner had to sign a form saying she was "voluntarily" abandoning the book — "The Opium War," by Julia Lovell — even though she had bought it in Beijing. (The title recently has been taken off shelves in the city because of the map issue, booksellers say.) • "I sort of laugh about it, but I find it rather sad that they get so worked up about something so insignificant," said Kirchner, adding that the controversy resulted in a month long delay for her entire shipment. "For one thing, I was taking things out of China, not in. And I brought lots of stuff in [that was presumably more sensitive] and they never seemed to care."

6. Time for your 2 Minutes… • Leaving China? Your books, maps and DVDs may be confiscated • Another American journalist who left China this year said he became alarmed when movers notified him that customs had determined that he had "illegal documents" in his shipment. China has imprisoned Chinese journalists for possessing state secrets and leaking them to overseas news outlets; foreign reporters have been expelled on similar charges. • The reporter, who asked to not be identified for fear of jeopardizing future attempts to work again in China, said officials seized a Human Rights Watch report on China he had printed from the Internet, the Wikipedia entry on the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and a history DVD called "China: A Century of Revolution." The reporter said he also believed that inspectors may have copied or photographed all his notebooks searching for information on his sources. • "It felt very intrusive," he said, noting that he had taken pains to not record identifying details about his interviewees. "In some ways, it felt like an apt way to leave China, because you spend years in China being freaked out [about being monitored]; it's good to know your precautions weren't for nothing."

7. Time for your 2 Minutes… • FROM 2013 • THE Internet has been abuzz over the spectacle of President Obama and the prime ministers of Britain and Denmark snapping a photo of themselves — a “selfie,” to use the mot du jour — with a smartphone at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa on Tuesday.

8. Time for your 2 Minutes… • FROM 2013

9. Time for your 2 Minutes… • FROM 2013

10. Time for your 2 Minutes… • Leaving aside whether it was appropriate, the moment captured the democratization of image making that is a hallmark of our gadget-filled, technologically rich era. • Manifestly undemocratic, in contrast, is the way Mr. Obama’s administration — in hypocritical defiance of the principles of openness and transparency he campaigned on — has systematically tried to bypass the media by releasing a sanitized visual record of his activities through official photographs and videos, at the expense of independent journalistic access. • The White House-based press corps was prohibited from photographing Mr. Obama on his first day at work in January 2009. Instead, a set of carefully vetted images was released. Since then the press has been allowed to photograph him alone in the Oval Office only twice: in 2009 and in 2010, both times when he was speaking on the phone. Pictures of him at work with his staff in the Oval Office — activities to which previous administrations routinely granted access — have never been allowed.

11. Book II Ch 1&2 Recap • What happened? • At work one morning, Winston walks toward the men’s room and notices the dark-haired girl with her arm in a sling. She falls, and when Winston helps her up, she passes him a note that reads “I love you.” • Winston becomes aroused when they move into the woods, and they make love; the experience is nearly identical to the passionate sexual encounter about which Winston has dreamed. Afterward, Winston asks Julia if she has done this before, and she replies that she has—scores of times. Thrilled, he tells her that the more men she has been with, the more he loves her, since it means that more Party members are committing crimes.

12. Book II Ch 3 • What happened? • Why is it important? • How does it make you feel? • Are there parallels with your own life?

13. Book II Ch 3 • The next morning, Julia makes the practical preparations for their return to London, and she and Winston head back to their normal lives. • Over the coming weeks, they arrange several brief meetings in the city. At a rendezvous in a ruined church, Julia tells Winston about living in a hostel with thirty other girls, and about her first illicit sexual encounter. • We talked a little bit about this last week. Impressions? Does this confirm our Venn diagram?

14. Book II Ch 3 • Unlike Winston, Julia is not interested in widespread rebellion; she simply likes outwitting the party and enjoying herself. • She explains to Winston that the Party prohibits sex in order to channel the sexual frustration of the citizenry into fervent opposition to Party enemies and impassioned worship of Big Brother. • Why?

15. Book II Ch 3 • Winston tells Julia about a walk he once took with his ex-wife Katherine, during which he thought about pushing her off of a cliff. • He says that it would not have mattered whether he pushed her or not, because it is impossible to win against the forces of oppression that govern their lives. • Does this guy know how to woo a lady or what?!? • Describe Winston’s attitude and personality. Is it odd at this point in the book he feels this way?

16. Book II Ch 3 Analysis • Though not interested in Winston’s need to understand the Party, Julia does facilitate Winston’s attempts to undermine the Party. • How?

17. Book II Ch 3 Analysis • In Chapter III, she produces some of the most astute analysis of the Party in the novel. • Her understanding of sexual repression as a mechanism to incite “war fever” and “leader worship” renders her sexual activity a political act.

18. Book II Ch 3 Analysis • From Winston’s point of view, the significance of having unauthorized sex with another Party member lies in the fact that his rebellion is no longer confined to himself. • Though he considers her somewhat self-absorbed, Winston is thrilled that Julia has had so many affairs with so many Party members. • Sexual jealousy no longer has a place, as Winston revels in the possibility of widespread rebellion against the Party’s strict mandates.

19. Book II Ch 4 • What happened? • Why is it important? • How does it make you feel? • Are there parallels with your own life?

20. Book II Ch 4 • Winston looks around the little room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, which he has rented—foolishly, he thinks—for his affair with Julia. • Outside, a burly, red-armed woman sings a song and hangs up her laundry. • Winston and Julia have been busy with the city’s preparations for Hate Week, and Winston has been frustrated by their inability to meet. • Why? • What makes it worse?

21. Book II Ch 4 • The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Julia has had her period. • Winston wishes that he and Julia could lead a more leisurely, romantic life, like an old, married couple. • Any guess what happens next?

22. Book II Ch 4 • Julia comes into the room with sugar, coffee, and bread—luxuries only members of the Inner Party could normally obtain. • What does this make Winston do? And why?

23. Book II Ch 4 • She puts on makeup, and her beauty and femininity overwhelm Winston. • Ahem. • Lounging in bed in the evening, Julia sees a rat; Winston, afraid of rats more than anything else, is horrified. • What a baby!

24. Book II Ch 4 • Julia looks through the room, and notices the paperweight. • Winston tells her that the paperweight is a link to the past. • They sing the song about St. Clement’s Church, and Julia says that one day she will clean the old picture of the church. • When Julia leaves, Winston sits gazing into the crystal paperweight, imagining living inside it with Julia in an eternal stasis.

25. Book II Ch 4 Analysis • Winston says the paperweight is a link to the past, yet what does he do with it? • What does he picture in his mind with it?

26. Book II Ch 5 • What happened? • Why is it important? • How does it make you feel? • Are there parallels with your own life?

27. Book II Ch 5 • As Winston predicted would happen, Syme vanishes. During the preparations for Hate Week, the city comes alive with the heat of the summer, and even the proles seem rowdy. • Parsons hangs streamers everywhere and his children sing a new song, called “Hate Song,” written in celebration of the event. • How does this reflect the Doublethink and the state values? • Current events?

28. Book II Ch 5 • Winston becomes increasingly obsessed with the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, thinking about it even when he cannot go there. • He fantasizes that Katherine will die, which would allow him to marry Julia; he even dreams of altering his identity to become a prole. • Is this feasible?

29. Book II Ch 5 • Winston and Julia talk about the Brotherhood; he tells her about the strange kinship he feels with O’Brien, and she tells him that she believes the war and Party enemies like Emmanuel Goldstein to be Party inventions. • Winston is put off by her thoughtless lack of concern, and scolds her for being a rebel only from the waist down. • Contrast this with Chapter III. • How has Winston changed?

30. Book II Ch 5 Analysis • The opening of Book Two, in which Winston meets Julia and begins the erotic affair he has so deeply desired, commences the main section of the novel and strikes an immediate contrast between the two lovers. • Contrast this with Chapter V. • How has Winston changed?

31. Book II Ch 6 • What happened? • Why is it important? • How does it make you feel? • Are there parallels with your own life?

32. Book II Ch 6 • O’Brien makes contact with Winston, who has been waiting for this moment all his life. • During his brief meeting with O’Brien in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and excited. • Parallels? • O’Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O’Brien’s house one evening.

33. Book II Ch 6 • Winston feels that his meeting with O’Brien continues a path in his life begun the day of his first rebellious thought. • He thinks gloomily that this path will lead him to the Ministry of Love, where he expects to be killed. • Though he accepts his fate, he is thrilled to have O’Brien’s address.

34. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • 4, 5, & 6 represent a transitional period, during which Winston’s affair with Julia becomes an established part of their lives, and leading up to Winston’s meeting with O’Brien.

35. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • Despite the risk, Winston rents the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop so that he and Julia can have a regular place to meet. • As the preparations for Hate Week cast a shadow of heat and fatigue on Winston’s life, a number of important minor details surface throughout this section, each of which has some bearing on later developments in the novel. • Can you think of 3 minor details?

36. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • THE GLASS PAPERWEIGHT! • The first to surface is the return of the glass paperweight. • A “vision of the glass paperweight” inspired Winston to rent the room above the shop. • The recurrence of this symbol emphasizes Winston’s obsession with the past and connects it to his desire to rent the room.

37. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • THE GLASS PAPERWEIGHT! • By making the room available for himself and Julia, he hopes he can make their relationship resemble one from an earlier, freer time. • After Julia leaves the room, Winston gazes into the paperweight, imagining a world outside of time inside it, where he and Julia could float, free from the Party.

38. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • THE RED-ARMED PROLE WOMAN! • The second detail involves the prole woman singing outside the window. • Winston has already thought and written in his diary that any hope for the future must come from the proles. • The virile prole woman singing outside the window becomes a symbol of the hoped-for future to Winston; he imagines her bearing the children who will one day overthrow the Party.

39. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • RATS! • The third factor is Winston’s fear of rats. When he sees a rat in the room in Chapter IV, he shudders in terror. • The fact that Winston’s fear of rats comes from a nightmare that he cannot explain is another important instance of the motif of dreams. • Once again, Winston’s dream represents an incomprehensible link to a past that is beyond his memory.

40. The only thing we have to fear is…

41. Book II Ch 4-6 Analysis • O’BRIEN! • The most important part of this section is Winston’s meeting with O’Brien, which Winston considers to be the most important event of his life. • The meeting is brief, but it establishes O’Brien as an enigmatic and powerful figure. • At this point we cannot tell whether he is trustworthy or treacherous, whether he is truly on Winston’s side or simply wants to trap him for the Party.