Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [43]

Because desire in itself cannot always be easily co-opted, the Party has no choice but to adopt, as an ultimate goal, the abolition of the orgasm. … The point that sexual desire, taken on its own terms, is inherently subversive is pursued here by way of Julia, with her cheerfully lustful approach to life. If this were really only a political essay disguised as a novel, Julia would most likely have been obliged to symbolize something – the Pleasure Principle or Middle-class Common Sense or something. But because this is a novel first of all, her character is not necessarily under Orwell’s firm control. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 43

Note

The editor names the Party’s starkest aim in a single deflating line, then defends Julia from allegory — insisting her ‘cheerfully lustful approach’ resists symbolization precisely because the book is a novel, not an essay wearing a novel’s clothes.