Tuesday
Ministry of Clarity
For a while now, Brad DeLong has been using this very clever line: "I'll stop calling the Bush administration 'Orwellian' when they stop using 1984 as an operations manual." I recently realized why it's always bothered me. Shouldn't Orwellian mean "like George Orwell" or, alternatively "similar to the writings of George Orwell?" In this usage, doesn't it mean, "similar to the actions of the government of Oceania under Ingsoc" or, alternatively, "political tactics which Napoleon (the pig) would have approved of?" I wonder when Orwellian took on this rather counter-intuitive meaning involving aspects of well known Orwell characters. It seems like it could just as easily be being used to mean, "similar to the events described in Road to Wigan Pier."
Also, I don't think clarity is really an antonym to pedantry. I needed an antonym for the title of this post, but I couldn't really think of one.
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Also, I don't think clarity is really an antonym to pedantry. I needed an antonym for the title of this post, but I couldn't really think of one.
