>Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away >about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The >telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston >made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, >moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal >plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no >way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, >or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was >guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. >But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had >to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that >every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement >scrutinized. <
-- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
