George Orwell: Politics and the English Language (1946)

Post by codezero » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 9:00 PM UTC

   But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of
   worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and
   are merely used because they save people the trouble of
   inventing phrases for themselves.

Post by somebehemoth » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 9:11 PM UTC

jfasi wrote: post #3

If you're as turned off by the formatting of this page as I am, I'm currently working on a CSS framework to beautifully display longform text. As luck would have it, this essay was my test case: http://alexgolec.github.io/orwell/politics

Post by TsiCClawOfLight » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 9:18 PM UTC

jfasi wrote: post #3

If you're as turned off by the formatting of this page as I am, I'm currently working on a CSS framework to beautifully display longform text. As luck would have it, this essay was my test case: http://alexgolec.github.io/orwell/politics

Post by pavlov » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 9:29 PM UTC

codezero wrote: post #2

I wonder what he'd say about memes. They seem to be the ultimate self-reinforcing de-evolution of language. In many ways, it seems like he is talking about memes, just the memes of his own time. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.

Post by codezero » Wed, Oct 30, 2013, 9:46 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #8

codezero wrote: post #2

I wonder what he'd say about memes. They seem to be the ultimate self-reinforcing de-evolution of language. In many ways, it seems like he is talking about memes, just the memes of his own time. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.

I don't know about that. At least memes don't pretend to be anything else than they are. They are the unabashed verbal and visual equivalent of musical jingles, things designed to grab your attention and stick in your head, but nobody is suggesting that jingles are equivalent to Beethoven. Corporate PowerPoint-talk is the spiritual heir of what Orwell is mocking in his rewrite of the Old Testament passage. An ever-gr…

  But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt
  thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation 
  even among people who should and do know better.