UA 1984 [was: [UA] french fries]

[Christian Knöppler]

This is my first post to the UA list, since I'm more of a lurker. But 
this made me think...

ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu schrieb:

>Still, it points up one of the major tenets of magick: that to have power
>over a thing, you must know its true name, be it demon or adept. This could
>be seen as a symbolic attempt to redefine the true name of common items,
>presumably to grab power over them.
>
>This leads unpleasant credence to Orwell's 1984, in which various elements
>of vocabulary -- including the names of ill-favored bureaucrats -- were
>redefined to make new and more (ritualistically?) controllable words.
>
Damn, I've *never* thought about 1984 from an occult-UA point of view. 
But it makes a lot of sense, if the  inner party is one huge cabal and 
its control of the people is built on magick. They redefine the 
vocabulary to direct magickal energy, and considering the degree of 
manipulation and control in 1984, the party would be able to redefine 
reality itself- all they have to do is make people believe in something, 
and it will change (okay, that's more like Mage). And what about the 
"hate day" (don't remember the exact name) rallies, where the whole 
population stops to intensely hate their enemies? Think about the 
charges you could gather, or damage you might cause, by making millions 
of people hate someone at the same moment. Hell, it's got UA written all 
over it.
Another part of the story comes to mind: somewhere during the torture 
session, O'Brien (not sure about the name, don't have the book with me) 
tells Winston Smith that he could lift off  the ground and float through 
the room. In UA 1984, O'Brien is a Party adept, and he'd take off for 
real using magick. Oh, and Big Brother ascended as the True King... or, 
more likely, as Big Brother. 

I guess I should re-read the book. Occult 1984. Perfect charge 
generating machine.

Christian Knoeppler


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