At the beginning of the article, George Orwell begins talking about how bad we have made the English language, and how it is not impossible to fix it, just tricky. He says that the reason the English language is bad now is because of our misuse of metaphors and fancy words as an attempt to impress others. While I agree that it makes the English language look bad when people continually butcher the meanings of fancy words to try to sound smart, I disagree with his comment, “The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.” By stating this, Orwell is saying that there is still hope for the English language as long as someone is willing to put in the effort to correct it. I don’t believe it would ever be possible for someone to completely change how everyone communicates. People nowadays have been in the habit of using the same bad English, as Orwell describes it, that I don’t think it can ever be reversed. Especially nowadays with how popular slang words and “text language” are, I think it would be impossible for one individual or even multiple people to change that for everyone. I believe that if Orwell were to write the same thing today, he would be much more dissatisfied with the English language and how improper it has become, rather than too proper.
Monday, September 26, 2011
George Orwell
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I definitely agree with you with that fact that Orwell would be even more dissatisfied with all of todays communication and language. I also liked that you included the fact that in todays times, we tend to use words and slang that would not usually be socially accepted in the English language.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Victoria that I like how you included something about slang language in today's culture. I wish I would have thought to include that in my post because I think that Orwell would dislike that very much. In today's culture Orwell would dislike both the use of large complicated words AND the use of slang improper words.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you point out how it is possible to improve your writing. George Orwell believes that it is hard to break habits, but if the necessary time is put into trying to stop them, then it is possible to drop those bad habits.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Orwell would be more disappointed in todays language because it truly has deteriorated over time. We all use slang and big words that we don't know how to use properly, and if Orwell were to see it happening today he would probably be even more upset.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. The language used during his time period differs slightly from modern language, and so I also think that his opinion would have to change with it.
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