After Thursday's exam, I was reminded of my neglect for keeping up my blog on the HCJ lectures.
Firstly, it has been the most fascinating compliment to the hustle and bustle of WINOL: it's been good to sit down in a proper, intelectual environment.
Looking back on the course, I have been most fascinated by Orwell's 1984. It's incredible how Orwell managed to see things from outside the box, as it were. The scary thing is that we don't actually KNOW how much our government hides from us. Clearly the obvious points to make surround the Ministry of Defence/War and other examples of NewSpeak.
I know from personal experience how manipulation of language has had a devastating impact. In Soviet Poland, many old Polish folk songs were altered to remove any anti-Soviet sentiments within them. Now, the only versions of these songs that exist are those that were doctored by the communists.
Anyway enough about Soviet Poland. The funniest version of Orwellian deception that I can recall was in the lead-up to the latest Gulf War. In an interview with John Humphries on Radio 4's Today programme, Jack Straw went back on a statement he had made earlier in the interview. He was so adamant that he hadn't said anything that Humphries was left laughing at him!
Over the coming days I will be reviewing the HCJ lectures with a blog on each of the key topic areas so watch out for them!
That's fascinating about changing the words of the folk songs on the Soviet period. You should definately do something about that.
ReplyDeleteAlas the promised updates written about here have not come to pass...