I think Orwell's overall point is valid. I've often felt that academia pushes a certain degree of flowery language that often obscures meaning more than it illuminates it. I could not even understand what the authors of the quotes that Orwell gives were trying to say. I don't agree, however, with the way Orwell seems to brand certain words and phrases as generally bad. Just because a word is often misused, does not render it meaningless. Democracy, for instance, has a specific definition. It is not meaningless just because people incorrectly label certain governments as democracies. If someone was to look beyond the word itself they would certainly discover whether a certain government was actually democratic. I also think that many metaphors have taken on a life of their own. Whether they are relevant in real life or not, people understand what they mean, even if they don't understand why. I don't think we should throw "Achilles's heel" out the window, simply because most people today are not familiar with the Greek story. The phrase is still universal. It is well understood to mean someone's specific weakness.
I wonder how Orwell would feel about how language has progressed, or regressed since his time. Would he approve of the simplifications seen in texting and cyber-language? Or would he say that as we communicate more and more, we are saying less and less?
I agree with everything you are saying. I think sometimes people can get into trouble by trying to sound too intelligent.
ReplyDeleteI like how Orwell argues for the simplest word rather than the more complex.I think it makes for clear writing and I think we all want what we are writing to be understood.
I agree that Orwell does not have complete grounds to label any words, or phrases, as meaningless, but there has been a larger movement towards words not containing their original meaning. For instance, "democracy" has very set guidelines that must be meet in order to call a governing entity a democracy. As such, the misuse of words shows the misunderstanding or the ignorance of the person that uses it.
ReplyDeleteWith the metaphors, I completely agree with you. Some metaphors have taken a whole new life that does not necessarily reflect their source, but still embed meaning to a large audience. Again, while Orwell states them as "meaningless," I still feel they hold value, but on a slightly different tangent, I feel Orwell should be complaining about how readily someone is to recite something that they do not know or do not fully understand.