Trudi's Venshure atta Gramby's
 

turn it over
to a committee would be to admit openly that an act of fabrication was
taking place. Very likely as many as a dozen people were now working away
on rival versions of what Big Brother had actually said. And presently some
master brain in the Inner Party would select this version or that, would
re-edit it and set in motion the complex processes of cross-referencing
that would be required, and then the chosen lie would pass into the
permanent records and become truth.
Winston did not know why Withers had been disgraced. Perhaps it was
for corruption or incompetence. Perhaps Big Brother was merely getting rid
of a too-popular subordinate. Perhaps Withers or someone close to him had
been suspected of heretical tendencies. Or perhaps -- what was likeliest of
all -- the thing had simply happened because purges and vaporizations were
a necessary part of the mechanics of government. The only real clue lay in
the words 'refs unpersons', which indicated that Withers was already dead.
You could not invariably assume this to be the case when people were
arrested. Sometimes they were released and allowed to remain at liberty for
as much as a year or two ye