Doublethink In the case of workers at the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth, doublethink means being able to falsify public records, and then believe in the new history that they themselves have just rewritten. As revealed in Goldstein's Book, the Ministry's name is itself an example of doublethink: the Ministry of Truth is really concerned with lies. The other ministries of Airstrip One are similarly named: the Ministry of Peace is concerned with war, the Ministry of Love is concerned with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty is concerned with starvation. The three slogans of the Party—"War is Peace",
The Bell (novel) related meanings". Elizabeth Bowen described the book as "a masterpiece of direct narrative", both "more remarkable" and "more orthodox" than her previous books, but retaining Murdoch's characteristic "dynamic strangeness". In "The New York Times", Gilbert Millstein described "The Bell" as "an addition of consistent excellence" to her body of work. His review noted thematic parallels with Mary McCarthy's 1949 novel "The Oasis". Writing in "Partisan Review", Irving Howe found the novel as a whole unrealistic and overly symbolic, but praised Murdoch's ability to write "convincingly, without rant or affectation" about love, including homosexual love, which he described as a "rare