Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.

  • Lvxferre
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    2 months ago

    I’ve never noticed this usage of the past tense in the appendix about Newspeak - you’re right, it does. And it’s also written in standard English, so interpreting it as written in a world after Oceania fell is viable.

    And following this line of thought we could even interpret the main story as a narrative within another.

    Another possibility is that the appendix is not written in-universe, and uses the past tense because it’s how people expect storytelling to be written in English, with Orwell speaking directly to the reader instead of Winston Smith.

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      It’s definitely not Winston, he died in the main story. I interpreted it as an unnamed historian writing about this years later. I don’t think Orwell would self-insert and write from an in universe perspective.

      • Lvxferre
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        2 months ago

        In the second hypothesis it wouldn’t be self-inserting; it’s more like the author explaining something to the readers, outside the story.