Comments on: George Orwell: Politics and the English Language

By: C. Bukowski

C. Bukowski — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:05:31 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, I had to read this freshman year of high school for my journalism class and then write an essay on it, giving my own examples and such, it was sorta the worst few weeks of my freshman life. The best day was when I got the paper back and there was a giant A on it. I am now in AP Comp, it is my Junior year. The teacher that use to teach journalism (and has since been asked to leave our school, we have some really bitchy vice principals that don’t appreciate being called stalinesk.) Well on the second day of AP Comp guess what Essay was I given…. The funny thing is, the assignment for AP Comp is a million times easier than the damn essay I had to write. I just have to answer ten simple questions, the teacher even outlined the parts to “skim” and put stars next to the more “important” sections. I fell like the situation is filled with such Irony.

By: Southern Buddhist

Southern Buddhist — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:14:00 +0000

I’ve loved Orwell’s essay for years. He’s only critiquing poor grammar, though, because it’s evidence of poor thinking, and because poor thinking leads to fascism. In short, for Orwell, being able to articulate precisely what we mean and feel and believe is the ultimate freedom, and anyone who tries to dilute or eliminate that freedom will eventually try to eliminate all your other freedoms as well. Alas, I believe our F*ckwit-in-Chief and Vice President Satan are prime examples of just this Orwellian principle.

By: adrienne

adrienne — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:32:35 +0000

This was required reading in my Comp I class. There were classmates who never understood that Orwell was critiquing poor grammar and insisted the essay was too hard to understand. Which was sort of the point. I got an A on my response.