Joe O’Neill on Orwell’s “Language & Politics”
Dr. Joe O’Neill’s talk was well attended and well received at the August 18 meeting of the Karl Hess Club, held at Dinah’s restaurant on Sepulveda.
As you might expect, Dr. O’Neill covered the language of Big Brother justifying security cameras everywhere and useful war propaganda terms such as “pacification.” While shared media culture seems to be suppressing youth slang these days, Hollywood is causing plenty of damage to standard English usage all by itself.
Here’s some more background on the speech from the KHC description.
“Orwell’s 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, is an affirmation of radical politics, an insightful cognitive psychological commentary, and a style manual for written English prose.”
“Joe O’Neill has been a Libertarian since the Orwellian year of 1984. He credits Orwell with inspiring his lifelong support of pro-freedom, anti-fascist causes (e.g., gun rights, drug rights, civil liberties, and isolationist foreign policy).”
“Dr. O’Neill has studied Orwell, other literature, and formal linguistics. He has worked as a translator and teacher of languages, including English as a foreign language. Together with KHC member playwright Ben Pleasants, Joe is currently translating a novel by the East German writer Falko Hennig about growing up behind the Iron Curtain.”
“Dr. O’Neill is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences. “
MP3 1 hr 38 min
