#7 Wednesday Words: Oh, Orwell!

Greetings! Today’s Wednesday Words forewarns us about quoting George Orwell, author of the dystopian novel, 1984. Have you read it? If so, you know the following, as stated on the website: Nineteen Eighty-four | Summary, Characters, Analysis, & Facts | Britannica

“Nineteen Eighty-four, novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism. The novel’s chilling dystopia made a deep impression on readers, and Orwell’s ideas entered mainstream culture in a way achieved by very few books. The book’s title and many of its concepts, such as Big Brother and the Thought Police, are instantly recognized and understood, often as bywords for modern social and political abuses.”

Source of cautionary advice

A couple of years ago, one of my writerly friends gifted me a thought-provoking, witty, and entertaining book: A Readers Book of Days, by Tom Nissley.

Nissley is an eight-time champion on Jeopardy who took time to compile significant happenings for every day of the year about writers and associated folks like publishers, friends, and lovers. Entries include births and deaths, and incidents of all sorts. I love reading this in the morning and thinking about what I read during the rest of the day.

September 8th & the great Orwell

In Nissley’s book, what happened on September 8, 2002 includes this from Judith Shulevitz in the New York Times commenting on Christopher Hitchens’s article, Why Orwell Matters:

“As Hitchens and just about every other political columnist knows, quoting Orwell is like quoting Scripture. You can find support for almost any argument if you leaf through his collected writings long enough, because he wrote about nearly everything that mattered and was never afraid to change his mind when circumstances proved some earlier assumption incorrect.”

Let that be a lesson to all of us. When new knowledge comes to light, do we hang on to the old, outdated, or wrong stuff?

Thanks for reading!