Last time I read this book what struck me most was that Julia just wasn’t interested in anything that Smith was telling her. When Smith read to her from that book, she just got kind of bored and fell asleep (as I recall).
From The Party’s perspective, Julia was doing the right thing – the only place she got her news from was The Party and anything else just wasn’t worth her attention.
From The Party’s perspective Smith’s problems started when he cared about his memory of history – if his brain popped up the fact that things had been different, then he just should have ignored it as uninteresting.
Julia just wasn’t interested in anything that Smith was telling her.
Not just Julia. He goes into town and finds an old man at the bar and asks him what life was like before The Party took over but the old man is more interested in drinking and gambling than history and politics. The only people who seem interested in politics are The Party elites. That part always sticks with me. It’s how your co-workers just aren’t into politics but the CEO of the company definitely is.
