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Well, I can't say for sure why not Animal Farm (which I think I read on my own in college--obviously it didn't make a huge impression on me). I think I did like how all the animals turn on each other, very Communist-party-esque. I think we opted for A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich instead--Solzhenitsyn is a pretty big player in Twentieth Century lit.
And as for 1984. Well, we considered it for the updated Core 300. I read it back-to-back with Brave New World (fun week, that). And in the end I preferred Huxley for a few reasons. In Orwell, the s.x scenes are, to me, more naughty (if that's the word I'm looking for). In Huxley, s.x is constant, but almost more muted. I don't know if that makes sense.
I also like that Huxley doesn't include a really REALLY boring 30 or 40 pages of philosophy disguised as novel in his book. My goodness, that one section in 1984 is dry!
But mostly I opted for Brave New World because I think it foretells what is happening in Western cultures more than 1984 (which is probably more accurate for nonWestern regimes). The mindless s.x, the constant happy drugs (Prozac?), the science because we can, not because we should. . . .
(And I liked the story better--no nightmares about rats!)