‘Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real
existence?’ […] O’Brien smiled faintly. ‘I will put it more
precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is
there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects,
where the past is still happening?’
‘No.’
‘Then where does the past exist, if at all?’
‘In records. It is written down.’
‘In records. And — —?’
‘In the mind. In human memories.’
‘In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all
records, and we control all memories. Then we control the
past, do we not?’
ORWELL, G. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Signet Classics, 1977.