1984 - Planet eBook

The voice from the telescreen paused. A trumpet call,clear and beautiful, floated into the stagnant air. The voicecontinued raspingly:’Attention! Your attention, please! A newsflash has thismoment arrived from the Malabar front. Our forces in SouthIndia have won a glorious victory. I am authorized to saythat the action we are now reporting may well bring the warwithin measurable distance of its end. Here is the newsflash——’Bad news coming, thought Winston. And sure enough,following on a gory description of the annihilation of aEurasian army, with stupendous figures of killed and prisoners,came the announcement that, as from next week, thechocolate ration would be reduced from thirty grammes totwenty.Winston belched again. The gin was wearing off, leavinga deflated feeling. The telescreen—perhaps to celebrate thevictory, perhaps to drown the memory of the lost chocolate—crashed into ‘Oceania, ‘tis for thee’. You were supposed tostand to attention. However, in his present position he wasinvisible.‘Oceania, ‘tis for thee’ gave way to lighter music. Winstonwalked over to the window, keeping his back to thetelescreen. The day was still cold and clear. Somewhere faraway a rocket bomb exploded with a dull, reverberatingroar. About twenty or thirty of them a week were falling onLondon at present.