From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: (urth) Loyal to the Group of Seventeen
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:31:37 -0700

Matthew asks:

> > >Has anyone mentioned this is a response/riposte to Orwell 
> and Nuspeak?

and Hartshorn replies:

> It is obvious that it is derived from 1984 and Nuspeak.   The 
> idea that the Ascian's war may be derived from the eternal war
> between Oceana/Eastasia/Eurasia is a good one.

Ummm ... well, maybe a little, but the speech patterns of the 
Ascians are _not_ derived from Newspeak. They are a clear and
luminous reference to the habit that was for many years common 
in mainland China and among certain groups of "liberal" 
"intellectuals" in the US, of constantly quoting from the sayings
of Mao Zedong -- or Mao Tse-Tung, as it was then spelled -- and
treating such quotes as the final authority, in much the way some
fundamentalist Christians treat quotes from Scripture.

--Blattid


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