American Idyll

yes, the river knows

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

A Gesture Belonging To The Ancient Time



Winston was dreaming:
The girl with dark hair was coming toward him across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him; indeed, he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant was an admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time.
Winston woke up with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips.
--George Orwell (from "1984")

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