On "Politics and the English Language"

In George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language,"  Orwell enumerates the corruptions of English that misconstrue a work's true meaning.   Although some of his specific examples felt a little dated, his overall message still rung true to me.

I really enjoyed his point about "dying metaphors."  Overused metaphors are easy to repeat, however, much of their meaning and the vivid image they were meant to create becomes corrupted with time.

I also especially liked his ideas about "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words."   While reading, both annoy me to no end!  However, his definition of "pretentious diction" was a little broad for my liking.  Perhaps it is because I am guilty of the crime, but I think words like "objective... effective... basic ...constitute .... exhibit... [and] eliminate." are not especially pretentious.  Although I had never thought of many of his "meaningless words" in that way, I immediately saw how words like "romantic" and "vitality" are incredibly vague, even though they may sound specific.  The definition and visual image associated with each of these words varies greatly depending on the reader.  This is likely to cause confusion and misinterpretation.

Despite a few outdated parts, I enjoyed Orwell's essay and found it largely relevant to today.  You'd think that our euphemistic language would have improved since 1946, however, to me at least, most of Orwell's problems still exist today.