It's actually a really good read. I'd been recommending it to my cousin (poxy_report) for ages, and when he eventually sat down to read it, he was surprised at how compelling it is. You expect it to be dry, it's really not.

I've got that quote - it's not nearly as effective out of context, of course, but this single piece of writing has had more effect on me than anything else I've ever read. I mention that to people, and they think that I'm trying to say it will effect them the same way - I'm not, I'm just pointing out how significant it is to me, even if you disregard it off-hand.

I've changed the names to avoid spoilers.

Anything could be true. The so-called laws of Nature were nonsense. The law of gravity was nonsense. 'If I wished,' O'Brien had said, 'I could float off this floor like a soap bubble.' Winston worked it out. 'If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens.' Suddenly, like a lump of submerged wreckage breaking the surface of water, the thought burst into his mind: 'It doesn't really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.' He pushed the thought under instantly. The fallacy was obvious. It presupposed that somewhere or other, outside oneself, there was a 'real' world where 'real' things happened. But how could there be such a world? What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds? All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.

"Truth", hey?