Death Sentence: The Decay of Public LanguageKnopf, 2003 - 198 pages Part diatribe, part cool reflection on the state of Australia's public language, Don Watson's Death Sentence is scathing, funny and brilliant. ' ... in public life the language has never been held in less regard. It withers in the dungeons of the technocratic mind. It is butchered by the media. In politics it lacks all qualifications for the main game.' Almost sixty years ago, George Orwell described the decay of language and why this threatened democratic society. But compared to what we now endure, the public language of Orwell's day brimmed with life and truth. Today's corporations, government departments, news media, and, perhaps most dangerously, politicians u speak to each other and to us in cliched, impenetrable, lifeless sludge. Don Watson can bear it no longer. In Death Sentence, part diatribe, part cool reflection on the state of Australia's public language, he takes a blowtorch to the words u and their users u who kill joy, imagination and clarity. Scathing, funny and brilliant, Death Sentence is a small book of profound weight u and timeliness. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American argument Australian become believe better called clichés comes commitment communications concern continuous core corporate course create culture customers dead death democracy describe effect English enhanced equal evil Exercise expect expression fact feel flexible forces forms George give grammar happen hear hope human ideas imagination imitate important improve inspiration interest issue it's kind knowledge leaders least less live look managerial marketing matter means mind moral move nature never once Orwell person phrases political politicians possible President public language reason respect rhetoric seemed sentence social someone sometimes sound speak speech stand strategy sure talk tell thing thought tion true truth turn understand universities values verbs wonder words write
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language A Knopf book |
| Author | Don Watson |
| Publisher | Knopf, 2003 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 28 Feb 2008 |
| ISBN | 1740512065, 9781740512060 |
| Length | 198 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |