Memory hole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Memory hole (disambiguation).
The memory hole, as in the phrase "Going down the memory hole," refers to George Orwell's novel, 1984.
In the novel, the memory hole is a slot into which government officials deposit politically inconvenient documents and records for destruction. 1984's protagonist Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth, is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government. For example, if the government had pledged that the chocolate ration would not fall below the current 30 grams per week, but in fact the ration is reduced to 20 grams per week, the historical record (e.g. an article from a back issue of the Times newspaper) is revised to contain an announcement that a reduction to 20 grams might soon prove necessary. The original copies of the historical record are deposited into the memory hole. A document placed in the memory hole is supposedly transported to an incinerator from which "not even the ash remains".
The term now generally refers to the alteration or outright disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a web site or other archive.
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | |
|---|---|
| By George Orwell | |
| Characters | Winston Smith | Julia | O'Brien | Big Brother | Emmanuel Goldstein |
| Places | Oceania | Eastasia | Eurasia | Airstrip One | Room 101 |
| Classes | Inner Party | Outer Party | Proles |
| Ministries | Ministry of Love | Ministry of Peace | Ministry of Plenty | Ministry of Truth |
| Concepts | Ingsoc | Newspeak | Doublethink | Goodthink | Crimestop Two plus two | Thoughtcrime | Prolefeed | Prolesec |
| Miscellaneous | Thought Police | Telescreen | Memory hole | The Book Newspeak words | Two Minutes Hate | Hate week |
| Other media | 1956 film | 1984 film | 1953 TV programme | 1954 TV programme Opera | 1985 | Me and the Big Guy |
