1984

[Hilts]

Sadly, my best mate has died.

He left a note for his mother, not a suicide note but just some requests for his funeral.

It's to be a humanist service and although his mother has overridden his music requests, to be fair to her they were fairly depressing!, she has gone with one of his wishes which was for a passage to be read from 1984.

I'm going to do it.

I could stand up and talk for hours about our lives together, we were born in the same small hospital a day apart, but time is short.

It's been 10 years since I read the book but if you had to do something like this any ideas what passage or maybe quotes you would choose and how would you present it? Thanks.

RIP mate. Hasta luego.

[Hilts]

Faust66 said:

Sorry for your loss.

Perhaps this page might be useful?

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/153313-ninet...

Edit to add:

As quotes will be personal to you and your friend, I wouldn't like to make a suggestion - if it comes form the heart (rather than some bloke off the internet) it'll mean more during your reading.

Edited by Faust66 on Tuesday 26th July 17:18

Yes thankyou, that page will be good. I hear what you are saying, I just know that there are some smart people on here who would have a deeper insight into 1984 and what might be an appropriate passage to use, as I say it's been a while since I read it.

I think his favourite book was really American Psycho but I don't think his mother would've went with that.

To yourself and others who offered condolences I thank you.

[Hilts]

Einion Yrth said:

1984 said:

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”

This is the entirety of 1984 in a nutshell. Your mate must have been a troubled soul.

Condolences.

This post I will always remember.

I think I will use this and finish with an appropriate short quote from the book of my own choice.

Yes, my mate fought clinical depression all his life although at school I never would've have guessed, he was in the army which I think helped him.

His music choices included Ceremony by Joy Division and a few tracks by The Cocteau Twins. I think his mum has changed them though but I will ask her to keep his final choice, Gorecki's Symphony #3 even though I know it will be a very hard listen for me. I've also suggested to his mum to consider Love will tear us apart instead of Ceremony because she doesn't want that track. That will also be tough but fitting.

I thank you sincerely.

[Hilts]

konark said:

OP said 'It's to be a humanist service and although his mother has overridden his music requests, to be fair to her they were fairly depressing!'

It's a bl00dy funeral, not High School Musical!

That didn't really come across well did it?

I think his mother was trying to say that he was in a very dark place when he wrote the note and she wanted at least something representing more of a tribute to the happier moments in his life.