Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

--------------------------------------

'But the rocks are full of the bones of extinct animals --
mammoths and mastodons and enormous reptiles which lived here
long before man was ever heard of.'
'Have you ever seen those bones, Winston? Of course not.
Nineteenth-century biologists invented them. Before man there
was nothing. After man, if he could come to an end, there would
be nothing. Outside man there is nothing.'
'But the whole universe is outside us. Look at the stars !
Some of them are a million light-years away. They are out of
our reach for ever.'
'What are the stars?' said O'Brien indifferently. 'They
are bits of fire a few kilometres away. We could reach them if
we wanted to. Or we could blot them out. The earth is the
centre of the universe. The sun and the stars go round it.'
Winston made another convulsive movement. This time he did
not say anything. O'Brien continued as though answering a
spoken objection:
'For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When
we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often
find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun
and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometres
away. But what of it? Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce
a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant,
according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians
are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?'

'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
'Four.'
'And if the party says that it is not four but five --
then how many?'
'Four.'
The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial
had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over
Winston's body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in
deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not
stop. O'Brien watched him, the four fingers still extended. He
drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly
eased.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four.'
The needle went up to sixty.
'How many fingers, Winston?'
'Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!'

God eat God

-----------------------------