Book Reviews 1

Blind Faith
by Ben Elton

Ah, there is a very easy place to start with this one- and I'll answer the question no doubt in your head this very moment. Yes. Yes, Blind Faith 'borrows' a lot (I won't say rip off and I'll explain why soon), from George Orwell's masterpiece 1984, which also happens to be one of my all time favorite books.

However, I do not believe that Elton tried to 'rip off' the book and hope to get away with it, but in fact that he deliberately mimicked Orwells well known story in order to convey his own point. After all, most of what Elton writes is satire- and what better way to write satire than by parodying something?

There are obvious similarities quite easy to highlight; torture; betrayal; the idea that everything the society does is watched and documented; people having to get up and say things like "Praise the Love!" and take part in 'Gr'ugs'* (similar to people rushing to yell abuse about Eurasia and Eastasia) for fear of Big Brother, The Temple or The Love growing suspicious. Privacy, in both novels, is seen as a sin, morally wrong, perverted or evil. 'Screens' appear in both novels, though Elton, as usual, relates these invasions of privacy to tecnology, the future and our growing obsession with the internet (blogs, video uploading and profile pages). The similarities are endless, and I cannot possibly believe Elton was attemping to actually steal the ideas of a very well-known piece of work and pass them off as his own. On the contrary, I believe what Elton has done is a rare piece of brilliance.

Orwells masterpiece was an analysis of Totalitarianism, and dystopia. Elton has parodied 1984, but with focus on religion, faith and dogma, drawing clear comparisons between his subject of choice and Orwells. The reader is therefore forced to awknowledge the obvious similairties between religion (dogma, beliefs etc) and Totalitarianism. Quite genius, no?

In fact, I actually think Elton goes to great lengths to ensure that the reader knows what he is doing. Perhaps I am wrong, but after the first few chapters, just when one is beginning to think "This is a rip off..." or "This story feels familiar.." a character actually mentions the novel 1984 and is clearly about to go onto compare it with his own society.

As well as being very intelligent and insightful, there is also Eltons trademark humor. Although the theme of the novel is serious, and most of the time dealt with as such, Elton still manages to make us laugh with the ridiculousness of names like Happymeal, the insanity of the act of 'perving' on people talking, breast-feeding and having sex, and the pathetic inconsistancies and idiocy of the Temples teachings and dogma. As well as giving us a chuckle, the wonderful humor also helps highlight the hilarity and ridiculousness of dogma and ignorance itself.

The story itself is written decently enough; very easy to read and engaging. Even though I saw all of the twists coming a mile off, I still very much enjoyed it as the story unfolded and often found myself wanting to read on even when tired.

In conclusion, this is a good, though not incredible, novel. The characters can sometimes seem bland and unengaging (I for one felt very little emotion during the torture scene) and it is definately not his best book, but it provides an intriguing insight into the religion-science scuffle and the CCTV-age, and will make you smile. Deliberately taking itself less seriously than the novel it appears to be parodying, Blind Faith is both entertaining and intelligent and is well worth the read.


7.5 / 10