Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [747]

Cut off from contact with the outer world, and with the past, the citizen of Oceania is like a man in interstellar space, who has no way of knowing which direction is up and which is down. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 747

Note

The simile of interstellar space gives the reader a bodily grasp of epistemic disorientation — a memorable image for the loss of all reference points.