George Orwell's "Politics And The English Language"

1. What is the American poet?

Everyone who helps to form the nation.

1. Why is it important?

The nation depends on them.

1. We are all equals
2. Doing nothing to be superior
3. Civilization
4. The earth itself is perfect, we mess it up

"This is a parody, but not a very gross one." -- Orwell is telling us to make our sentences clear, and easy, yet his description of his 'bad example of english' is not clear in itself. Gross, what does he mean by gross? Gross comes from the German word gross, which means large or big. And Orwell has been telling us not to take words from other countries, yet how can we do that, when our own language IS from other countries?

"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himslef at least four questions...And he will probably ask himself two more: 1. Could I put it more shortly? 2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?" -- Orwell is criticising peoples' writing, and is suggesting tips to ask yourself when creating a writing, yet, I wonder if he asked himself the same questions tha the is presenting us with. He says to ask yourself, "Could I put it more shortly?" and yet his own essay is extremely long!!!

3.Definitions

Dying Metaphors - Worn-out metaphors which have lost all impressionable power.

Pretentious Diction - Foreign words used for their elegance, but in the process lose their original meaning.

Meaningless Words - Foreign words that are used with a vague and confusing meaning.

4. Ten Steps to Good writing:

#1 Use simple, every day words.

#2 Know what you want to say, before you start to write.

#3 Replace long, drawn out sentences, with short, to the point ones.

#4 Refrain form using foreign words to portray an english meaning.

#5 Read your work, to see if it makes sense to you.

#6 Make your work is clear, and easy to read.

#7 Use original thoughts.

#8 Always try to use the active, instead of the passive, when possible.

#9 Don't put in fluff - frilly nonsense that isn't important, and just used to take up space.

#10 Change your habits now, and start writing well.

Walt Whitman's Nature

After now reading twenty poems from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, I have begun to notice that many of his poems are about the same topics. In his poems, Whitman asks a lot of questions about life and the way it is. The topic that I mainly see used over and over in these poems is his encounter with nature. "The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night; Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation;"(236) Whitman starts off with the use of animals, which already sets us to a mood in which we think about nature. The poem then continues with,"... The sharp-hoof'd moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog, "(240) As shown here, nature and the wild are all something that Whitman talks about numerous times. From the gander to the dog, Whitman manages to use animals as a part of his poems. After copying these two stanzas to my blog, I began to think about what nature really meant back then, and what is means to us now. In the 1840's, the time period in which this book was published, the nature, farming, and animals were what controlled the life and the economy of the United States. The American people depended on agriculture to sustain their families, where as now, people tend to not consider it important anymore. This then brought me to how people live now compared to then. The majority of the people in the United States now live in the cities, or in suburbs. Living in those areas with such a high density of people ultimately blocks the people from having contact with nature.

Whitman later in the poem, talks about how he admires the people that live on farms. "am enamour'd of growing out-doors, Of men that live among cattle, or taste of the ocean or woods,"(246) This is important because Whitman stresses that humans should live alongside animals. He was living in a time where living in cities or living in farms was a decision that had to be made.

In the next stanza of the poem, Walt Whitman talks about how he loves the simple life, "What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me;"(251) Although he is describing himself in this line, it seems as if he is encouraging the lifestyle, saying that it is easier and cheaper than trying to live the urban lifestyle.

I also noticed that the cover of the book, which is in my previous post, has a picture of nature, including water, trees, hills, and a person. This is showing how from the cover of the book, the topic is already nature and humans together.

Overall, this poem really made me start thinking about how urbanization has been affecting humans recently. Before, life was easy and simple, and now it's getting harder and more complex. It made me start thinking about what people were getting themselves in to.

The Beginning Is The Hardest

I many times struggle to start writing a paper. Or even a blog or essay. For me, it is one of the most important part's of writing, and is essential for setting the mood for the reader. It also helps the reader understand the writer's personality, and feel the tone that will be used throughout the book. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass starts in a way that I would have never expected a poetry book to begin. "I CELEBRATE myself; And what I assume you shall assume; for every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you"(1) As we all know, nothing in literature is done without thought. Whitman is clearly trying to make a statement, and show his personality just with his first stanza of his first poem of the entire book. He starts of by making the reader feel that he is equal to Whitman. This is key because it makes the reader feel as if he is going through the same life problems, and living the same life, as the reader.

Something that should also be looked at in every poet's work is their style. Whitman repeats sentences a lot, typically changing a couple words, but leaving the main or strong word there. He also sometimes doesn't change any words except the main one. "There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now; And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now." (3) This is a clear example of how Walt Whitman plays with the words, and will repeat himself to make a point. Not only is the style in which this idea is written, but what this stanza is actually saying. It is pivotal to understand that Leaves of Grass was written during the 1840's in the United States. There were many different political ideas, and it was a time of a lot of division from ideas. One lifestyle that many different people tried to live with was the utopian lifestyle, which happened during the 1840's. "And will never be any more perfection than there is now"(3) is a very utopian-like idea that the world is perfect, and it will never be able to be as perfect as it currently is. It is sad to hear that shortly after, in the 1850's, utopian societies failed, and were taken out of the United States.

I am interested in reading the rest of this poetry book because I would like to keep linking the current times in the United States, and their situation, and what Walt Whitman writes to see if I can make any more links between them.

Jumping From One To The Next

Just like every writer, Gustave Flaubert has a style that is different from anyone else's. He uses long sentences, broken apart by commas to divide his ideas. "Madame Aubain had married a comely youth without any money, who died in the beginning of 1809, leaving her with two young children and a number of debts." (1) This sentence, in the beginning of the book shows just that. There are a total of four ideas in just one sentence. Although many may argue that it's wrong to put more than one idea per sentence, it is the style that distinguishes Gustave Flaubert from the rest of the writers. Even though many writers incorrectly use the style of more than one idea per sentence, Flaubert successfully manages to create a certain feeling in the viewer, that would not be there if it weren't for his sentence structure. Another example of this is when at the beginning of chapter two, Flaubert starts talking about how her father was killed by a scaffold."Like every other woman, she had had an affair of the heart. Her father, who was a mason, was killed by falling from a scaffolding" (2).

Another very notable style that Flaubert has is that it goes from one sentence to the next, and doesn't have many extra sentences that don't really serve a purpose. This makes A Simple Soul, even though not too long, have a lot of information. A perfect example of a lot of information in just one sentence is ," One evening, on the road leading to Beaumont, she came upon a wagon

loaded with hay, and when she overtook it, she recognised Theodore." (2) Many of the authors that I have read would have written those same ideas in many more sentences. This is a characteristic that Flaubert shows throughout the first three chapters, and sticks with it the whole time. In chapter three, we see another example, "After several minutes had elapsed, she heard footsteps, the door was half opened and a nun appeared." The feeling I get while reading is almost as if I were reading a list of things to do. Like if Flaubert had a list of all the things he wanted to say, and then simply wrote the book off of that list, and didn't really add any extra information.

Overall, I have enjoyed reading these first three chapters of A Simple Soul because it is another way to write. Lately, I have been experiencing many different styles of writers, and I keep learning from each one and take bits and pieces from each one. This one is particularly interesting because I am sure that if someone had this style in second grade while writing a story, the teacher would tell you to make it nicer and flow smoother. Flaubert uses a style that very much interests me, and I would love to be able to write in such a difficult way, while still making my points clear, and ultimately making my writing good.

Wait, I Thought It Was Different

After reading , I didn't even know what to think of the book. I had been narrowing down my ideas about the book, and I was really starting to understand the story, until this chapter came along. There had been a certain story that was building up, but this chapter seems to just change every character. Maybe I'm not completely understanding the book as much as I should because Pynchon has been constantly changing the characters. This is clearly a technique used by Pynchon not only to keep the reader interested in the progression and growth of the characters, but it also completely gives freedom to the character's actions. In many stories, the characters involved almost always have the same personality. The serious dad is always the serious dad, and the crazy brother is always the crazy brother. What Pynchon does by releasing that linear personality from his characters, is ultimately creates a free place where the characters don't necessarily have to follow any certain personalities. I may be ignorant to the literature and reading world, but this is the first book that I read were everything is so inconsistent. It's like if the book its making fun of itself by just changing everything. Pynchon build part of a story up, and then before we know it, everything has changed.

A thing that also shocked me was the craziness of the characters. Many characters have just gone completely crazy and are acting very different compared to previous chapters."Day by day, Wendell is more himself and less generic. He enters a staff meeting and the room is suddenly full of people, you know? He's a walking assembly of man (115)." This is a sample of how the reader is forced to start thinking about how everyone is changing. This type of sentence is only put in a book to make the reader stop reading, and analyze how the characters are changing."You'll think I'm crazy, Oed (116)." Just on the page after, another hint is given to us. Not only can we as the readers recognize the abnormalities of the characters in the story, but the book itself also makes us think about the same thing.

Overall, this chapter was a complete mess, and it once again made reading this chapter more interesting. Pynchon will not let the reader rest on what they know. He is constantly changing the plot and the characters to keep everything fresh. It's a very effective tool that has kept me interested in the book.

Yoyodyne Inc. Represents The Modern World

Last year in Mr. O'Connors Pre-AP Global Studies class, a parent came in who worked for a tire company to talk to us about how their company functioned. I'm not quite sure who's mom it was, or what company she worked for, but the things she said I remember very clearly. Having just come back from the Amazon trip, we began to learn about how companies were deforesting parts of the Amazon forest. It is even predicted that we won't have an Amazon forest soon. I remember listening to the lady talk about how the company that she worked for had made a new type of tire which was more eco-friendly. She went on about how her company was the most eco-friendly tire company out there, which ultimately made the company she worked for sound like the logical company to choose from when the time came to choose a tire. I then asked her a question which shocked her. Was the company really doing everything possible to be eco-friendly? I understand that your company may be more eco-friendly, but in reality are they losing money to try and be eco friendly? I don't remember exactly what she said but her answer was pretty much saying that there was a limit to where the eco-friendly matter could really get to. A company may try to be eco-friendly, but they will immediately stop once they realize that they could lose money or are losing money to try and help the environment.

While reading chapter four of The Crying of Lot 49, I read something that made me remember the above conversation that had taken place the year before."Koteks explained how every engineer, in signing the Yoyodyne contract, also signed away the patent rights to any inventions he might come up with" (67) This is showing how companies are only interested in profits. This was just another example of how companies want to maximize their profits without any concern about anything else. In a sense, they are 'stealing' ideas because they are forcing their workers to not be able to use their ideas. They are being forced to have the company have the rights for the ideas that they came up with. Yoyodyne doesn't want anyone stealing their ideas, yet they steal their people's ideas. I found this to be completely absurd.

It was just another example of how companies really only care about their profits and will do anything to maximize it. Even steal ideas from others. I really can't believe this because it shows me to what level the world is slowly getting to, and instead of improving the earlier mistakes, we get even more competitive, ultimately damaging ourselves in the long run. The author is satirically making fun of these companies. Making its name Yoyodyne is enforcing the fact that it's a selfish company, only interested in its profit.

What Does This Mean?

In Mr. Tangen's class earlier last week and this week, we discussed how The Crying of Lot 49 is very satirical and makes fun of many different types of things. While reading chapter three of this book, I found myself concentrating more on what satirical pieces I could find, more than actually reading the book for what the story was about. After realizing that this was as a terribly bad idea, I began to reread the chapter, but I still asked myself many questions that I can't seem to answer.

As I've come to learn from Mr. Tangen's class, NOTHING in books and movies are done without a purpose, so Pynchon clearly is trying to prove a point or make us ask ourselves questions. When I first came across this image, I stopped reading and took a look at it. I am very used to seeing images while reading books, but they normally relate to the text. I could not make any valid relationship with this image, and this made me start asking myself many questions on why Pynchon is using this image.

This was not the first time in this book that I ask myself why things are presented the way they are. After realizing that this has become a current occurrence in the book, I wonder if Pynchon is using this to reel us into reading more of his book. Suspense is a tool that is many times used because it keeps the reader or viewer interested in the movie or book. Although in The Crying of Lot 49, we aren't necessarily waiting for something to happen, we do want to know what all of these signs and hints that are given to us really mean.