Orwell and prose.
There is a discussion on BBC Radio 4 of Orwell and his views on prose and his "rules" about prose as discussed in his essay "Politics and the English Language."
I think Orwell is trying to get people to think clearly and independently.
This will be reflected in the language they use.
Clear language will encourage clear thought.
The use of difficult or unclear language is creating a political culture that restricts freedom.
The "rules" he made in the essay are very general.
They were perhaps intended as a corrective; and intended to create a tendency towards clear thought.
And a tendency towards the prevention of deceit by means of language.
It is a kind of recapitulation of Milton's exhortation that prose should be "SIMPLE, SENSUOUS and PASSIONATE."
These rules are perhaps intended to be applied in political language more than any other kind of language.
This essay is still very relevant today. It is obviously not infallible. Nothing is. But it is still very good.
One of it's contemporary inheritors and a sustainer of its spirit is the book "Unspeak" by Steven Poole.
There is a discussion on BBC Radio 4 of Orwell and his views on prose and his "rules" about prose as discussed in his essay "Politics and the English Language."
I think Orwell is trying to get people to think clearly and independently.
This will be reflected in the language they use.
Clear language will encourage clear thought.
The use of difficult or unclear language is creating a political culture that restricts freedom.
The "rules" he made in the essay are very general.
They were perhaps intended as a corrective; and intended to create a tendency towards clear thought.
And a tendency towards the prevention of deceit by means of language.
It is a kind of recapitulation of Milton's exhortation that prose should be "SIMPLE, SENSUOUS and PASSIONATE."
These rules are perhaps intended to be applied in political language more than any other kind of language.
This essay is still very relevant today. It is obviously not infallible. Nothing is. But it is still very good.
One of it's contemporary inheritors and a sustainer of its spirit is the book "Unspeak" by Steven Poole.