Printable View
While I do understand that limiting words such as nouns to be essential for Big Brother to have more control. However I fail to understand why they would have words like doubleplusungood. Newspeak to me just seems like garbled up gibberish, at least with words like this being "smushed" together. Can someone please explain this to me along with why words like doubleplusgood being written the way that it is shown?
The reason why Big brother is removing complex words from the vocabulary of the govern is to limit the ability of expression. Without a mass collection of words to describe a situation or event people cannot state their own personal opinions. For removing words like excellent and grand they replace them with the terms like "doubleplusgood" limiting what a person can say.
Eventually "newspeak" will be so deeply imprinted into the minds of people that they can only think of a few words. Without a wide variety of words or expressions people cannot think to the full extant that is possible and become dumb like the sheep from Orwell's other book "Animal Farm" constantly saying one phrase. They also lose the ability to reason and question without describing words; so the party of Big brother can do whatever they want to government with no fear of revolution.
This whole situation written by Orwell is doubleplusbad.
Big Brother is limiting expression by getting rid of words like freedom and rebellion. Why have your slogan be "freedom is slavery" when you can just remove the word freedom from existence. This also stops people from planning against Big Brother because you can't plan to rebel against them if there is no word for rebellion in the first place. The destruction of words like bad and other normal words is a distraction from the fact that they are even doing this in the first place. They are just making excuses to remove words to benefit themselves.
I believe the reason that the government or Big Brother is trying to eliminate and limit the amount of words that the Party can use is to limit the ability of expression. I also believe "Newspeak" is around to help the government catch and "vaporize" thought criminals or spies within the party. The government uses "Newspeak" to catch thought criminals and spies because if the government limit's the party's use of words to express their feelings and thoughts then it is easy to notice any thought criminals within the party because then they are possibly using older words or words that no longer exist. Also by limiting the party's way of expressing themselves then they untimely eliminate the party's own thoughts and turn them into "brainwashed faithful's." So the main point of "Newspeak" in my opinion is it is a tool used by the government to increase their own power within the party by trying to eliminate all forms of expression.
The purpose of newspeak is to limit the freedom of the people. Big brother has removed vocabulary from the language to limit the ability of expression. By doing so he keeps the governed under his control. In my opinion by "smushing" the words together he is trying to distract people from what is actually occurring. For example by writing such words as "doubleplusungood" people are distracted by the language and lose concentration.
The reason for newspeak is to limit the vocabulary of the people, and to keep them uneducated. If the people cannot even think of the words that they want to use, then they literally cannot communicate their ideas. They may not even be able to think for themselves, and that is just the way that Big Brother wants them. "Smushing" all of the words together is just a way to limit their vocabulary to a few simple words. Like Syme says in the novel, they get rid of antonyms of words, and give them a general suffix or prefix, such as "double", "plus", and "un" to replace them. This will narrow down their ability to communicate, leaving them with a set of words that will only allow them to exchange simple conversation, rather than communicating new ideas and opinions. This is also another way for Big Brother to monitor and regulate the thoughts of the people. People can only think of things that they already know, heard, or have experienced. If they don't know about words like "rebellion" or know what a rebellion is, then there is no way that they can have one.
Newspeak is a tool used by Big Brother to limit expression and therefore maintaining absolute power.
If you can't say it, you can't think of it, which inhibits any possible rebellion or skepticism within a society.
The limiting of adjectives shrinks a human's vocabulary an extraordinary amount and our freedom of expression is obliterated. Your example of "doubleplusungood" would mean terribly bad. This type of speech, although seeming redundant, is a clever tool devised by Big Brother in the fact that it eliminates any words with power, also limiting details that can be given and precision of statements. If the population is never taught the words to describe the "doubleplusungoodness" of their conditions, they cannot understand fully how bad they are being treated, and also cannot share to outside sources.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kydina Lordsee
Orwell knew us better than we knew ourselves sometimes.
Newspeak has already made it's debut into our society today. Now, we wouldn't call it that, because that term has already been coined. So we've come up with a classification for it '#' hashtag.
#YOLO #selfie #goodvibes #lovemylife #djplaythissongagain.
Get what I'm hinting towards.
If you were to search for images related to '#whatevertheheckyoutype' that would essentially be what newspeak should be conveying. We don't actually talk like that ... well, most of us don't.
Now, we don't have telescreens or speak wires to watch everything, or dictate into. Oh, wait a min, that's right. We do. Yet, we don't call them telescreens, and they aren't plastered everywhere by the government. They are called smart phones, like it is a good thing. #smartphone. And they make life so much easier, because anyone can get a hold of you 24/7 any time of day. Wow, #noprivacy, #leavemealone, #myphoneknowsmebetterthananyone.
The demand for getting portable music into your hand was the first step. To repeat their slogans and messages into you everywhere you go. We went willingly. Then they added, cameras, and cellular contact, and GPS tracking with Accelerometers. You know, because, every human needs one. You basically can't live without it. All these lies for profit, and fake demand. Yes they are handy devices. Yet people cling to them with an un healthy addiction. They love BB.
Example. You went to a restaurant with a friend. It took forever to get seated even though the place didn't look busy. After the waitress got you your drinks, she took forever to return to take your order, and it was twice as bad of a wait to get your cold food. The bill comes, and there is an extra order of fries on the bill you never ordered. You and your friend vow to not visit there again.
You text someone
OMG, That place Suuuuuuuuxxxxx. Slowest service ever. Never going back. Couldn't get my order correct.
Newspeak
service doubbleplusungood.
#gettingold #coldestfood #chargedtoomuch #nevercomingback #timeismoney
One thing someone must wonder. Are we building a giant database of images by using key phrases and the # symbol to help classify things.
A Picture is worth a thousand words. So if One were to search the word YOLO on Instagram, what would the resulting searches portray?
Skydiving, bravery, drinking shots, dancing ???
You would get all those ideas and emotions that coincide with that from the characters. Y.O.L.O ... but to know that it means You Only Live Once, may be hard to derive from the photos. But taking risk, and trying something new would be the feelings you should get.
We use newspeak ..... everyday.
Big Brother has reduced the vocabulary of Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, because the government believes strong, precise words would lead to rebellious thoughts of the Party. In other words, it is believed by Big Brother that language can corrupt thought. Words are being changed to less specific words that do not contain much detail. For example, one word associated to the Newspeak language is "doublethink". Doublethink is defined as the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The main idea of Newspeak is to make the language less thoughtful, it causes the mind and thoughts to be more controlled and secure.
Big Brother is limiting vocabulary in Oceania, in his new language called newspeak. I think the purpose of newspeak is to limit expression. Feeling. And also to erase the past. One day any people that knew anything before newspeak will die off and all there will be is newspeak. Big Brother will one day have everyone the way he wants them. Expressionless. Just like little robots.
The point of Newspeak is to make everything plain and boring, to take away words that allow people to express themselves. Big Brother wants it so that people can literally not speak about rebelling or doing anything to ruin his form of government, to strip people of their form of expression and individuality. With Newspeak, people can only talk a certain way with only certain words.