In Orwell’s essay, he states that “a man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible.” This statement alone began to set the tone of how I thought the rest of the essay was going to go. Not only did reading this essay make me feel inadequate about my writing, but it also made me think. It made me wonder if I really did these types of things he was describing in my own essays.
At the beginning of the essay, Orwell gives examples of passages “that literature various of the mental vices that we now suffer.” He then goes on to explain what is wrong with each of the passages. For example, he specifies for the fourth passage that “the writer knows more or less what he wants to say, but an accumulation of stale phrases chokes him like tea leaves blocking a sink.” I feel that Orwell’s opinions and criticisms are very ruthless in this essay. However, even though he is harsh, his essay made me wonder if I do these things in my writing and even worse, scares me to continue doing so. As I continued reading through the essay, all I kept thinking about was which one of these have I done in my essays and how many times have I done them?
Although I think that Mr. Orwell was harsh in his essay, I do feel that it was necessary. Not everyone can be the nice guy and tell every person that their writing is great with the exception of a few grammatical errors. Someone has to be the big bad wolf and blow a couple of dreams away in order to get the good writers back to reality.
You and I share the same wariness in writing after reading Orwell's article. You're right- he is harsh- and I was left wondering if my own writing suffers from the bad habits he listed. Furthermore, I wondered how much I can even help it. After all, these bad habits are prevailing in a vicious cycle today, and I wonder if my teachers are victims of the same errors. Was I taught to write poorly? Which "writing rules" have I adopted that I should have left alone? If I want to reverse the cycle, I need to recognize the mistakes in my own work, and that will take training.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I really like the font you are using on your blog :) It makes it feel more like a journal and less like an essay.
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
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