Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [623]

Somewhat absent-mindedly O’Brien felt two of his pockets and then produced a small leather-covered notebook and a gold ink-pencil. Immediately beneath the telescreen, in such a position that anyone who was watching at the other end of the instrument could read what he was writing, he scribbled an address, tore out the page and handed it to Winston. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 623

Note

The panoptic gesture made literal: O’Brien performs the address-writing directly beneath the telescreen, so that the unseen watcher is invited to read it — the conspirators’ secrecy coexists with, and is displayed to, surveillance itself.