Re: to be awkward or ugly will talk managing rainbows to boastfully comply
- From: Samuel <xxbmtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:13:25 GMT
quoted above, one would have to have a clear idea of
what is meant by Ingsoc. And in addition, only a person thoroughly
grounded in Ingsoc could appreciate the full force of the word
bellyfeel, which implied a blind, enthusiastic acceptance difficult to
imagine today; or of the word oldthink, which was inextricably mixed up
with the idea of wickedness and decadence. But the special function of
certain Newspeak words, of which oldthink was one, was not so much to
express meanings as to destroy them. These words, necessarily few in
number, had had their meanings extended until they contained within
themselves whole batteries of words which, as they were sufficiently
covered by a single comprehensive term, could now be scrapped and
forgotten. The greatest difficulty facing the compilers of the Newspeak
Dictionary was not to invent new words, but, having invented them, to
make sure what they meant: to make sure, that is to say, what ranges of
words they cancelled by their existence.
As we have already seen in the case of the word free, words which had
once borne a heretical meaning were sometimes retained for the sake of
convenience, but only with the undesirable meanings purged out of them.
Countless other words such as honour, justice, morality,
internationalism, democracy, science, and religion had simply ceased to
exist. A few blanket words covered them, and, in covering them,
abolished them. All words grouping themselves round the concepts of
liberty and equality, for instance, were contained in the single word
crimethink, while all words grouping themselves round the concepts of
objectivity and rationalism were contained in the single word oldthink.
Greater precision would have been dangerous. What was required in a
Party member was an outlook similar to that of the ancient Hebrew who
knew, without knowing much else, that all nations other than his own
worshipped ?false gods?. He d
.
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