APRIL 4, 2065
Thought Criminal On
APRIL 4, 2065 | MINISTRY OF HOPE | 184-326-7590
First and foremost...
Your Ministry Of Hope weekly paper has
arrived once again! The only newspaper in
Airstrip Two that provides you with honest,
uncensored accounts of The Black Eye’s war
crimes and its criminals. As we approach the
anniversary of Decade Day, we at MH
decided this week's feature would be
Winston Smith.
The Story Of Winston Smith
Winston was convicted of ThoughtCrime in
1984 by the ever-notorious inner party
member, O’Brien. If the name sounds
familiar, you might have learned about his
hanging in school or heard your
Grandparents talk nonsense about his good
deeds! 1984 was quite the year for Goldstein's
followers. Many members of The Brother
Hood had been taken in by O’Brien’s charm
and all-knowing attitude.
Winston Smith started rebelling when he
bought a dairy from, whom he knew as,
lovely and lonely Mr. Charrington. The dairy
became Winston’s thought house where he
wrote nonsense, copied textbooks, wrote
some of the only living accounts of
Goldstein’s book, and showed how hope for
the future always lay with the proles.
It was noted by O’Brien in his following, and
monitoring of Winston that he hated women
and during his time at the Ministry of Truth
always, at best, half-heartily engaged with
the Two Minutes Hate. Winston often did
well on his work and was proficient in
imitating The Black Eye, but refused
Newspeak words and only found the making
of them interesting. That interest was the
first giveaway of his future crime.
AIRSTRIP TWO, CANADA - OCEANIA | MINISTRY OF HOPE
MADDISEN
The Run
Before we had Smoke Day, there were
moving picture boxes called TVs. Everyone
had them in their house and they could
record and listen to everything you said. The
worst part was that you couldn’t turn the TVs
off. Some people, like Winston, thought they
could hide from the TVs in certain alcoves in
their homes. This was foolish of them as the
TVs had small mirrors that reflected a person
into view.
Winston, unbeknownst to himself, was fond
of Facecrime when he hid away in his little
alcove. Letting his expressions wonder as he
wrote. He was keen on tracing the words and
numbers he wrote with his eyes, following
the strokes of his pencil. O’Brien had been
able to discover who Winston’s lover was and
where they were meeting by reading the
diary when Winston wasn’t home.
Fortunately, for O’Brien, Mr. Charrington was
willing to work with him to capture Winston
and J.
Very little is known of Winston’s lover. The
initial, J, their loose mentality, their utter lack
of hope for a future without The Black Eye,
and their suicide are the only solid things
we’re certain of. Not many people cared
about them as they were deemed unworthy
of remembering.
FRANCIS
Convicted Persons:
Winston Smith
39 years of age
Winston Smith was born in the year
1944. He worked at the Ministry of
Truth, and was tasked with rewriting
various documents so they would say
correct or new “facts”. He had an ex-
wife, no children, solemn any friends,
and a lover who he betrayed out of fear.
He was held in the memorial buildings,
formerly known as the Ministry of Love,
for 10 weeks before being released. It is
recorded that his brain had crumpled
out of fear and that if he had recovered
fully would have been granted full
inner party membership.
Winston was monitored for 11 years
before his kidneys drowned in Victory
Gin and his heart turned to mush.
His lover, we know only of the initial J,
was monitored for 3 years before
committing suicide by repeatedly
mashing her head on the printing
presses during lunch. It’s recorded in
their eulogy that J was plagued by the
constant imaging of rat squeaks.
 APRIL 4, 2065
Thought Criminal On
APRIL 4, 2065 | MINISTRY OF HOPE | 184-326-7590
O’Brien first initiated contact with Winston
about 3 years prior to talking to him. O’Brien
woke Winston well he was still in a dream
state, saying “We will meet in the place
where there is no darkness”. Slowly, O’Brien
became closer and closer to Winston by
sharing conspiratorial glances and actively
choosing to be near him during important
moments, such as the Two Minutes Hate.
Until finally O’Brien made his move.
He approached Winston in the hallway of
The Ministry of Truth. O’Brien asked Winston
about his scholarly interest in Newspeak, and
Winston rebutted claiming to be nothing
more than an amateur. O’Brien was insistent
and made his false alliance with Winston
known by claiming to remember the name
of Winston’s vaporized friend. They talked
awhile more, O’Brien gave Winston his
address and told him to come by for the
newest edition of the Newspeak dictionary.
O’Brien accounts that Winston and J came
together to retrieve the dictionary. They were
shocked about the TV being turned off and
awed at the knowledge O’Brien had about
Goldstein. O’Brien was natural with his lies
and involved a war criminal whom he had
rendered mute, a fake name of Martin was
given and soon after he was dismissed
O’Brien had him killed.
Later in the day Winston and J made
promises to not betray each other no matter
what horrors they might face.
Within the following week, Winston was
given a copy of Goldstein's book. He read
aloud to J and it was in one of these
moments that Mr. Charington, or as Winston
and J would come to know of him as we do
now, the head of the thought police in
AirtStrip 1, had stopped being so compliant
with O’Brien. Mr. Charington stormed the
room where Winston and J had been
meeting.
AIRSTRIP TWO, CANADA - OCEANIA | MINISTRY OF HOPE
The Run
He had his men beat both viciously and then
O’Brien came to them to “explain” to them
what was happening. Mr. Charrington had
written in his notes on the case that O’Brien
had a shining for flare he thought annoying
and unnecessary.
For days after his capture, they starved
Winston and brought him to rooms full of
war criminals, thought crime committees,
and regular old poles who lacked in
everything but records with the police.
At week 4 he was brought to his own cell
where O’Brien introduced what he called,
‘Breaking Beatings’. The amine of these was
to keep him alive enough he could
participate in eclectic shock therapy so they
could fix him, but down enough that he
wouldn’t dream of fighting back.
At week 6, they brought him in for his first
session of therapy. He looked much like the
personification of cancer would look. In week
8, they gave him a pencil and paper to see
what he would write. O’Brien was trying to
mimic the thoughts he wrote in the diary to
aid in Winston’s therapy. O’Brien had fallen
so deep under The Black Eye’s lies he
genuinely believed he was doing the right
thing.
On the first day of week 10, Winston was
brought to Room 101. It is said that everyone
knew what was in Room 101. If we here at MH
had to guess what was in there we would
come up short of ideas. O’Brien had brought
many people there in the years of his inner
party membership, and every time, it seemed
to work.
MADDISEN
FRANCIS
How one room could hold the power to
change the very way a person thought,
despite holding out through weeks of
starvation, beatings, and therapy, is beyond
even us. Room 101 seems to be the only thing
in existence that is truly one size fits all.
All we know of what happened in Room 101
was that Winston had betrayed J. Some cruel
and unjust thing happened to J because
Winston couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take what
O’Brien thought his dues. The only clear
record of this is a medical statement of plastic
surgery the same day Winston was taken to
the hospital for sedation and reintegration
into normal life.
Both Winston and J survived. Winston was
given a nonsense job to provide him with
fulfillment and something to do. J was given a
husband to help tame their manner into
something The Black Eye could manage. It
was also reported that they had supposedly
birthed a child, but that could have been an
effort to hide their suicide.
Well, that’s it for this week! We here at the
Ministry of Hope paper hope you enjoyed this
week's edition and are looking forward to next
week's!
We would like to thank Winston and J, and all
the members of The Brother Hood who died
for us and gave us the power to choose
freedom.
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