I Agree with Orwell

I find Orwell to be entirely persuasive, and part of that has to due with his self-conscious avoidance of the sort of pretentious language he dislikes so much.

His essay has a political message of its own, slamming the state of the English language as it was used in politics at the time. It's interesting when I look back on the inaugural addresses we discussed earlier, all of which were fully loaded with useless cliches and figurative language that may or may not mean anything to people. Better yet, because the language is so recognizable, the use of ready-made phrases aids in bringing about a certain kind of mindless approval, or a lazier approach at understanding political messages.

Orwell's language is mostly straightforward. He occasionally feeds into the sort of language he's opposing, especially when he uses metaphors like tea leaves clogging up a sink or sending worn-out, useless phrases (verbal refuse) "into the dustbin where it belongs." However, when he lists his pretty simple provisions for avoiding pretentious writing, it would seem that using similes, metaphors, and figurative language where it is effective and useful is different from using it when it's expected or when it's covering up for a lack of information or understanding of a topic. He's arguing for a resurgence of purity of the English language, or a fresher approach. For the most part, he's dodged a lot of the techniques that he criticizes in his essay, and that alone is an incredible feat (a lot of this tactics are so common in persuasive writing/speechmaking). I feel like it's easier to trust him, or that he has a stronger case, since he has done the work that he suggests his readers to do.

I'd read this essay a couple of years ago and thought of it more in terms of what happens in journalism today as opposed to political writing (or at least that is how the professor who assigned it wanted us to think about it). Looking at it that way, I began to notice meaningless fluff appearing left and right in all sorts publications. The writing that Orwell targets as political seems to have manifested other forms of writing, perhaps because ready-made phrases, though not encouraged, are not exactly rejected either. They're the perfect vice for busy writers with deadlines and pressing assignments. I find it extremely difficult to dodge cliches and figurative language in general, but considering Orwell's guidelines is helpful in trying to reform.