Cheap and Easy Writing

In Politics and the English Language, George Orwell gripes about the state of modern writing that at its worst, “consists of gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else.” Orwell values precision and detail in good writing, and is angered with the prevalence of tired metaphors and readymade phrases that either don’t mean what the author intends or don’t mean anything at all. This type of, “lifeless, imitative style” he compares to politics and political writings in which everyone but a few brave rebels follow the same party line. They use the same language and phrases, and come of as copies of one another. Orwell is also bugged by the pretentious use of fancy words with Latin or Greek roots; he prefers humbler Anglo-Saxon words. Despite his complaining he admits that he has, “committed the very faults he is protesting against.” I agree with Orwell’s thesis that there is a tradition of common metaphors and lifeless writing, but this is not something unique to the modern age; its human nature to imitate. The English Language isn’t in a state of crisis; most writers are just a little lazy.