# Memory hole > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Memory_hole > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Memory_hole.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole > Source revision: 1356116751 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Fictional device in Nineteen Eighty-Four}} {{Rewrite|date=January 2026}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} A '''memory hole''' is a fictional device for destroying historical evidence in [George Orwell](/source/George_Orwell)'s 1949 [dystopian novel](/source/utopian_and_dystopian_fiction) ''[Nineteen Eighty-Four](/source/Nineteen_Eighty-Four)''. In the novel, [the Party](/source/the_Party_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four))'s [Ministry of Truth](/source/Ministry_of_Truth) systematically erases inconvenient historical documents, in effect, re-writing history to match the ever-changing state propaganda. ==Origins== In ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', the "memory hole" is a small chute leading to a large [incinerator](/source/incinerator) used for [:censorship](/source/%3Acensorship):{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/google-s-memory-hole-a-bottomless-pit-don-pittis-1.2641648|title=Google's memory hole a bottomless pit: Don Pittis|last=Pittis|first=Don|publisher=[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation](/source/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation)|date=13 May 2014|access-date=3 August 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0|title=Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle|last=Stone|first=Brad|work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|date=19 July 2009|access-date=3 August 2014}} {{quote|In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small [pneumatic tube](/source/pneumatic_tube) for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.George Orwell, ''[Nineteen Eighty-Four](/source/Nineteen_Eighty-Four)'', first published by Martin Secker & Warburg, London, 1949. This reference, [Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books) pocket edition, 1954{{pg|34–35}}}} The fictional totalitarian regime of Oceania maintains complete dominance over its population through the control of history and memory, specifically by erasing the past and forging historical facts. This historical forgery enforces a collective reality onto the masses, ensuring that the Party and its ideology persists. This concept is expressed in the principle doctrine of [Ingsoc](/source/Ingsoc): "Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past". ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'''s protagonist [Winston Smith](/source/Winston_Smith_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)), who works in the [Ministry of Truth](/source/Ministry_of_Truth), is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government.{{Cite journal |last=Finigan |first=Theo |title=“Into the Memory Hole”: Totalitarianism and Mal d’Archive in Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.38.3.0435 |journal=Science Fiction Studies |volume=38 |via=JSTOR}} In one instance, the weekly chocolate ration was decreased from 30 grams to 20. The next day the newspaper announced that the chocolate ration had not been reduced to 20 grams per week, but ''increased'' to 20 grams. Any previous mention of the ration having been 30 grams per week needed to be destroyed. The memory hole is referenced while O'Brien tortures Smith; O'Brien produces evidence of a coverup by the Party, exciting Smith that such documentation exists. However, O'Brien then destroys the evidence in the memory hole and denies not only the existence of the evidence but also any memory of his actions. Smith realises that this is [doublethink](/source/doublethink) in action, as O'Brien has actively suppressed his memory of both a politically inconvenient fact and his action taken to destroy the evidence of it.{{cite book|title=On "Nineteen Eighty-Four": Orwell and Our Future|last=Bhabha|first=Homi K.|chapter=Doublespeak and Minority of One|publisher=[Princeton University Press](/source/Princeton_University_Press)|year=2010|isbn=978-1400826643|pages=32–33|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vynzZcvqmVgC&pg=PA32}} ==Modern usage== Following the publication of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' in 1949, the term "memory hole" entered into common use both as a noun, meaning a place where inconvenient fact is disposed, and a verb meaning "to cause to be forgotten". It was used in a 1952 ''[Foreign Affairs](/source/Foreign_Affairs)'' article stating that opposing views under [Stalinism](/source/Stalinism) must be "consigned to the Orwellian 'memory hole'". After the death of [Joseph Stalin](/source/Joseph_Stalin), a ''[Reuters](/source/Reuters)'' report in August 1953 stated "the Soviet Communists are dropping 'big brother' down the ‘memory hole". The term "memory-holed" has also become widely used to describe information that disappears from the [Internet](/source/Internet).{{Cite web |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |date=2021-08-28 |title=‘Memory Hole’: Erasing History, in Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Our 2021 |url=https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/memory-hole-erasing-history-in-orwells-1984-and-our-2021-11630123260 |access-date=2026-05-19 |website=The Wall Street Journal |language=en-US}} Don Pittis, a [CBS News](/source/CBS_News) columnist used the term to express worries that the 2014 "[right to be forgotten](/source/right_to_be_forgotten)" decision of the [European Court of Justice](/source/European_Court_of_Justice) creates a precedent for governments to create legal mechanisms that would essentially function as "memory holes" in ephemeral electronic storage systems. ''[The Daily Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph)'' cited Wikipedia co-founder [Jimmy Wales](/source/Jimmy_Wales) describing the EU's Right to be Forgotten as "deeply immoral", warning that the ruling would result in an Internet "riddled with memory holes".{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/11015901/EU-ruling-on-link-removal-deeply-immoral-says-Wikipedia-founder.html |title=Wikipedia founder: EU's Right to be Forgotten is 'deeply immoral' |work=The Telegraph | date=6 August 2014 | access-date=7 August 2014}} In July 2002, a website named [The Memory Hole](/source/The_Memory_Hole_(website)), which was dedicated to preserving official documents, was launched by American writer [Russ Kick](/source/Russ_Kick).{{Cite news |last=McNichol |first=Tom |date=2003-11-13 |title=Peeking Behind the Curtain of Secrecy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/technology/peeking-behind-the-curtain-of-secrecy.html |access-date=2026-05-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} == See also == {{portal|Novels}} * {{annotated link|/dev/null}} * {{annotated link|Ash heap of history}} * {{annotated link|Bit bucket}} * {{annotated link|Blue wall of silence}} * {{annotated link|Book censorship in the United States}} * {{annotated link|Burn bag}} * {{annotated link|Censorship of images in the Soviet Union}} * {{annotated link|Cover up}} * {{annotated link|Damnatio memoriae}} * [De-commemoration](/source/De-commemoration) * {{annotated link|Historical revisionism}} * [Motivated forgetting](/source/Motivated_forgetting) * {{annotated link|Pact of forgetting}} * [Postcolonial amnesia](/source/Colonial_amnesia) * {{annotated link|Retcon}} * [Selective omission](/source/Selective_omission) * {{annotated link|Spiral of silence}} * [Truth-seeking](/source/Truth-seeking) ==References== :*{{wiktionary-inline}} {{reflist}} {{Censorship}} {{Nineteen Eighty-Four}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Memory Hole}} Category:Fictional story elements introduced in 1949 Category:English phrases Category:Historical negationism Category:Nineteen Eighty-Four Category:Political catchphrases --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Memory hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole?action=history)). 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