Friday, May 15, 2009

Is TXT our Newspeak?

Of everything that Orwell described Newspeak resonated with me the most. I watch the disintigration of our language skills with frustration even as I do it myself

Gonna is a frequently used word, as is ta and a few more. I don't like that I use them, but I do it anyway

My real hate is 'anythingK', 'nothingK' etc - these ones drive me nuts but I see them being part of accepted language sooner rather than later

Any way...off my soapbox and onto my point

I use small bits of text when I am typing or texting but I have friends whose messages I cannot decipher as they use nothing but TXT and this is where I think TXT = Newspeak

TXT has no emotion (unless you add the smilie to show your meaning), it does away with verbs, descriptors and nouns and expects you to fill in the gaps. It destroys correct spelling and composition. In short it reduceds the language to the bare basics and isn't this the heart of Newspeak?

To my mind - control writing and expression and you control the public... Eradicate creativity and you can rule them all

What piece of Orwell's world do you think has come to pass?

5 comments:

Hettie Betty said...

I see the connections with Newspeak and txting. I often get hassled by my friends because I can't help but use real words and punctuation when I am sending text messages. The challenge I set myself is to use fewer words in messages, not fewer letters. However, those who take out the non vital letters of words do tend to use a hell of a lot more of them. And I think that shows in spoken language, the huge amount of superfluous words in sentences and meaningless words too! Count how many times you say 'like' in a day! It's embarrassing. And totally random. (LOL)

Hettie Betty said...

Oh yeah, the other thing that frightened me was the destruction of history and literature, not just the newspaper reports and records, but older books and novels! Pieces of art!
I also agree with Kristen on eradication on creativity and it's a thought that has crossed my mind when pondering orthodox religion (which I sometimes do) and conservatism in general. Things like rote learning, focusing purely on hard sciences and discouraging questions and philosophical thought are to me obvious reasons why some cultures get left behind. And there are such strong links between art and philosophy. It makes it hard when you have to have the money to be so self indulgent I know, but then the west is pretty rich and we are still encouraged not to think by having reality tv shoved in front of us every night. Oh, what can we do? Mind control everywhere!

detecktive said...

I see parallels with Orwell's world and ours through the rewriting of history. We've all heard the saying - history is written by the victors, and that seems to be as true today and Orwell presents it in his book.

It is such a scary thought...that what we have been taught in our schools and taken as a given may not be accurate (surely you jest I hear you say!). The ramifications can be quite disturbing and create nijustice.

The complete blatant way that history is rewritten by Big Brother and the ministry in Orwell's book is rewritten is truly scary. While it appears extreme, I think in many ways with the modern media 'revising events' on a daily basis, does a similar thing. Eg. Today 'X' happened...but tomorrow we learn 'X' was actually 'Y'... and so on.

This is not to mention the accuracy of histories we are presented with of events in the further past such as the 'settlement' of Australia.

Nic said...

I Kathryn's comments about what is considered acceptable; torture, lack of human rights, lack of a fair trial, no need to prove accusations; by people who believe they have moral justification, is the 1984 concept that seems to have come to pass, but at least people are speaking out about it.

Nic said...

Reading back, Philippa said the same thing in reply to Kristen's question about refugees, as well.