1984
Grimdark has always been a concept of humanity living in the worst environment as possible, and there is not even a single joy can be found in grimdark. 1984 is such example of grimdark. It is a novel by George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair, but he didn't use it on his books because reasons) published in 1949. It is primarily about what happen if the government has the complete control of everyone, where you will be watched everyday and being forced to believe whatever lies the government said, or else you'll be tortured and mind-raped to absolute despair. This book is basically the inspiration to all grimdark totalitarian dictatorships, including Paranoia and Warhammer 40k.
The scariest parts are the fact that the book is merely a chronicle of the evils humanity is capable of; not dangerous aliens or demons, just us, not to mention the fact that Oceania was inspired by a real-life nation; Soviet Russia (Stalin's regime). In fact, in the books Big Brother has a mustache (mentioned near the end) just like said tyrannical dictator. There is also a certain rogue country still around today that looks too similar to bear (since Kim-Il-Sung was also inspired by Stalin). However, it should be noted the book is a condemnation of tyranny and dictatorships in general, due to how similar all the three nations involved in some eternal war are. Like, you could switch around their names, and not tell the difference. (it was Nazi Germany as one of their goals was to make an enndless war, and Wells himself was a noteable anti-fasicst having fought in the Spainish Civil War on the commonulist side, but whatever)
Plot
In Airstrip One, Oceania, a middle-aged member of the Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith, isn't happy about his life. He's sick of doing the same thing every day; helping the government spread their propaganda, being exhausted at work, his home life dominated by his telescreen (pretty much "IN SOVIET RUSSIA, TV WATCHES YOU!", and woe betide anyone who breaks or turns theirs off), never getting laid (except for a far back encounter with an elderly prostitute; ) and not having enough to eat. But his life changes when he meets his co-worker, twenty-something brunette Julia. Despite coming across as a model citizen, even being a member of the anti-sex league, Julia gives him a secret message which says "I love you." After meeting her outside their work, they talk and Julia and Winston decide to give each other what they want, which is something the party considers unacceptable. Winston has a fun time fucking Julia, learning about the past ,eating the real food the upper class gets and writing in his notebook about how much he hates The Party. During this time, Winston's co-worker O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the secret anti-government Brotherhood and recruits Winston and Julia.
They receive a book on the Brotherhood's ideals and are instructed to continue with their affairs until called on by them. They do, making the inn where they had their first tryst their secret love nest. After a sex session, they start reading up on the Brotherhood (which can be summed up as idealist English Socialism). During a later tryst, they are found out and arrested by the Thought Police, who had been spying on their room through a telescreen hidden behind a painting (the innkeeper is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police commander). They are beaten and taken to the Ministry of Love to be brainwashed. There, Winston is reunited with O'Brien, and finds out that O'Brien is actually a top-level government agent; his "recruitment" of Winston and Julia, and maybe even the Brotherhood itself, was part of a sting operation. O'Brien tortures Winston to the brink of death and insanity, then when Winston starts to succumb to the brainwashing O'Brien nurses him back to health. After he monitors Winston in his sleep and finds out that Winston still loves Julia and hates Big Brother, O'Brien sends him to the dreaded Room 101 to meet his worst fear where he his finally broken. Months after being successfully brainwashed by the party Winston meets Julia again, who is also brainwashed, and both are uncertain about their futures and no longer love each other. In the end Winston despairs so much he cannot even commit suicide, believes that 2+2=5, and loves the Party's figurehead leader, Big Brother.
And that's when he is finally shot, or not. You see, all that torture the party has done to Winston only killed his "self", meaning he no longer exists as a thinking individual. He exists only as a puppet of the Party, forever selfless, forever loving Big Brother. While the party threatens to murdered Winston with a single shot from a gun, they never did.
Winston's self is the part that makes him human and unique — it essentially is Winston. And now that it is dead, he waits only for his soulless shell of a body to die as well.
Warhammer 40k's grimdark elements inspired from 1984
- The Big Brother: Big Brother is the omnipotent figurehead created by the ruling Party for those poor bastards to worship (while Big Brother may or may not exist in 1984, the God-Emperor of the Imperium in 40k does exist), and like with real-world religious fundamentalists sex is even considered evil because it takes away veneration from the God-figure. However, despite the totalitarian fanaticism, the society that did inspire 1984 (the Soviet Union) was militantly atheistic with the veneration of certain figures being a Cult of Personality, and even then it was only for Party members; most of Russia's proles remained Eastern Orthodox but only kept it to themselves for fear of Blam by the government.
- Constant Surveillance: In 1984, there are these shitty TV networks that were created to stalk you and troll you everyday call the "telescreens" and you cannot turn them off. If you somehow manage to turn one off, you will be captured by the thought police and have your ass beaten. There are other surveillance devices such as helicopters (for tall apartment buildings), thought polices, and even your own children (damn government bribed them with candy and their version of the Scouts is Thought-Police Jr). The only people who are free from this nightmare are the underclass Proles, and that's because they're so dumb the Party considers them animals who do not give a fuck about politics, doing nothing but work, drink and wank to porn. Yes, you yourself are one such filthy dumbass Prole, using this Telescreen for hentai instead of actually doing something. In Warhammer 40k, there are the secret police of the Inquisition which have psykers reading people's mind everyday, and Adeptus Arbites who serve fair justice to common proletarians everyday. Also noted that in the Age of Apostasy, Goge Vandire had Cherubim installed everywhere to act as his own telescreens for whatever the fuck he had his minds on.
- In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is only War: In 1984, eternal war is the best way for Oceania (which is composed of the Americas, the British Isles (called "Airstrip One" in the novel), Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and southern Africa below the River Congo... according to Oceania) to have their lonely excuse for fun; they wage unnecessary wars with
friendlycountries that are almost exactly the same as they are, using the lands of unaligned countries as the battlefield, the inhabitants of those areas being forced to live in constant slavery under whichever power controls them at that time. All of this is so they can justify their brutal military junta, which is in place to preserve the status quo. This involves spending most of their money on building more flying metal boxes or floating fortress, a massive waste of force labors that locks up people to build useless cargo ships. The party never giving benefits to their own people who are cramped into 1000 meters-high city prisons for your grandmother to live in.
In 1984, Oceania had these neighbor county like Eurasia(Europe and Russia) and Eastasia(all of Asia except for Russia), who are just as much of a shithole like Oceania and they are constantly changing sides, meaning once they are done buttsecks with each others for resources, they would backstab their allies and making their old enemy a new allies (if oceania's ally is eastasia, when oceania is done with eastasia, it will be the new enemy with eurasia, the old enemy, become the new allies).
- The Ministry of (love, truth, peace, plenty): In 1984, the Oceania had their own departments of powers to control their filthy peasants. Despite their organization have names like truth and love, it is actually the opposite. The Ministry of truth is basically Administratum, where all the history records and documents were "true" and they are certainly not destroyed or rewritten to provide false propaganda. The Ministry of love is where all the heretics are cared with "love" and the staff members will definitely not treat them with unorthodox methods of torture or mind rape, or both. The Ministry of Peace is the army. The Ministry of plenty is the food distribution to provide "plenty" for all and certainly not feed the upper class while keeping everyone else in a famine.
See Also
