After reading "Animal Farm" and "1984" I was well prepared for the beliefs that Orwell has. He believed that the problem with language in politics was it purpose was to hide the truth or even confuse people. Which is evident when trying to read some articles, laws, statements, or other political writings these days. Sometimes I will come across something and read it over and over again trying to figure out why I am so lost or confused. In most cases I realize there are structural problems, or big, usually unused words that do not even make sense in the given context. When I began to think about this I thought back to my senior year AP English class and a boy who was in my group. He was probably one of the smartest, laziest people in that whole entire class. He had poor time management skills and I would always be so frustrated to see him get A's on everything. I worked so hard in high school for the grades I received. It didn't help his locker was right next to mine, but anyways that's a different story. The point of this story is that when we had to write our final research papers he wrote his very last minute and I was expecting a wonderful cohesive paper. When I got a copy of his paper I kind of laughed a little bit. It was almost as if he decided to randomly flip through a dictionary and picked words to use in his paper. It was horrible and he did not receive a very good grade on that particular draft.
The point of that story is simply that sometimes people write with the intention of either sounding smart, confusing readers, or filling empty space. I would rather write in detail and use good imagery to fill space. Things like that is what writing good and valuable.
Orwell also believes that the "fight against bad English is not frivolous" and I completely agree with him. Sometimes I believe that people just give up on language or become lazy towards it. It is so frustrating for me to hear improper grammar or read a badly written article in a magazine. Another thing that greatly frustrates me is the fact that people are trying to simplify old, BEAUTIFUL, writing so that it is easier for people to read. This make me so sad, but simplifying amazing writing we are allowing people, our society, to get by easier and get out of learning.
Orwell said, "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought," which is a pretty throught provoking statement and I agree
Like Orwell concluded with, this isn't perfect, no one is. I write simply but I write honest.
It also makes me sad that people try to opt out of learning. What do they plan to accomplish if they do not learn? Your story also reminded me of myself, except I was the "boy" who did everything last minute or slept in class. My problem was I felt like I was not being challenged enough through school, but that is a different story.
ReplyDeleteIt frustrates me as well to see political figures trying to confuse the masses, and the sad part is they do not even realized they are being lied to or lead astray.
I agree with you. So many writers fill their work with $10 words that the audience ends up being more confused than informed. I'm not sure when this trend started or why for that matter. I even notice it with newspapers now. Print media is supposed to be written at a level that appeal to the masses. But instead, the writing is getting more and more scholarly and pretentious. I'm glad that you write honestly, I will more authors would.
ReplyDeleteYeah, like you said, sometimes it seems like people just write to sound smart or fill empty space. Some of that may have to do with what Orwell writes in the article, that “he [the writer] is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not.” It’s almost like the writer doesn’t really care what his writing is trying to say. I also like the thought-provoking quote “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” It’s a vicious cycle, where people have foolish thoughts and make the language ugly, which only makes it easier for other people to have foolish thoughts because they see foolish words.
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