Talk:Emmanuel Goldstein/Archive 1

"Goldstein was fabricated by the Party"?
I was reading this article and i found a passage that goes as below: "O'Brien also claims to have collaborated in writing the book himself, which supports the idea that Goldstein was fabricated by the Party"

Even if O'Brien never wrote the book, he could have said that to dimilish Winston's hope in the first place, therefore gaining an upper hand in the psychological battle with Winston. So I don't think what O'Brien said really support, dimilish or validate the existance of Goldstien.

YourNeighbour3 —Preceding unsigned comment added by YourNeighbour3 (talk • contribs) 07:48, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

In fact, every word said by O'Brien could have been carefully plotted by O'Brien himself as a part of the process to completely destroy Winston's hope for finding any kind of revolutionary group, not limited to Brotherhood. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.63.194.194 (talk) 13:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I understand your consideration here. However, there is evidence that Goldstein lives eternally -- an eternal hate figure, that transgresses generations. So really there is only one way to look at it: From the point of view of the protagonist Winston. From Winston's point of view, it really doesn't matter if there ever existed someone named Goldstein, and it really doesn't matter if there ever existed The Brotherhood. The only thing that does matter is that The Party exists, and that The Brotherhood is to be hated. And that Winston is brought to love Big Brother. Sliceofmiami (talk) 04:46, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Osama Bin Laden?
Anyone have any articles linking Emmanuel Goldstein and Osama Bin Laden? I think it's interesting that, like Goldstein, Bin Laden is often (or at least was often) shown on television, and even though he may be speaking in the video clip, no audio or subtitles are provided. Instead, we are told what he says; A very convienient way to attempt to enforce ideological conformity among those in the West. Also, like Goldstein, Bin Laden may or may not even exist, hence a convienient boogieman. 65.248.164.99 (talk) 21:01, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Can anyone else explain this article in a more plain english way?(75.75.115.253 (talk) 01:34, 28 January 2009 (UTC))

Leon Trotsky
Why are a couple of people not allowing this section to stand? The comparisons between Trotsky and Goldstein are obvious, as are the comparisons between the Soviet state and the three statesof 1984. -Joseph (Talk) 14:21, 2004 Oct 4 (UTC)
 * Even if it were right to treat 1984 as a historical novel this would be far too simplistic a view. There are undoubtedly parallels with Trotsky in Goldstein but this is far from being his essence - he is the bogeyman that all corrupt regimes rely on.

Be sure to sign your statements. Anyhow, obviously you are correct. But that doesn't make the comparison any less valid. -Joseph (Talk) 15:43, 2004 Oct 5 (UTC)

As I just read, Trotsky was born "Lev Davidovich Bronstein" - so, isn't the name "Goldstein" just another allusion to Trotsky? --84.167.209.74 20:50, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

'1984' should be read in conjunction with 'Animal Farm' and 'Homage to Catalonia'. In 'Animal Farm', Snowball, the opponent of Napoleon is quite obviously Trotsky. The pun in Napoleon's name is that Stalin was viewed by Trotsky as a 'Buonapartist'. 'Homage to Catalonia' is an account of Orwell's adventures in Spain, including his time in the P.O.U.M. militia. One of the leaders of P.O.U.M. was Andres Nin, who was one of Trotsky's secretaries. Orwell was radicalised by Spain, and also made into a bitter opponent of both Fascism and Stalinism. 220.247.247.101 16:03, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Cite for Emma Goldman?
"Emma Goldman, an anarcho-socialist whom Orwell greatly admired." - I don't recall Orwell mentioning Goldman. Can anybody give a cite on this? - 31 december 2005
 * When I do a google search it seems more like George Orwell influenced Emma Goldman than the other way around. Though I did notice that Goldman was very much a revolutionary. --Acebrock 18:55, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm still confused. Emma Goldman (1869-1940). George Orwell (1903-1950). Goldman was an activist since at least the early 1890's. Orwell didn't begin to write about political topics until the early 1930's. What influence of Orwell on Goldman are we talking about? - 200.141.119.254 05:32, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * eh...redoing the search with slightly different seach terms (no quotes) reverses my past statement. I did find an enlightening conversation (though someone obviously forgot his meds) at this website(1). By the way this interview (if you want to call it that) is really creepy.

Goldstein as a variation of the Devil
Should there be some mention of the connection between Goldstein and and the biblical Devil? The symbolism seems quite obvious, such as the idea of the Brotherhood (fallen angels) revolting against the Party (God) and being led by one individual (Satan) whom is the regarded as root of all evil and the people are encouraged to hate. Although I will admit the symbolism is much more superficial than other examples of symbols in 1984, and his character is likely has more meaning to it than a simple scapegoat, it would seem as though the connection is quite deliberate on Orwell's part and should be mentioned. 66.24.229.233 23:22, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

There's a policy that says you can't put 'original research' in Wikipedia articles; you have to find a 'reliable source' that makes that point, and also put a link to that. --Apeloverage 14:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Request for References
I've put a box in the section relating to the real-life basis of the character.

I've also removed the idea that he's the Nationalist Party of China, because I put a request a while ago for a source, and in the absence of one this seems to be someone's original idea. --Apeloverage 14:16, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Antisemitism?
His Jewish name and the "Two Minutes Hate" looks like an obvious reference to the Nazists' use of antisemitism and hate in their propaganda. But I have unfortunately no references to quote. Apus 09:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Hackers
The character "Cereal Killer" gives his name as Emmanuel Goldstein when questioned by the teacher, as he isn't supposed to be in the class...it isn't his given name, it's just an alias. Wording should reflect that it's not actually the character's given name, as his invocation of the name (a fictional fictional character) is intended to be ironic. 63.252.23.200 (talk) 17:17, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

O'Brien and the book
The artical says "O'Brien also claims to have collaborated in writing the book himself, which supports the idea that Goldstein was fabricated by the Party." however O'Brien states, after winston asks "they got you too?" something along the lines of "they got me a long time ago" which could be read to say he was in the brotherhood and was rehabilitated to tow the party line and thus he could have had a part in writing the book as part of the brotherhood. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.133.241.242 (talk) 23:01, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

That is an interesting consideration, but O'Brien actually says that he collaborated on the book, and that no one person ever writes anything. Maybe he wrote the book after his conversion, as an understanding of how people that are "sick" can better understand others that need to be healed. I do think the idea that O'Brien was "converted" has a lot of traction in 1984. Sliceofmiami (talk) 04:51, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Eduard Bernstein
Might he also be a reference to Bernstein, the creator of so-called Marxist Revisionism (and criticized by Marxists for steering Marxism in an unorthodox direction)? Orwell's Goldstein, as a potentially founding member and orthodox English Socialist, later a victim of Ingsoc's revisionism, is an ironic inversion of Bernstein's pre-1917 critiques of Marxist theory. Or maybe I'm just grasping for straws after seeing a superficial resemblance of names. D Boland (talk) 20:31, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

Emma Goldman
Was wondering if the name was inspired by Emma Goldman Alexopth1512 (talk) 22:45, 26 December 2014 (UTC)