For the five pieces that Orwell pointed out, he mentioned that the writers today lack imagery, and that they don't know what they are saying with because smart words bunched up in a sentence screws up what they are trying to say. That thought actually made me laugh a bit inwardly because I too felt that way sometimes. I would write it because it sounds pretty. The "incompetence" in political figures talking to us in this language is proof enough. They say it to sound smart but how can we as Americans follow if we are just getting confused by what they are saying? If anything, its a ploy to get us Americans to believe that they are acting smart to look impressive, brainwashing us in the process.
Another interesting viewpoint was the "Dying Metaphors" Orwell presented. I do believe that metaphors have been slowly dying out not just because people have failed to know what they mean or because they are being remade like so many songs today, but I also believe that some metaphors that are being overused have started to become kind of cliche. By creating cliches, people would rather avoid them.
"The Operators or Verbal False Limbs" is the elimination of an active voice and simple verbs. I like simple verbs because it gets the point across without it acting too showy. By turning the simple verbs into phrases, as Orwell is mentioning, you are cutting down the verbs true reason for existing in the speech you are delivering. And having an active voice makes you sound like you want to take action, not passively overstepping the boundaries.
When I got to the paragraph entitled "Pretentious Diction," I feel as though Orwell is offended that English people are using Greek and Latin roots to come up with more words, as if the Anglo Saxons didn't have their own plethora of word banks. I don't find anything wrong with having more words to choose from, but I do understand what he means by it. By creating new words, we are diminishing the use for the others.
The paragraph concerned over "Meaningless Words" was very interesting, and I felt like he is critiquing a aristocrats that have no real input to society (at least to him). Was it wrong of me to think of it like that? To have him explain that people who critique their works by using words that "lack meaning" made me wonder if I do that as well.
As he begins his examination of the five selected pieces, Orwell begins giving the reasons why political words are often vague. One instant that caught my attention was due to the fact that people are not strong enough to know the harsh truth behind the political reasons to cause harm to other people, "political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness."
I also agree with "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." Today, youth are very impressionable, watching television and wanting to copy everything they see from it. Bad language coming from reality TV programming and other de-foundational programs targets their ways of thinking, and also resulting in bad grammar.
Finally, the notes about keeping your English simple was when he was more instructive than critical for me. I was glad to see some tips that he mentioned, which I plan to use for my other pieces of writing, especially for publication. I don't want to end up being all fancy with words and have no one understand what I am trying to say.
Kathy Zinzun
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