Chapter 7 - Unlikely Book Club

A young waitress signs up for nude modeling at a Russian camming website where she partners with a shrewd and literary bilingual assistant who will show her the ropes.

Richard Dalton was captivated by the early phase of discovery, and his enthusiasm led him to watch WorldsGreatCams as much as he could. It was now the end of his workday, too early to make dinner, and so he decided to login at WGC and further explore its chatrooms. The website's home page came up and displayed the avatars of about forty camgirls who were currently performing. One camgirl's avatar-photo seemed peculiar and stood out among the rest. As Richard hovered with the mouse-pointer over that avatar, he saw an unusual live video stream of a camgirl named SteffyPanache who was wearing a Mardi Gras mask.

SteffyPanache certainly was a bizarre name for a camgirl; typically they picked words like 'cute' and 'sweet' to append into their names. But panache? That was the French word for flamboyant confidence of style or manner, and with reckless courage. Richard became curious and entered her chatroom.

Though she was wearing skimpy black lingerie, SteffyPanache was not creating a very sexual performance. Instead, she casually slumped back on a futon sofa with her two feet propped up on a coffee table. The viewers' comments in the chat-window showed the camfans had picked an unusual topic to discuss: they were talking about the George Orwell novel called 1984. And despite the fact the camgirl had a thick Russian accent, she seemed to know quite a bit about that classic English novel. In an attempt to catch up with the conversation, Richard quickly read through the previous user comments that remained in the chat-window.

SchoolBoy:  That was scary the way that future society had listening devices and cameras everywhere so you couldn't have any privacy at all. I remember how Winston had to huddle up in a corner of his apartment just so he wouldn't be watched by that telescreen.

RogerRabbit:  Yeah, the telescreens. What a scary idea - a television that can also look back at you, and even command you to do things. It was like the government had an army of spies that watched all images from all telescreens, and could quickly respond if they saw that someone broke one of their crazy rules.

SchoolBoy:  Right, like the time Winston was doing his morning exercises with a TV show, and all of a sudden the exercise instructor shouted at Winston and told him to work harder at his exercises. Am I ever glad I don't have to live in that kind of a world.

Stefania Toporov smiled and prepared to speak into the microphone. "Let's remember Orwell wrote this way back in 1948 when the television was still a new invention. But think... is there anything that exists today which resembles a surveillance device like Orwell's telescreens?"

The flow of the chat-window froze for a minute, and it seemed like no one would reply to Stefania's question although Richard had become fascinated. He sat up and began to type.

RichardsPause:  How about the mobile phone? Because everyone has one, speaks into it regularly, and carries it everywhere they go -- it has become a kind of listening device with an overwhelming reach into our lives. And with the new capabilities of digital storage, the telecom companies could conceivably save a complete record of all our movements, all our phone conversations, and all the photos and videos we take of ourselves.

Stefania abruptly leaned forward in her seat. She didn't expect a camfan to answer that question so concisely.

"Yes... RichardsPause! Since the telecom companies can save the current location of a mobile phone, they end up having a complete history of exactly where we were on any given day. In some criminal cases, the government has even subpoenaed the telecom companies' phone-location records of suspected criminals to prove they were at the scene of a crime. In a way, the mobile phone might be a more sophisticated surveillance device than Orwell's telescreens because they're always with us and can record our every movement and every phone conversation. For the case of the mobile phone, it becomes ironic that we voluntarily carry a surveillance device whereas in the novel 1984 the people had the telescreens forced upon themselves by the government. As far as privacy is concerned, it's like we want to shoot ourselves in the foot."

SchoolBoy:  Never thought of my phone like that, but it has loads of videos of me that I shoot with my friends. If I ever accidentally commit a crime, I guess I'm screwed.

RogerRabbit:  The one thing I don't get about 1984, is why didn't the people just stage a big rebellion and get rid of those spying telescreens and all that overreach by the government? In the story there was a revolutionary faction called The Brotherhood. So why didn't Orwell just have The Brotherhood take a bigger role in the plot to make it more realistic?

Stefania smiled. "Interesting thought, Roger. And your question opens up another important theme of 1984. Notice how the government is called Big Brother, and yet the rebellious organization is similarly named as The Brotherhood. In a great novel there are no coincidences; every little detail is put there for a purpose. The reason Orwell gave both the government and the rebellion similar names, is because he's saying they're both very similar in nature. The two entities are both driven by ideologies, and both would commit atrocities against innocent people to achieve their ends. In a way, ideologically-driven organizations can easily become dictatorial because they often try to silence any differing points of view. Orwell is probably telling us that political extremism, in any form, is not really going to help humanity."

RogerRabbit:  OK, suppose a rebellion can't save the human race from this type of a totalitarian government. Is Orwell really that pessimistic to say we are doomed to eventually become consumed by totalitarian governments? He really doesn't seem like a pessimistic guy, and he even inserts a tender romance in the middle of that novel.

Stefania's eyes narrowed as she spoke. "Anyone have a response to Roger's question? Does Orwell suggest there's a way for humanity to save itself in the face of such a totalitarian government? Who would be the cavalry? ...like the soldiers in the old western movies who rode to the rescue and saved the cowboys when their towns were under siege."

Richard knew where she was going with this and quickly began to type.

RichardsPause:  The cavalry in this case might be the feminine life-force that is contained in women. Remember the scene when Winston is looking out the window at the singing proletariat woman who's hanging up her laundry? He admires the spirit of that woman and thinks to himself that the children of such a woman could be the ones to challenge the government.

SchoolBoy:  That's right... I remember that part with the singing woman, and how she moves Winston to imagine a rebellion.

RichardsPause:  Plus Orwell gives significant emphasis to another female character, Julia, who is very complicated. Despite the fact she is Winston's lover, in some ways she is very different than him. Though both Winston and Julia despise and disobey the government, they each have very different responses to that government.

SchoolBoy:  True. Winston dreams of joining The Brotherhood so he can overthrow the government, but Julia shows no interest in organized rebellion and even says of The Brotherhood's movement, 'I don't believe any of it.'

RichardsPause:  Julia's rebellion is instinctive, physical, and sexual -- and not strategic and reflective like Winston's. And when they speak of rebellion, and Winston tells Julia that she "is only a rebel from the waist down" -- she takes that reference to her promiscuity as a compliment.

Stefania seized upon Richard's response. "Completely agree, Richard. Let's remember how much that government tried to discourage love, and reduce sex to a mechanical act for the sole purpose of reproduction. But it was the Julias of that society, with their promiscuity, who really challenged that government with their instinctive feminine behavior. Additionally, the plot takes a major turn when Julia simply hands a note to a stranger that says: "I love you." The novel also discusses how after having sex people become too content to participate in angry political rallies, or dwell upon government dogmas."

RichardsPause:  And there's also the issue of Julia's mental state in the last chapter when Winston remembers his final meeting with her. Before that meeting, they had both been released by the government after having been arrested, imprisoned, and undergone brainwashing. But something very peculiar is going on during that meeting -- Julia seems very distant.

RogerRabbit:  Yeah, I remember. It's March and they're in a park for that meeting. But when he first spots Julia, she acts like she doesn't see Winston, and it's almost like she initially tries to avoid him.

SchoolBoy:  Right, and when they separate after that final conversation, Julia chooses to walk quickly enough so Winston can't easily follow her to a subway station, to possibly say a proper goodbye. Once again, she seems to be avoiding his company.

RichardsPause:  Also in that last chapter, Orwell gives us much detail about Winston’s state of mind, and even says Winston will now believe 2+2=5 if the government says so. But it's funny, when Orwell describes Julia during that final meeting, he will not give us any detail at all about her thoughts. And with the way Julia kept avoiding him, I always got the feeling she somehow preserved her mind, and was never really brainwashed at all. Perhaps it was her feminine instincts that protected her.

Stefania expanded on Richard's suggestion. "Exactly Richard. Julia's behavior after her torture and supposed brainwashing isn't really cut and dried, is it? I got into a big argument with my professor about this, but I still feel Julia was never effectively brainwashed the way that Winston was. She managed to retain her personality, and that's why she repeatedly tries to avoid Winston in that final chapter because his spirit has been destroyed by brainwashing, and she doesn't want to be involved with a walking corpse. However, my professor wanted us to believe that Julia, as well as Winston, was successfully brainwashed. But at the very least, it seems like Orwell wanted to leave some ambiguity so most of us could believe that his real hero -- Julia, with her instinctive feminine vitality -- was somehow able to preserve her character and spirit, even after enduring the same torture and brainwashing techniques that Winston received."

Stefania sat back on the sofa and took a deep breath. "All right... back to our own modern times. Our government and culture often try to suppress sexual behavior... right? For instance, birth control is underfunded by some healthcare plans, abortion is made illegal by some governments, consensual sex work is frequently illegal, the morning-after pill can be difficult to obtain, and many television networks won't even allow the sight of naked female breasts, much less the sight of sexual intercourse. In the novel 1984, did Orwell suggest that the suppression of sexual behavior can become an impediment to free political thought? Is the sexual nature of WorldsGreatCams at all similar to the instinctive political rebellion that Julia created with her promiscuity? Okay guys, now I need to answer my emails, but I'll leave you with this final parting thought, to dwell upon."

And with that Stefania moved the video camera to a lower position so that it took an extreme close-up of her vagina. The camera remained in that same position for quite some time while she casually responded to her emails and private messages.

Richard was taken aback; this brazen camgirl was more insightful than many of his college literature professors. Yet another anomaly at WorldsGreatCams, he thought, analysts of literature in lingerie.