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Iniciado por Mikel Otsuka, Mayo 05, 2007, 12:41:39 PM

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Son of a beach


Los sobrecicos de azúcar del bar donde desayuna este hombre deben ser dignos de verse.
los niggas de guetto son bastante parecidos a los gitanos, que ninguno es comunista porque en la bandera salen herramientas.

ENNAS

George Orwell's Brilliant Guide to Writing Well

By George Orwell June 17, 1946

Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language—so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to airplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. I will come back to this presently, and I hope that by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer. Meanwhile, here are four specimens of the English language as it is now habitually written.

These passages have not been picked out because they are especially bad—I could have quoted far worse if I had chosen—but because they illustrate various of the mental vices from which we now suffer. They are a little below the average, but are fairly representative samples. I number them so that I can refer back to them when necessary:

(1) I am not, indeed, sure whether it is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become, out of an experience ever more bitter in each year, more alien (sic) to the founder of that Jesuit sect which nothing could induce him to tolerate.
—Professor Harold Laski (Essay in Freedom of Expression).

(2) Above all, we cannot play ducks and drakes with a native battery of idioms which prescribes such egregious collocations of vocables as the Basic put up with for tolerate or put at a loss for bewilder.
—Professor Lancelot Hogben (Interglossa).

(3) On the one side we have the free personality: by definition it is not neurotic, for it has neither conflict nor dream. Its desires, such as they are, are transparent, for they are just what institutional approval keeps in the forefront of consciousness; another institutional pattern would alter their number and intensity; there is little in them that is natural, irreducible, or culturally dangerous. But on the other side, the social bond itself is nothing but the mutual reflection of these self-secure integrities. Recall the definition of love. Is not this the very picture of a small academic? Where is there a place in this hall of mirrors for either personality or fraternity?
—Essay on psychology in Politics (New York).

(4) All the "best people" from the gentlemen's clubs, and all the frantic fascist captains, united in common hatred of socialism and bestial horror of the rising tide of the mass revolutionary movement, have turned to acts of provocation, to foul incendiarism, to medieval legends of poisoned wells, to legalize their own destruction of proletarian organizations, and rouse the agitated petty-bourgeoisie to chauvinistic fervor on behalf of the fight against the revolutionary way out of the crisis.
—Communist pamphlet

Each of these passages has faults of its own, but quite apart from avoidable ugliness, two qualities are common to all of them. The first is staleness of imagery; the other is lack of precision. The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing; as soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. I list below various of the tricks by means of which the work of prose-construction is habitually dodged:

Dying metaphors: A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" (e.g., iron resolution) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves. Examples are: Ring the changes on, take up the cudgels for, toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubled waters, Achilles' heel, swan song, hotbed. Many of these are used without knowledge of their meaning (what is a "rift," for instance?), and incompatible metaphors are frequently mixed, a sure sign that the writer is not interested in what he is saying.

Operators, Or verbal false limbs: These save the trouble of picking out appropriate verbs and nouns, and at the same time pad each sentence with extra syllables which give it an appearance of symmetry. Characteristic phrases are: render inoperative, militate against, prove unacceptable, make contact with, be subjected to, give rise to, give grounds for, have the effect of, play a leading part (role) in, make itself felt, serve the purpose of, etc., etc. The keynote is the elimination of simple verbs. Instead of being a single word, such as break, stop, spoil, mend, kill, a verb becomes a phrase, made up of a noun or adjective tacked on to some general-purposes verb such as prove, serve, form, play, render. In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds (by examination of instead of by examining). The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de- formations, and banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un- formation. Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, the fact that, in view of, in the interests of, on the hypothesis that; and the ends of sentences are saved from anti-climax by such refunding commonplaces as greatly to be desired, cannot be left out of account, a development to be expected in the near future, deserving of serious consideration, brought to a satisfactory conclusion, etc.

Pretentious diction: Words like phenomenon, element, individual (as noun), objective, categorical, effective, virtual basic, primary, constitute, exhibit, exploit, utilize, eliminate, liquidate, are used to dress up simple statements and give an air of scientific impartiality to biased judgments. Adjectives like epoch-making, epic, historic, unforgettable, triumphant, inevitable, inexorable, veritable, are used to dignify the sordid processes of international politics, while writing that aims at glorifying war usually takes on anarchaic color, its characteristic words being: realm, throne, chariot, trident, sword, shield, banner, jackboot, clarion. Foreign words and expressions such as cul de sac, ancien regime, deus ex machina, status quo, gleichschaltung, Weltanschauung, are used to give an air of culture and elegance. Except for the useful abbreviations i.e., e.g. and etc., there is no real need for any of the hundreds of foreign phrases now current in English. Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones, and unnecessary words like expedite, ameliorate, predict, extraneous, clandestine, subaqueous and hundreds of others constantly gain ground from their Anglo-Saxon opposite numbers. The jargon peculiar to Marxist writing (hyena, hangman, cannibal, petty bourgeois, lackeys, flunkey, mad dog. White Guard, etc.) consists largely of words and phrases translated from Russian, German or French; but the normal way of coining a new word is to use a Latin or Greek root with the appropriate affix and, where necessary, the -ize formation. It is often easier to make up words of this kind (deregionalize, impermissible, extramarital, non-fragmentatory) than to think up the English words that will cover one's meaning. The result, in general, is an increase in slovenliness and vagueness.

Meaningless words: In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. Words like romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental, natural, vitality, as used in art criticism, are strictly meaningless, in the sense that they not only do not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly even expected to do so by the reader. When one critic writes, "The outstanding feature of Mr. X's work is its living quality," while another writes, "The immediately striking thing about Mr. X's work is its peculiar deadness," the reader accepts this as a simple difference of opinion. If words like black and white were involved, instead of the jargon words dead and living, he would see at once that language was being used in an improper way. Many political words are similarly abused. The word fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable." The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: Consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like Marshal Pétain was a true patriot. The Soviet Press is the freest in the world. The Catholic Church is opposed to persecution, are almost always made with the intent to deceive. Others words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.

Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to. This time it must of its nature be an imaginary one. I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well known verse from "Ecclesiastes":

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 favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:
Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels 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.

This is a parody, but not a very gross one. Exhibit three, on page 872, for instance, contains several patches of the same kind of English. It will be seen that I have not made a full translation. The beginning and ending of the sentence follow the original meaning fairly closely, but in the middle the concrete illustrations—race, battle, bread—dissolve into the vague phrase "success or failure in competitive activities." This had to be so, because no modern writer of the kind I am discussing—no one capable of using phrases like "objective consideration of contemporary phenomena''—would ever tabulate his thoughts in that precise and detailed way. The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness.

As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug. The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy. It is easier—even quicker, once you have the habit—to say In my opinion it is a not unjustifiable assumption that than to say/think. When you are composing in a hurry—when you are dictating to a stenographer, for instance, or making a public speech—it is natural to fall into a pretentious, Latinized style. Tags like a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind or a conclusion to which all of us would readily assent will save many a sentence from coming down with a bump. By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself. This is the significance of mixed metaphors. The sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image. When these images dash—as in The Fascist octopus has sung its swan song, the jackboot is thrown into the melting pot—it can be taken as certain that the writer is not seeing a mental image of the objects he is naming; in other words he is not really thinking.

Look again at the examples I gave at the beginning of this essay. Professor Laski (1) uses five negatives in 53 words. One of these is superfluous, making nonsense of the whole passage, and in addition there is the [printer's] slip alien for akin, making further nonsense, and several avoidable pieces of clumsiness which increase the general vagueness. Professor Hogben (2) plays ducks and drakes with a battery which is able to write prescriptions, and while disapproving of the everyday phrase put up with, is unwilling to look egregious up in the dictionary and see what it means. (3) if one takes an uncharitable attitude toward it, is simply meaningless: probably one could work out its intended meaning by reading the whole of the article in which it occurs. In (4), the writer knows more or less what he wants to say, but an accumulation of stale phrases chokes him like tea leaves blocking a sink. People who write in this manner usually have a general emotional meaning—they dislike one thing and want to express solidarity with another—but they are not interested in the detail of what they are saying. A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you—even think your thoughts for you, to certain extent—and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even yourself. It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

Quercus Cistensis

Mecaguenlapú que pedazo de cita, eso ni citable ni na.
Pelazo nivel Boris Johnson

ENNAS

Hoy, por cortesía de la revista El Viejo Topo, un artículo que Einstein escribió en 1949 para el Monthly Review neoyorquino defendiendo el socialismo.

¿Por qué el socialismo?

Nótese un tema muy propio de los intelectuales de hace un siglo, la decadencia espiritual de la sociedad capitalista; obsérvese como se expresa en términos que nos resultarán, por desgracia, harto familiares en nuestros días: el individualismo exacerbado, la compulsión consumista, el desaforado mercado del ocio y entretenimiento, no la ausencia sino la hipertrofia de valores contradictorios e incompatibles entre sí... En suma el sojuzgamiento del hombre en favor de la maquinaria.

Amazonia

#274
Es....

ENNAS

"Aquel que en el orden civil quiere conservar la primacía de los sentimientos, no sabe lo que quiere. Siempre en contradicción consigo mismo siempre oscilando entre sus inclinaciones y sus deberes, nunca será ni hombre ni ciudadano; no será bueno ni para él ni para los otros"

Emilio Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762.

Quercus Cistensis

"O sea, que las dos cosas que se me dan bien son masturbarme y educar a mis hijas. Queda raro todo junto, pero es la verdad"

Louie.

Acusado de masturbarse delante de compañeras de trabajo, lo que le da una macabra dimensión al asunto.

La serie no está ni tan mal, pero me gustó más Lucky Louie.
Pelazo nivel Boris Johnson

ENNAS

La odisea Homero, siglo octavo antes de Cristo.

"Forastero, salud, bien tratado serás, pero antes
de explicar a qué vienes habrás de saciar tu apetito.

Es de ver cómo inculpan los hombres sin tregua a los dioses
achacándonos todos sus males. Y son ellos mismos
los que traen por sus propias locuras su exceso de penas.

Estos hombres se cuidan tan sólo de cítara y canto
con razón, pues que comen sin costo de ajena despensa.

Sois sañudos, oh dioses, no hay ser que os iguale en envidia,
no sufrís a las diosas que yazgan abierta y lealmente
con mortales si alguno les place como esposo...

... Mas si eres
una más de las muchas mortales que pueblan la tierra,
venturosos tres veces tu padre y tu madre, tres veces
venturosos también tus hermanos. De goces el alma
inundada por tí sentirán al mirar tal renuevo
cuando mueve sus pasos a unirse en los ritmos del coro;
pero aquel venturoso ante todos con mucho en su pecho
que te lleve a su hogar vencedor con sus dones nupciales.
Ser mortal como tú nunca he visto hasta aquí con mis ojos.

PP2000

Cita de: ENNAS en Abril 04, 2020, 04:19:49 PM
La odisea Homero, siglo octavo antes de Cristo.

"Forastero, salud, bien tratado serás, pero antes
de explicar a qué vienes habrás de saciar tu apetito.

Es de ver cómo inculpan los hombres sin tregua a los dioses
achacándonos todos sus males. Y son ellos mismos
los que traen por sus propias locuras su exceso de penas.

Estos hombres se cuidan tan sólo de cítara y canto
con razón, pues que comen sin costo de ajena despensa.

Sois sañudos, oh dioses, no hay ser que os iguale en envidia,
no sufrís a las diosas que yazgan abierta y lealmente
con mortales si alguno les place como esposo...

... Mas si eres
una más de las muchas mortales que pueblan la tierra,
venturosos tres veces tu padre y tu madre, tres veces
venturosos también tus hermanos.
De goces el alma
inundada por tí sentirán al mirar tal renuevo
cuando mueve sus pasos a unirse en los ritmos del coro;
pero aquel venturoso ante todos con mucho en su pecho
que te lleve a su hogar vencedor con sus dones nupciales.
Ser mortal como tú nunca he visto hasta aquí con mis ojos.[/i]


Hombre, para citar una cítara hay que citarla entera (esos puntos suspensivos), el caso es que será por los puntos suspensivos o porque me faltan lecturas de bachillerato, qui lo sá, no tengo ni puta idea de que va la parte mostrada de la cita,... para mí que falta remate y coda, gol de señor, pero bueno, me da igual, seguro que es cupla mía, mis disculpas por anticipado: ENNAS, ¿qué que es lo que nos querías decir?

ENNAS

Sólo quería poneros citas amables.

El contexto en la obra es que Ulises el de divina paciencia, Ulises el sufrido de entrañas, llega como naúfrago exhausto a Feacia, remota isla de riqueza simpar y navegantes que no necesitan timón para llegar a destino ¿te suena el mito de la Atlántida? Allí la hija del prócer local (mi griego clásico es pésimo pero entiendo que un (w)anax y no un basileus como es el propio Ulises) sale a lavar a la costa con sus sirvientas, y mientras están alegremente jugando a lanzarse la pelota su algarabía despierta a Ulises que, completamente desnudo, no sabe como dirigirse a las jovencitas.

Los párrafos que señalas hacen referencia al teatro griego antiguo donde sólo había un actor principal declamando al que daba réplica un coro de doce figurantes, y a las costumbres matrimoniales griegas: si varios hombres competían por una mujer, ésta se iba con quién le fuera de su agrado siempre y cuando ofreciera mayor dote que los demás.

PP2000

vale
mola

¿al final había o no moraleja en la selección y omisión en puntos suspensivos de lo traído como citable o solo te llenaba los cuerpos cavernosos de tu pollas la inefable sonoridad en castellano torturado del griego clásico de sus versos?

ENNAS

No, es que corto el verso porque la obra está mucho más encadenada.

Es una historia preciosa pero no por las aventuras fantásticas, que apenas duran un canto, sino por las humoradas que se gasta el autor con los valores del mundo pasado en el que viven.

Ejemplos:

"Bajo tal apariencia le habló la ojizarca Atenea:
'¿Cómo así tan dejada, oh Nausícaa, naciste de madre?
Olvidados están tus vestidos y el tiempo
de tu boda se acerca; bien lindos tendrías que llevarlos
ese día y cuidar que los lleve el cortejo. Se alcanza
buen renombre con ello y el gozo rebosa a los padres
en el alma al sentir el rumor con que admiran las gentes.'"

"Dijo así, sonrióse Atenea la diosa ojizarca,
su mano tendió a acariciarle, mas ya bajo forma
de mujer alta, hermosa, perita en brillantes labores.
Y dejándose oir, dirigióle palabras aladas:
'Bien astuto y taimado ha de ser quien a ti te aventaje
en urdir añagazas del modo que fuere, aunque en ello
te saliera quizás al encuentro algún dios: ¡siempre el mismo
trapacista de dolos sin fin! ¿ni en tu patria siquiera
dejaras ese gusto de inventos y engaños que tienes
en el alma metido?'..."


En ambos casos es la patrona de Atenas, diosa de la sabiduria, pero famosa por su mal genio. Es lo que tiene ser virgen cuando eres inmortal. Y sin embargo ahí la tienes, burlona con la hija del rey de Feacia y complacida como una madre con las travesuras de un hijo en el caso de su protegido Ulises.

La idea es que os leáis "La odisea".

Que sí, que todos os sabéis la historia -más o menos- y como termina. Pero seguro que casi ninguno recordábais lo bien escrita que está, y los muchos momentos de magia que os esperan en cada canto.

ENNAS

Dios mío, Tú que estás en el Reino de los Cielos, que es adentro.
Me gustaría que me dijeras Tu nombre, quiero decir el verdadero. Aunque Tú también servirá.
Quisiera saber que Te propones. Sea lo que fuere, por favor, ayúdame a superarlo. Aunque tal vez esto no sea cosa Tuya; no creo ni remotamente que lo que está ocurriendo aquí sea lo que Tú querías.
Tengo suficiente pan de cada día, de manera que no perderé el tiempo en eso. No es el principal problema. El problema está en tragártelo sin que te asfixie.
Llegamos a la parte del perdón. No te molestes en perdonarme. Hay cosas más importantes. Por ejemplo: si los demás están a salvo, que lo sigan estando. No permitas que sufran demasiado. Si tienen que morir, procura que sea de forma rápida. Tal vez puedas incluso brindarles un cielo. Para eso Te necesitamos. Para hacer el infierno nos bastamos solos.
Supongo que debería decir que perdono a quien ha hecho esto, quienquiera que haya sido, y lo que hacen ahora, sea lo que fuere. Lo intentaré, pero no es fácil.
Luego viene lo de la tentación. En el centro de internamiento, la tentación significaba mucho más que comer o dormir. Saber era una tentación. Lo que no sepáis no os puede tentar, solía decir Tía Lydia.
Quizá no quiera saber realmente qué está ocurriendo. Quizá sea mejor que lo ignore. Quizá no soportase saberlo. La Caída de Adán fue una caída de la inocencia al conocimiento.
Pienso mucho en la lámpara de araña, aunque ahora ya no está. Pero podría usar un gancho del armario. He analizado las posibilidades. Lo único que habría que hacer después de atarse sería inclinar el peso hacia delante y no ofrecer resistencia.
Líbranos del mal.
A continuación viene lo del reino, el poder y la gloria. Ahora resulta difícil creer en eso. Pero de todos modos lo intentaré. Con esperanza, como ponen en las lápidas.
Debes de sentirte bastante desgarrado. Supongo que no es la primera vez.
Si yo fuera Tú, estaría harta. Ya no podría más. Supongo que ésa es la diferencia entre nosotros.
Me siento irreal hablándote de este modo. Me siento como si le hablara a una pared. Me gustaría que Tú me contestaras. Me siento tan sola.
Completamente sola junto al teléfono. Salvo que no tengo teléfono. Y si lo tuviera, ¿a quién podría llamar?
Oh, Dios. Esto no es ninguna broma. Oh, Dios, oh, Dios. ¿Cómo seguir viviendo?


El cuento de la criada. Margaret Atwood, 1984.

PP2000

Dios da respuestas al que le pregunta pero no a gritos.
Le pasa un poco como a todo el mundo.

ENNAS

De lo que llaman los hombres
virtud, justicia y bondad,
una mitad es envidia.
Y la otra no es caridad.


Campos de Castilla. Antonio Machado, 1912.