Hmmm . . .

Tick . . . tick . . . tick.

New Class!

Hello, Class of 2013! Welcome to Honors English 10! If you have made it this far, check to see which of your classmates is listed as an author in the list on the left. If you notice anybody who is not on the list yet, please contact them [or me] to remind them to join the blog!


Your first task is on it's way. For now, create a quick post just to try out the blogging format, telling us what you've been up to over the past couple weeks. I heard you've been getting a lot of rain back there. Boo!!! Talk to you later!


[To create a post, just click on New Post using the tabs in the upper right-hand corner.]

The Telescreens

In 1984 the telescreens seem to be a big part of everyones lives. They are informed, monitored, and even entertained by these screens. Every morning the Party members are jerked out of their sleep by the screeching of the telescreen. Once they are awake they have to do excercises and are monitored by the instructor. This to me seems very strange and creepy. It is an invasion of privacy, especially knowing that they could be watching and listening to you all the time. There are some forms of entertainment on the telescreens. There are movies and music that the people surprisingly enjoy. The movies, as we discussed before, are crule, disturbing, and very different from what we are used to. To me the music just seems like something they use to fill in the gaps when they have nothing else playing. It is always military music, so maybe this is just another way of the Party trying to brainwash the people. There are also long messages of news and updates. They are mainly just statistics that are almost always false. I think they do this to make it seem like the Party is advancing. They compare current statistics with statistics from the past, which are also false. Winston knows in his mind that these facts are untrue, but there is no way to prove it. One thing I noticed was that the proles are not required to have a telescreen. This just shows how much the Party really doesn't care about the Proles or what they do. From class, I learned that this word comes from the word proletariat. When I looked it up, I learned that it means the class of industrial workers. They are also the lowest social class who don't have the skills to work with "normal" people, so they sell their labor for money. Throughout the book it showed that no one really cares about the proles, or their actions. If Proles don't have a telescreen, the Party can't monitor what they do. This is why Winston believes that all hope lies in the Proles. They can do whatever they want without being seen and there are so many of them. So you can see, the telescreen is very important to the Party's controllers to ensure that everything goes the way they want it to.

Telescreens

What I think is a more disturbing 'feature' of a telescreen is not the streams of information (that is most likely lies) constantly coming out of it but it also transmits what it sees and hears. There is absolutely no such thing as privacy for the people of Oceania. Not only are their thoughts being monitored by the Thought Police, but everything they do. The telescreens can be dimmed, but never shut of. You can turn your back to the telescreens and speak quietly, but there's still the risk of these actions seeming suspicious. (it brings new meaning to the question 'do you ever feel like you're being watched?') I think the streams of information is just a means of communicating to the people. It seems almost like a tv in a way, but the description of it doesn't quite seem like a tv. It also plays some sort of live fitness video, where all the people have to participate in before going to work. Winston even gets reprimanded by the woman that is dictating the exercises. Not only is the information coming out of the telescreens most likely lies, but it's also another way to push the Party's propaganda. Winston even mentions the phrase 'new happy life', which the woman announced with the 'glorious news of winning the battle for production' (pg. 58). That phrase was used several times, because the Ministry of Plenty has been pushing that on the people. It amazes me to no end that they don't realize that life isn't what the Party or Big Brother has promised.

Audrey goes on special assignment . . .

Your mission is to explain why, oh why, the telescreens are always announcing streams and streams and streams of facts, figures, and statistics. Good luck!

Newspeak

In my opinion, the changes they are making in the dictionary are very unnecessary. I mean can you imagine someone saying, "Whoa, I did doublegood on my math test." It all seems strange to me and I don't see the big deal of leaving words in there that need to be used. In our language today, I would actually like to see more words added, not subtracted. Yeah, I agree some words are useless but having a variety of words to all mean the same thing make this world more open and free. You are allowed to use whatever word you want instead of being limited of choices. Being on the eleventh edition in their dictionary, only time will tell how long it takes before they all just don't even know what to say anymore because of all the words being cut. It seems unreal being able to forget all about a word and pretending like it never existed. By 2050, they said everyone would have no knowledge of the Oldspeak dictionary. I guess I never even thought of words being erased like that, vanished forever. It's not something I would enjoy, but the Party are just about the only people who have a say in what goes on in their society.

NewSpeak

In 1984 they are not just chainging the language they are taking away from the language. I think they are taking as many words out of the language so that everyone will become more similar. So far in the book it seems to me as if the party is just trying to get everyone to be like a clone. They want no one to to have individual thoughts. Even now we do change the language somewhat frequently but its not to the same extent nor for the same reason. People are so different and free now I think it would take a long time for something like this to catch on. De-Complicate. (trademark Tyler Beichner and Associates)

Newspeak

It seems to me that newspeak is less a form of actual language, and more a form or control over the minds of people. It is even said that it will make thought crime impossible. This I feel is simply another way the "Big Brother" is keeping people from revolting. He is pretty smart, because if you take away words which require creativity and thinking, and replace them with simple ones, you can eliminate thought all together. However this is not a good thing for the people, because as humans one of our most special talents is our ability to be creative and express things we want to say with words which reflect how we are feeling. Big Brother wants to turn his people in to mindless machines programed to follow him blindly, and newspeak is just one of many ways he is doing so.

Newspeak Dictionary

In a way, I agree with what the Ministry of Truth is doing to their Newspeak dictionary. They are in the process of taking out all of the "uneeded" words. For example, instead of using words such as "bad" or "great", they will say "ungood" and "plusgood". The whole concept of the idea is to simplify the whole dictionary and language, requiring less thought. This effect will lessen the chances of thought crime occuring. I think our own language should be mixed around the same way. I'm not saying take out simple words like "bad" and using "ungood". But if you already have a word to describe something, there is no need for more. Therefore words such as terrible, horrendous, etc... should be taken out of our language. So overall, I think the Minitruth's decision to de-complicate the language is a doubleplusgood idea.


( The word "de-complicate" is from here on out copyrighted by Tyler Beichner & Associates and use of this word may not be permitted unless express written consent is given by the firm)

1984 "dictionary"

In some ways the Ministry of Truth's Newspeak is similar to our dictionaries and language today, but there are also ways it differs. One way it would be alike, would be we have dictionaries also. We are also constantly editing ours and publishing newer ones with new or more recent words. Syme is currently working on the 11th edition. Their society also bases their language off of this dictionary, like we do ours. We learn new words by looking them up so we can later use them. One way it would be different, would be how they take words out. I'm not a hundred percent sure if we do that or not, but I definitely don't believe we do as often as they do. They find theirselves removing words that could be "harmful" or give too many people ideas to speak badly about the Big Brother. They change creative bigger words to insignificant boring words. I would not like the way they do this in their society. The "party" wants to stay in control and this is one way they can do this. Today, we have the freedom of speech and a wide variety of words. This makes us sound more intelligent and interesting, when we don't use simple words over and over again. I am pretty satisfied with our language today. Some rules are strange and spelling sometimes has tricks, but after growing up learning English, it isn't that bad. If we did change our language it would be hard to have millions of people all change.

Language and Newspeak

According to Syme, the Ministry of Truth is trying to make the Newspeak language simple by creating new words and destroying old ones. It is an ongoing process that eliminates the need for more complicated and descriptive words. It does, though, make language simpler, but harder to express your thoughts. That's why I don't agree with the Newspeak. There is nothing wrong with Oldspeak and I don't understand why they are even changing it. I guess it's just one more way to control the population. In our language today I wouldn't change anything, but that's probably because I am so used to it. I would not change it in any fundamental way though.

The Newspeak Language

In 1984, the Ministry of Truth is removing and adding words to the dictionary for the 11th edition. In the book it gives the example of removing the word "bad" and replacing it with "ungood" that way you are really only using one word. I, like most other people, disagree with this because it takes away from the art of our language. If we did this, poets would have a hard time writing poems and we would not have as many. Although these things for the most part would be bad, I do see why Big Brother chose to do this. I think it would make our language much easier and more efficient. We could more easily communicate and understand each other. Today, I don't believe much could be done to make our language better. If the government did decide to change it, I think it would cause more trouble than anything else. People would be angry and start to cause a lot of trouble. Even though George Orwell had a good point, I don't think anything will change in the future.

Language Changes

In 1984 there is a language called Newspeak. From examples of this in the book it seems for the most part they just combine words together to form new words. There is also a large process of the destruction of words. Winston's "friend" Syme is one of the people who works on the dictionary. He explained that there is no need for synonyms or antonyms. The example used in the book was good. If something is good, you simply use the word good. If it's better, you say plusgood, and if it's bad you say ungood. This would eliminate the need for excess words like outstanding, great, and keen. This may seem like a good thing and that it would make things simpler, however, it would be much harder to express emotion and intelligence. This would be good for Oceanea's purpose, but it is so destructive to the way we think and express ourselves. Sometimes we can make ourselves feel smarter and express our intelligence through the words we use. I disagree with Newspeak because it takes away our freedom of thought and knowlege. This is what Oceanea is aiming for. They have tried their hardest so far to take away peoples' freedom, and with the new dictionary I believe they could succeed in doing so. There may not be enough words to express their thoughts, therefore they could not hate Big Brother. In the book it says that orthodoxy is unconciousness. If you are not thinking, I suppose you could be considered unconcious. All of this is so hard to comprehend, because most humans have never thought of it and don't even know how to not think.This is why I think the destruction of words could be so dangerous. Words are a wonderful thing and should never be destroyed. We create new words all the time. It may be a word that will soon become know nationwide, or just some silly, meaningless word someone thought of one day. Words are so important and we would be nothing without them today.

Newspeak

In our society, we're always making changes to words. We modify them so that they're easier and quicker to say. The Ministry of Truth makes changes to their dictionaries as their vocabulary changes, as do we. Syme talks about getting rid of words all together. For example, he believes that someday they'll get rid of words that are basically stronger versions of "good", such as "excellent" and "splendid" because he believes those words are useless. He thinks they'll replace it with "plusgood" and "doubleplusgood" to still get the stronger meaning. In our society, we do stop using certain words, but we don't get rid of them all together. I believe our language could improve some how, but i'm not really certain of how. I don't have a problem with The Ministry of Truth making new words, but the fact that they are getting rid of words altogether shows just how much Big Brother has to control things.

The Newspeak Language

The Ministry of Truth is removing words that they think could be rebellious thoughts against The Party. They remove words related to "bad" and make it into "ungood." However, I guess they can still say Big Brother is ungood but how can they defend or argue this statement if they can't find the words that don't exist. It's like if the words don't exist then they won't put them into action. They won't organize an uprising or tell one another they want to be free of Big Brother because they can't find the words. They are inventing new words, removing old ones, and giving them a new meaning. Soon Oldspeak will no longer exist and people will forget the words that link to what the past and truth really is. I disagree with these changes. I would hate to be limited to only a few words. I like to express myself. How can anyone do that when their words and thoughts are being limited? I think our language now should be more respected. We change meanings of words all the time whether its good or bad I don't know.