I would add Brave new world to the mixture, so there's awareness of what happens when there is surplus of cat pics and reality shows.

edit: oh, one starts to write a comment, attends the phone, and your idea is already submitted :/.

I've started to think that the focus on 1984 is harmful.

For one, fiction is not evidence. Using it as such is poor reasoning.

For another, I've seen a reaction of "that's just fiction, it wouldn't actually happen" distracting from the important points.

I've started thinking it's harmful because it gets brought up in every damn debate as though just making reference to it is enough to signal that you have thought critically about the issue.

Fiction is cultural commentary, and 1984 is designed by its author, specifically, to engage the culture in the discourse regarding the rights of the individual versus the needs of the state. To take 1984 literally is to lose the plot entirely; to consider it an analog of the human condition - like so many other works of literature, both fiction and non-fiction - is the point entirely. 1984 has as much relevance now as it ever has, and should be required reading for everyone - not just school kids - who care about the state of their cultures in the future.

While I don't think I disagree with any of that, I do think my observation stands and that 1984 should be less stressed in these discussions.

Note that I didn't say that I think the book is harmful, but the focus on it.

Why do you think the focus itself is harmful? Does 1984 in some way detract from the issue of state control over personal lives, or is it the hubris of the issue that makes it so difficult .. because if you're referring to the hubris, I can understand that. Its a kind of fatigue that sets in when 1984 is brought up, over and over again, and people stop paying attention to the real issue because the pop-culture knee-jerk reaction is to devalue the message due to the fatigue of no solution. There is no solution to 1984; its a dire conundrum with no end, and I think this is a source of definite stress in the issues.. the book itself does not discuss a solution. However, discussing the book is a solution, because it brings the issue to a point where an individual can be aware that they have to always be vigilant against state intrusion.

But this is not always the case - for the younger generations who are not familiar with the issue, 1984 is a very important piece of literature. For those of us who have suffered decades of ignominy over the crimes of our governments, sure: fatigue is the issue. But, we must never be willing to put our freedoms aside, for a little relief from repression. Always be aware, and always fight back!

Use the Stasi as a plausible real life example instead

1984 is harmful because government agents get inspired by ideas in the book.

Reality isn't 1984. Reality also isn't Brave New World (and we're amusing ourselves to death). It's bits and pieces of both of these and much more.

So yes, reading 1984 is beneficial. Only reading 1984 is not.

I don't follow the reasoning. Obviously none of these works are going to perfectly reflect everything about our current reality; that's not the idea. The idea is to think critically about what's actually going on around you, and these stories can be a lens through which to look at your situation.

"Only reading 1984 is not" helpful? I definitely do not agree. Reading at least one of these works at least provides the opportunity to consider its relevance. Reading none of them trivially throws out that potential benefit.

The person appeared to be advocating real world action based on the contents of a fictional novel. Sure, it is a fact that the story exists and is interesting. That doesn't mean that it prescribes a particular action for people to take in the real world. Anything can happen in a fiction story, but as far as we can tell, the real world is not fiction and is limited in what can happen. This means that it is potentially very dangerous to take actions based on the events of a fictional story, as there is no guarantee (or even a good reason) to believe that the real world operates in the same fashion as any particular fictional world.

I read a book in high school called The Alliance that discussed pervasive digital surveillance in a dystopia. I think it's this one: http://www.amazon.com/Alliance-Gerald-Lund/dp/0875791603 . It starts slowly but gets better as I recall.

I would add Anthem to that list. It predates 1984 by 11 years, and Orwell likely borrowed a lot of concepts from it.

As long as we're adding books to a dystopian-novel reading list, consider That Hideous Strength - a sort of spiritual prequel to 1984 describing the gradual rise of such a regime. It also might be the last major work in the genre before the atomic bomb, and predates 1984. It's a transitional work, which is both interesting and a source of its limitations -- I'll leave you with Orwell's book review to detail its strengths and weaknesses which should get you an idea: http://www.lewisiana.nl/orwell/

You can also consider Chesterton's The Man who Would Be Thursday, referenced in that review as well.

Yvgeny Zamyatin We 1921. Orwell acknowledged its influence on 1984, and believed that Brave New World was also influenced by it, though Huxley said otherwise. Anthem's resemblance may not be purely coincidental.