Live Journal Best Entry Week 7-12
My best entry for Weeks 7-12 is Week 8's. Here it is.
08:02 pm: Literature Entry Week 8
Orwell’s essays and The Decay of Public language
Wow! As an English major, I guess Orwell’s essay has a resounding significance. I have a great interest in words and their use; or in the essence of Orwell, their misuse and abuse. They are indeed a rather fragile instrument, which can be destroyed of used to destroy in the hands, or rather mouths of the wrong individual. As Orwell puts it, “our civilization is decadent, and our language must inevitably share in the general collapse.” The causes Orwell discusses for this decay come down to what are ultimately political and economic causes; the public language as it is widely known. Don Watson’s Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language (the non-compulsory text on our reading list) provides a highly compelling and humorous insight into what he describes as “shapeless, enervating sludge”, the language of public life. He, like Orwell argues that such language has lost meaning and significance through convoluted syntax, petty jargon and the use of words that have little meaning to the standard individual. The ideas of both authors can be applied to the lives of the everyday person.
Recently, an organization in Britain declared that the signage in supermarkets should be written as “10 items or fewer” rather than the “10 items or less” sign that it currently displayed. Is such a distinction in grammar relevant to the ordinary individual? Most likely not. However, while this may seem pretentious, the mistakes are more significant and prevalent than this single example. Firstly, consider the following newspaper headlines, the ambiguity within them will almost certainly make you laugh. But the idea is far from humourous. This is the fall of public language taking place before our own eyes while we watch idly. Secondly, if the newspaper headlines do not bring a smile to you face, this clip certainly will: As his term in office comes to its closing stages perhaps we can finally laugh at what has been for the last eight years rather frightening- This ambiguous, nonsensical blubbering man has been the leader of the free world.
Nonsense Newspaper- Don’t laugh somebody wrote this.
“Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers”
“Clinton Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead”
“Miners Refuse to Work After Death”
“Two Sisters Reunited After Years in Checkout Counter”
“Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant”
“New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group”
“Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge”
“Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead”
08:02 pm: Literature Entry Week 8
Orwell’s essays and The Decay of Public language
Wow! As an English major, I guess Orwell’s essay has a resounding significance. I have a great interest in words and their use; or in the essence of Orwell, their misuse and abuse. They are indeed a rather fragile instrument, which can be destroyed of used to destroy in the hands, or rather mouths of the wrong individual. As Orwell puts it, “our civilization is decadent, and our language must inevitably share in the general collapse.” The causes Orwell discusses for this decay come down to what are ultimately political and economic causes; the public language as it is widely known. Don Watson’s Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language (the non-compulsory text on our reading list) provides a highly compelling and humorous insight into what he describes as “shapeless, enervating sludge”, the language of public life. He, like Orwell argues that such language has lost meaning and significance through convoluted syntax, petty jargon and the use of words that have little meaning to the standard individual. The ideas of both authors can be applied to the lives of the everyday person.
Recently, an organization in Britain declared that the signage in supermarkets should be written as “10 items or fewer” rather than the “10 items or less” sign that it currently displayed. Is such a distinction in grammar relevant to the ordinary individual? Most likely not. However, while this may seem pretentious, the mistakes are more significant and prevalent than this single example. Firstly, consider the following newspaper headlines, the ambiguity within them will almost certainly make you laugh. But the idea is far from humourous. This is the fall of public language taking place before our own eyes while we watch idly. Secondly, if the newspaper headlines do not bring a smile to you face, this clip certainly will: As his term in office comes to its closing stages perhaps we can finally laugh at what has been for the last eight years rather frightening- This ambiguous, nonsensical blubbering man has been the leader of the free world.
Nonsense Newspaper- Don’t laugh somebody wrote this.
“Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers”
“Clinton Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead”
“Miners Refuse to Work After Death”
“Two Sisters Reunited After Years in Checkout Counter”
“Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant”
“New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group”
“Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge”
“Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead”