My friend Eugene, who hasn’t yet denied that he is the
When writing Orwell suggests that we ask ourselves:
"1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
And he will probably ask himself two more:
1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you -- even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent -- and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear."
Orwell’s ready-made phrases certainly have an analog in the concept of the meme that has been popular for the past decade or so. I really would like to study the relationship between Orwell's ready-made phrases and memes.
Orwell does provide us with some rules that I believe are worth following:
"(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent."
And finally, Orwell gives us the all important meta-rule (although my use of meta here would have him rolling over in his grave).
"(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
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