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Jewish World Review June 20, 2002 / 10 Tamuz, 5762
Richard Lederer
looking at you
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Over Fifty years ago, George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" was first published in The New Republic. Since then the article has become the most widely reprinted essay in our language. In it, Orwell discusses the parlous condition of the English language and exposes the prevalent diseases that afflict it: "Modern English prose . . . consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house." Orwell catalogues and analyzes various types of rhetorical "swindles and perversions," concluding that "the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink." As an example of the kind of ink verbal insincerity can so easily squirt, Orwell quotes a well-known verse from biblical Ecclesiastes:
Then the essayist presents a version of the passage with its life blood drained away and replaced by the embalming fluid of modern English style:
The biblical passage contains 60 syllables, the "translation" 90. Yet which version, asks Orwell, seems fresher and more vivid? More telling, which seems closer to the kind of speech and writing we encounter in modern times? Orwell doesn't just complain. He states that "the decadence of our language is probably curable" and ends his essay by suggesting a number of remedies to help restore the language to a healthier state. For a set of rules for plain talk and clear writing, it would be difficult to better these six offered in "Politics and the English Language." If we all followed these guidelines, our prose might not be as good as Orwell's, but it would certainly be to the point:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. In "Politics and the English Language" Orwell wrote, "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. . . . In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence. . . . Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." More powerfully than any other writer, George Orwell warned us that dishonest language is a drug that can put conscience to sleep. He set an alarm in our brains to go off when a president names the latest thing in nuclear missiles the "Peacekeeper." He helped us to know that when prior public statements are labeled "inoperative," what is really meant is "Don't believe what I told you then. Believe what I tell you now" -- and "I lied." He alerted us that when words are used to lie rather than to tell the truth, the house of language grows dark and the human spirit withers. Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
06/06/02: Jest for the health of it
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