Karl Rove, in regard to the current political climate, wrote and quoted the following in a recent op-ed piece:
"In his 1946 essay 'Politics and the English Language,' George Orwell wrote about words used in a 'consciously dishonest way.' 'That is,' Orwell wrote, 'the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.' "
I really like that. I liked it so much, in fact, that I was immediately prompted to look through the Proverbs for wisdom regarding words and speech. In there I found this (among many other things, of course):
"The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool." (Pro 10:18)
A brief research on Orwell produces this additional information:
To give an example of what he is describing, Orwell "translates" Ecclesiastes 9:11,
“I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
into "modern English of the worst sort,"
“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.”
The headmaster's wife at St Cyprian's School, Mrs. Cicely Vaughan Wilkes (nicknamed "Flip"), taught Orwell English and used the same method to illustrate good writing to her pupils. She would use simple passages from the King James Bible and then "translate" them into poor English to show the clarity and brilliance of the original. Walter John Christie, who followed Orwell to Eton wrote that she preached the virtues of "simplicity, honesty, and avoidance of verbiage" and pointed out that the qualities Flip most prized were later to be seen in Orwell’s writing.
And what thought have I walked away with? Good question. I'm walking into my long weekend thinking about showing love versus hatred in my speech and manner.
Here's the summary of my thought: The simplicity of the Word of God is Love exemplified. Anything that is done to His Word that adds complexity is to distance yourself, and perhaps your audience, that much away from the desirability and effectiveness of that Love.
I'm not suggesting a hard fast rule, mind you. Only that perhaps there's a more significant correlation between the Word of God and how we present it than we often pay attention to.
This entry was posted
on Jul 16, 2009
at Thursday, July 16, 2009
and is filed under
365 simple thoughts,
Random Thoughts,
Simpleton Thinker
. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
comments feed
.
