Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [707]

Winston explained about the room over Mr Charrington’s shop. … ‘That will do for the moment. Later we will arrange something else for you. It is important to change one’s hiding-place frequently. Meanwhile I shall send you a copy of the book’ – even O’Brien, Winston noticed, seemed to pronounce the words as though they were in italics – ‘Goldstein’s book, you understand, as soon as possible. It may be some days before I can get hold of one. There are not many in existence, as you can imagine. The Thought Police hunts them down and destroys them almost as fast as we can produce them. It makes very little difference. The book is indestructible. If the last copy were gone, we could reproduce it almost word for word. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 707

Note

The paradox stated plainly: the book is ‘indestructible’ precisely because it is a set of ideas that can be reproduced ‘almost word for word’ from memory—an anti-materialist object, echoing the Brotherhood’s ‘indestructible’ idea. The almost-imperceptible italics on ‘the book’ is a charming focalized detail.