People (that I talk to) seem to respond differently to Orwell's 1984. One friend seemed to think that it was not a masterpiece like Animal Farm. Others find it morbid and depressing. Some focus on the big brother aspect - perhaps having watched big brother but not having read the book... Indeed, future fiction will always be tied to the issue of its prediction accuracy - like how people seem to like saying "Stem-cell research - it'll be just like Gattaca" or "CCTV cameras - it's just like 1984" - that sort of stuff.
I felt like Animal Farm set the blueprint, and then 1984 really fleshed out the ideas, making it far more intense. I don't see it as a "look what might happen if..."-book because most of its central themes are relevant and tangible to current, everyday life. I find myself repeatedly thinking of the lines "underneath the chestnut tree, i sold you and you sold me". I think the love-story here, and the issue of what it means to betray someone, is one of the lasting impressions of the book - this concept exists outside all the futuristic themes of the book. Sometimes things we thought we'd never relinquish just aren't worth holding on to.
The exploration of newspeak also is philosophically brilliant (i'm pretty sure it gets its own entry in the Oxford companion to philosophy), and is psychologically and linguistically thought provoking.
I find it funny that the movie with John Hurt is not more renowned. Despite its age I think it captures the world pretty perfectly - I must watch it again. On a related note, I found V for Vendetta surprisingly good - like a 1984 world with a superhero. John Hurt plays the big brother character in this which i'm sure must have been deliberate - crazy that they got away with speeches about the "significance of blowing up a building", so soon after Sep 11 (well... 5 years... but still). Anyway, that impressed me.
