Nineteen Eighty Four

I found a book that the government officials didn't take.  I almost wish they had.

When I was a young man, entering into the first few years of what would be a very drawn out and tumultuous college education, three books had a very significant impact on my young psyche.  Those books were Milton's Paradise Lost (I had a whole class on it,) Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (don't mention Ayn Rand in polite conversation, it WILL turn ugly,) and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four.

The book I found was George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four.

Like all books that used to belong to Henry, Nineteen Eighty Four is filled to overflowing with marginalia.  When I first found it, I hugged it tight against my chest.  This must have been the feeling that Winston (the main character of 1984) felt when he discovered the blank journal.

The first time Winston writes in the journal, he hides in a small alcove out of view of the telescreen in his tiny apartment and enters a fugue state of furious scribbling.  Henry had a lot to say about this telescreen:

"Winston, my friend, we must always be vigilant.  They are always watching.  They hate what you cherish because it gives you hope.  I envy you, Winston, for though you face death for your tiny treason, the Lords that watch for me can excise hope with surgery like it was a cancer. By their knife I cannot love, cannot cherish, cannot hope.  I can only pine for the days when such vivid emotions colored my world.  Now I see the world as if through a thick haze, as if the windows of my eyes were distant from the perception of my injured soul.  What colors do you see?  Love, Winston, and do not fear your death.  Oblivion is more merciful than the purgatory of my existance."

Were those men that came for Henry's books, were they really trying to help him or are they responsible for his disappearance?

It seems to me that they took his books not to find some clue to his whereabouts, but to conceal any evidence on where he might be taken.

Does this sort of thing really happen? Does our government really do this sort of thing? It is more than I can comprehend.

I think I've been reading the trade forums, too much.  Their conspiracy theories are getting to me.  Our government can't even balance a budget, a topic taught in junior high school.

Good luck Henry, wherever you are.