"'Who says you're a race of -' [Langley] paused, realized that there was no word for saint or angel..." (p. 80)
"Scudamour's next remark failed. He had meant to say, 'Thank God you don't,' but presumably there were no words for this in the language he was using."
-CS Lewis, "The Dark Tower" IN Lewis, The Dark Tower and other stories (London, 1983), pp. 15-98 AT p. 65.
In 1984, the limited and simplified vocabulary of Newspeak is an attempt to limit, and ultimately to prevent, thought.
Goethe's Faust corrected "In the beginning was the Word" to "In the beginning was the Deed." Perhaps we can go further and say "In the beginning was no word"?
7 comments:
Word and concept aren't necessarily the same thing. My cats don't know words, but they can communicate concepts quite well.
Sure but symbolic communication gives us so much more conceptualization. A dog can believe that its master is at the door but cannot believe that he will return a week next Thursday.
Kaor, Paul!
And some bits of Orwell's Newspeak jargon has passed into fairly wise use. Such as "doubleplusungood."
Ad astra! Sean
See also a scene in H. Beam Piper's "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen".
...
"And this Zothnes was screaming that there was no god at all but Styphon; now what do you think of that?"
Gasps of horror, and exclamations of shocked piety. One officer was charitable enough to say that the fellow must be mad.
"No he's just a --" A monotheist, Kalvan wanted to say, but there was no word in the language for it.
...
Kaor, Jim!
I am not sure, Kalvan was looking for a concept that did not exist in the language he was using. That's not the same as the totalitarian State in 1984 deliberately simplifying and limiting a language as a means of tightening its rule.
Anderson's "A Tragedy of Errors" might fit in better with your suggestion.
Ad astra! Sean
There is not having a word for a concept because the concept is new and people have to fumble toward a way of expressing it. Then there is deliberately suppressing words for a concept as in Newspeak to make it harder to express it. If well after 1984 the Party collapsed, people would have to invent words for concepts as humans did over earlier millennia.
In the case of "A Tragedy of Errors" both cultures had words for all the relevant concepts, but sometimes used the same words for different concepts.
Three different situations, but I think Newspeak is closer to Kalvan's situation.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree with the first two paragraphs. But I'm still hesitant about the last sentence.
Ad astra! Sean
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