Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

Ah, Orwell. This was one of his pet peeves. He spent much of WWII translating news into Basic English for transmission to British colonies. The evasions and hyperbole of political speech had to be expressed in the plain and practical words of Basic English. That's a political act. Newspeak in "1984" came from that experience.

His list of worn-out metaphors understood by few, "ring the changes on, take up the cudgel for, toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubled waters, on the order of the day, Achilles' heel, swan song, hotbed" is still apt. "Ring the changes" is misused in today's South China Morning Post.[1] My own favorite is "free rein", which is a horse term. (One not used by riders today; riders say "loose rein".) It often appears today as "free reign".

Today's metaphors come from popular culture rather than the classics, and age faster. This may not be an improvement.

[1] http://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/article/2002459/mark-coeberg...

Indeed, "melting pot" makes me think of think-tanks or a busy "scene" area, it doesn't make me think of an actual melting pot, the words themselves doesn't conjure up the mental image that they refer to, so the strength of the metaphor is weak.

Reading Orwell's own writing in this article "like tea leaves caught in the sink" it conjures up a fresh mental image.

One thing I discovered during 6 years of living in central Europe is that speaking mostly with non-native English speakers leads to a necessary elimination of metaphors; you have to use direct words. I can't say "he's trying to pull the wool over your eyes" or "don't let the cat out of the bag" or whatever, because nobody has any idea what I'm saying, and it's not worth explaining. I considered it a kind of mental training, it taught me to speak plainer English.

>the words themselves doesn't conjure up the mental image >that they refer to, so the strength of the metaphor is >weak.

This is a fair summary of the problem with clichés. But as readers we share responsibility for this: if we were to read less casually and more critically, we would identify the metaphor on both levels, and increase our own understanding and experience.

> Ah, Orwell. This was one of his pet peeves. He spent much of WWII translating news into Basic English for transmission to British colonies.

This is interesting info. It explains why Orwell was in a position to notice and call out.

Much of "1984" is autobiographical. Orwell worked for the British Ministry of Information, upon which his Ministry of Truth is based. See "George Orwell, the Lost Writings".

> political speech had to be expressed in the plain and practical words of Basic English. […] Newspeak in "1984" came from that experience.

That makes his use of Newspeak especially interesting, because it was through Newspeak that the government in "1984" circumlocuted. I guess he became disillusioned with the idea that Basic English was impervious to circumlocution.

And he lived for a time in Paris with his aunt and her boyfriend, who were Esperanto speakers. In fact, the boyfriend was Eugène Lanti, the well known (in Esperantist circles) author. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Lanti

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