Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Fascists by any other name; Decent English; Bad poetry; Good art; & Me and my WiFi.


I've said more that once over the years that, through overuse, the word 'fascist' has lost all its pejorative weight here in Spain, and now merely means "I disagree with you". I discovered last night that Orwell got there well before me, writing in 1946 that:- The word 'Fascism' has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable'.

In the same article - on the degeneration of English - Orwell gave the following rules for Anglo writers. Personally, I would add a 7th - Never enumerate your points with Roman numerals. And an 8th - Never put brackets around your numbers. Anyone got any more?
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
And, finally, his wonderful 6th rule: (vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Of course, one man's 'barbarous' isn't necessarily that of the next man . . . For example, someone I don't know of, Kristen Stewart, has been lambasted for this piece of poetry - the sort of stuff to which the word 'execrable' is usually attached for the benefit of the majority. Though there will be some - apart from Miss Stewart - who will like it. Or say they do:-

My Heart Is A Wiffle Ball/Freedom Pole

I reared digital moonlight 

You read its clock, scrawled neon 

across that black 

Kismetly … ubiquitously crest fallen 

Thrown down to strafe your foothills...

I'll suck the bones pretty.

Your nature perforated the abrasive 

organ pumps 

Spray painted everything known to man, 

Stream rushed through and all out into 

Something 

Whilst the crackling stare down sun snuck 

Through our windows boarded up 

He hit your flint face and it sparked.

And I bellowed and you parked 

We reached Marfa. 


One honest day up on this freedom pole 

Devils not done digging 

He's speaking in tongues all along the 
pan handle 
And this pining erosion is getting dust in My eyes

I know about this because a columnist has produced examples of famous names turning out stuff she thinks is easily as bad as poor Kristen's attempt. Here's one, from Wordsworth:-

And to the left, three yards beyond,

You see a little muddy pond

Of water--never dry 

I measured it from side to side:
'
Twas four feet long, and three feet wide.

Talking of art . . .You'll have heard of the guy who picked up and then dropped an antique jar decorated/desecrated by the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. This has raised the question of whether this was a million dollar act of vandalism or an example of uproariously funny Performance Art. Especially as the guy dropped said jar against the background of a large foto of Ai doing exactly that. I don't know the answer to this very modern quandary but it beats trying to quantify angels on a pinhead.

The Environment

January: 31 days. On which it rained: 28 - 93% 

February: 22 days. On which it has rained: 22 - 100%. 
So, 50 out of 53 - 94%.


WiFi note: On my way to bed last night, I tripped over the modem cable and brought it crashing to the ground. This morning, I discovered that the WiFi wasn't working. So switched it on and off, to find that I now had a speed of 1.4megas. The highest I've ever had and more than 4 times that of one night this week. So, there's one solution to my problem; throw the modem onto the floor. Maybe.

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