Excerpts from Death Sentence and other quotes

To give you some context for this blog I am first of all reproducing some text I wrote about a book I wrote about in an earlier blog:
Death Sentence – the decay of public language by Don Watson. This is a really good book. I had been eyeing it off nervously on the shelves at my local library. I was assuming that it would be a dry and perhaps impenetrable text. But Watson does a simply terrific job of making it readable and witty as well as being scholarly and academic. The book examines public language – trends in speech making, pamphlet writing, policy writing, and media reporting – past and present. Watson unpicks some of the faults of present day public language and expounds on the damage these do not just to the way we all speak and write, but also perhaps to the way we think and feel. Alongside Watson’s text the book is littered with quotes and commentaries that highlight both the best and the worst of public language. Thus you will have a wedge of incomprehensible managerial rubbish alongside a quote from George Orwell. I recommend this book as a most interesting and thought provoking read. I would go so far as to say that it is a must read for anyone who works with language either as a professional or an enthusiastic hobbyist (all you bloggers out there…)

I have reproduced below some of the quotes that Watson includes in his book. First I will start with excerpts of the public language that Watson rails against in this book:

As we know, there are no known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know. P 45. Donald Rumsfeld

This kind of language puts me in mind of nonsense poetry such as Jabberwocky by Lewis Carol:
(From Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Although Rumsfeld is using real words instead of made up ones he isn’t making much more sense than Lewis Carrol in the above excerpt.

This next quotation reminds me of the character of Sir Humphrey Appleby in the British TV series Yes Minister:
Funding for legal aid is increasingly meeting less of the demand, but allocating additional funds on a one-off basis without a specific reason may be seen as an admission by the Government that funding is insufficient. P.113 department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet.

The above quote is Applebyesque in its peculiar and sinister circular logic, although it lacks the highly wrought structure and over educated vocabulary of Sir Humphrey when he really hits his straps. Here is a quote from the TV series -
In view of the somewhat nebulous and inexplicit nature of your remit and the arguably marginal and peripheral nature of your influence within the central deliberations and decisions within the political process that there could be a case for re-structuring their action priorities in such a way as to eliminate your liquidation from their immediate agenda.

And no blog mentioning ridiculous and abused public language would be complete without a token quote from Dubbya. Ah! But there are so many to choose from! Here is one that makes me laugh out loud:

We need to counter the shock wave of the evil doer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates. P. 81. George W. Bush.

Next I have reproduced some excerpts from great speeches that exemplify the best in public language. Some will be most familiar, such as this one:

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. P. 63 Winston Churchill.

This is not high falutin’ or sophisticated English, but it is, when you consider just why Churchill was making the speech, the very best public language for this particular broadcast. Churchill gives us a series of simple yet stark visual images in a series of short phrases that build up a punchy and urgent rhythm. The effect is desperate but compelling. As simple as the vocabulary is, by focusing on imagery the language still verges on the poetic and this contributes to the emotive pull of the speech. As public language this is genius – both the worst and best educated people listening to Churchill’s broadcast were transported into his head to share his vision. There is everything in the language to include them in this vision and nothing to alienate them from it.

Here is an excerpt from another famous speech (and this one never fails to move me to tears):

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of the creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the hate of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. P. 53. Martin Luther King, Address at the Lincoln Memorial.

Again we have language that is simple and accessible and verges on the poetic. Here is another excerpt from a great speech that Watson quotes:

‘Thus sir, has the perversion of British commerce carried misery instead of happiness to one whole quarter of the globe,’ William Pitt told the Commons.

False to the very principle of trade, misguided in our policy, and unmindful of our duty, what astonishing – I had almost said, what irreparable – mischief we have brought upon that continent. How shall we ever repair this mischief? How shall we hope to obtain, if it be possible, forgiveness from heaven for those enormous evils we have committed, if we refuse to make use of those means for which the mercy of Providence hath still reserved to us for wiping away the guilt and shame with which we are now covered?

Watson writes: “ ‘Covered’ in guilt and shame. ‘Wiping’ it away. We can only wonder at these sentiments. “ P68.

I guess this blog has just been a random collection of quotes supplied by Watson in his book paired with a few quotes they brought to my mind. It is pointless my trying to provide any commentary when Watson does it so much better. I will just recommend this book.