“You see, I’m all about those words…”

I LOVE dystopian literature, and two of my all-time favorite works of the genre are Brave New World (everyone needs to read that book!!!) and 1984. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, I remember being fascinated by the notion that reducing language reduced thought, which in turn expanded the corrupt government’s ability to control its citizens. Words are needed for expression, and when thoughts and emotions cannot be expressed the words do not exist, it creates a limited, inhibited existence.

I’ve been thinking about that profound truth ever since a former colleague sent me this article from The Guardian. Granted the article is not so morose as the opening of my post, but author Paul Anthony Jones does write about the passion he feels for language and how that passion can be shared. He writes:

From my perspective, as a writer keen to expound my love of language, offering up a juicy linguistic morsel, like hogamadog, is a great way, too, of piquing a reader’s interest, and using it as a gateway to explain some wonderful etymological connection, or some complex linguistic phenomenon, that might otherwise be too dry or obscure to be appreciated out of context.

Paul Anthony Jones, “Flapdoodler, roorback, yulehole: Why forgotten words need rescuing from obscurity”

Language is a universal element of all cultures. It is an integral and invaluable tool of communication, which human beings need to do in order to survive, let alone thrive. Communication leads to connection, which leads to an infinite number of reasons worth staying alive for. For me as a writer, language is especially important because it’s how we tell our stories. And as author Margaret Atwood says:

Storytelling is not a luxury to humanity; it’s almost as necessary as bread. We cannot imagine ourselves without it, because the self is a story.

Margaret Atwood

Language is essential to communication and expression, which are themselves essential to the survival of the human race. Orwell understood this and explores this notion in his dystopian masterpiece, 1984. We should all pay closer attention when words are added or removed from use because those changes in language and changes in the way we are able to think and express those thoughts.

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