Politics and the English Language by Orwell

In "Politics and the English Language", Orwell provides six rules for writers:

* Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
* Never use a long word where a short one will do.
* If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
* Never use the passive where you can use the active.
* Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
* Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

—George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, Horizon, April 1946 [67]

Should We Manipulate Our Dreams?

A comment on Should We Manipulate Our Dreams?


"Normal dreams are normally unpleasant."

Dear Sir,

I am so lazy to read after the first lines of what you have written here. Let me tell you why. First of all I can write 1000 pages of text on why "normal dreams are NOT normally unpleasant" and many of my contemporaries will do the same.

I am really sorry but I hope that I am not being offensive about your insights. I am also sorry for my poor delivery of English in this 'small comment box' I don't get paid for putting my ideas by NYTimes and I don't do re-writing. So, let me get back to the first statement on why normal dreams are NOT unpleasant.

Let us assume that Mr. A is a normal guy and he lives in normal world and he has normal life. The usage of word: 'normal' is simply pointing to an ordinary life. When Mr. A is normal guy then it is not necessary that he also lives normal life. Well, to some extent he is bounded to live and sustain normal life but it not a predicament that he must live a normal life.

Therefore, When Mr. A is not living normal life then
Mr. A can live either abnormal life or Mr. A can live an extraordinary life.

The point is: Not all normal dreams are unpleasant.

To clarify please think about this:

Mr. A lives normal life then he must either dream normally or abnormally. If he dreams normally then he has greater chance of being rather pleasant than unpleasant. I think this is simple mathematics. If he dreams abnormally then he has greater chance of being rather unpleasant than pleasant.

Whatever be the case, I do not agree that all normal dreams are normally unpleasant.

The reasons are:

1. Normal dreams are manifestation of everyday reality.
2. What we dream is either for our future or is about things happening in the present.
3. Our consciousness and unconsciousness theory are outdated which needs to be re-written.


Anyways, I clearly understand the point you guys are trying to make for 'manipulation of dreams' and I think this is very much possible. I know how...

Thank you for bearing these texts with me.

Defining Prosperity Down

A comment on Defining Prosperity Down


Dear Sir Paul,

Thank you very much for your information but this is not of any help.

I am sorry but please bear with me for few seconds. Personally, I agree much of what you have to say here. Yes, joblessness is growing. There are people who are 'thinking' on how to fetch a job. On the other hand, there are those who have low wage jobs.

True that politicians (either democrat or republican) put blind ears to much of job creation. It is also true that they are not only to blame.

The blame goes to rich and elite industry owners who were once responsible to create jobs and who once gave people jobs.

The underemployment rate is growing and it will grow in near future. We are responsible for developing 'who cares' society. Now, we have to face the consequences.

I think the 'economic distress' will be norm in the future society. It is better to pack bags and run towards developing world. All the jobs given are in the developing world. When Mr. A can do same work as Mr. B in low wages why to employ Mr. B? I think, the same idea is followed by most of this big fat industries nowadays.

I hope you will get this point. The point is very simple. The bottom line is jobs will decline if not taken righteous action.

Thank you
and
May God bless us !

Society needs to change

This is with reference to the article by Arun Gupto “Contraries & contradictions” (july 21). I first of all would like to thank the writer for jotting down such a good piece and bringing into light the disorder and senseless things happening in Nepal.

            As pointed out by the writer, it is true that politicians say something and do something else but they are not only to be blamed. I would rather blame the society that we have developed. Until and unless we change our social values and practices, politicians alone won’t do and can’t do much for the country because they are also the product of the same society. In this light, people living in the society should be taught to be responsible for their own actions and  to be accountable to others while representing them.

            Furthermore, Nepal needs visionary leaders. Only such leaders can do something for the developement of the country. The practice of anybody joining politics should be discoraged. Personally, I don’t think putting blame on politicians alone will have any effect in bringing change in the country.

Published: Republica
Letter to the Editor

Its a beautiful day

Random thoughts

1. She is fearful that I will destroy her life but she is unaware of her own actions which has painful reactions.
2. Enjoy your days here, do what you feel right and break any rules. There are no rules under the sun.
3. Oh dear woman, do not feel proud of your white skin, it may burn in summer’s light.
4. She is fearful that I will destroy her life but she is unaware of her own actions which has painful reactions.
5. I am the king of romance and beggar of hatred.
6. A dying lady is growing on me. She wants me to smile everyday to keep a doctor away.
7. They say that I evolved from monkeys. I ask: where is my tail?
8. Oh dear Friday, why don't you come everyday? You are sweeter than Monday and sexier than Thursday.
9. If you like someone do not forget to hug. A touch will touch deeper than ocean and words will float like a boat.
10. Always be fearless. Walk like lion, talk like pigeons, live like elephants and love like an infant child.
11. Remember you are here for very short stay.Give what you have got and worry not. All your treasures are hidden beneath you.Start digging now.
12. I am enjoying the state of perfect happiness. This is so great. I am like a bird which lives without nest and does not want to rest.
13. I don't do drugs. I am addicted to words.
14. Happy week-end to all beautiful souls. Enjoy your days and forget what I have said.
15. Do not manipulate your ideas and thoughts. Let it be virgin and fresh.
16. I got sick obsession to play with an English alphabets. I am fcuking genius.
17. If music is food for life then please serve me everyday.
18. I am the king of romance and beggar of hatred.

My first chapbook entitled, "Warrior of light" accepted by NPB

My first chapbook is accepted by New Polish Beat. The chapbook is entitled, "Warrior of light". The chapbook has been edited by: A.J. Kaufmann


New Polish Beat is a small press committed to publishing modern poets from Europe and USA, poets working with style and passion.
We operate out of Poznan, Poland and are founded/run by Polish poet and songwriter, A.J. Kaufmann. Our chapbooks are printed in runs of hand-numbered, highly collectible 25 copies and cost $5 each (+ $2 shipping & handling).

To order these books, simply send an e-mail to aj_kaufmann@yahoo.com, indicate which chapbook(s) do you want to purchase and wait for an e-mail with further ordering info.

Travelling

Life is a journey
and travelling is fun

you meet people and those
people are no different than you

there are amazing sights
and insights,

there are beauties which
cannot be described

you should open your heart
and feel the deepness
of undiscovered lands


you meet people
for a while
and then finally
you have to depart

as city is a lady
and she will seduce
you to stay with you

but you have to leave her alone
and move on

because yet another city is waiting
to welcome you my lord.

A Conversation

The conversation begins with the human psychiatrist saying,

doctor, i have terrible news
YOU SAY YOU HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS
yes, there is a computer program at m.i.t. that'll ruin us
WHY DO YOU SAY THAT
i have seen it working
YOU SAY YOU HAVE SEEN IT WORKING
it's frightening-you must see it
YOU THINK I MUST SEE IT
you sound depressed to me
IN YOUR FANTASY PERHAPS WE SOUND DEPRESSED TO
EACH OTHER
yes-perhaps
I UNDERSTAND
i do too
YOU SAY YOU DO TOO
we are both in the same boat with respect to that computer
LET'S CONTINUE TO TALK ABOUT YOU-SHALL WE
you are a comfort
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I AM A COMFORT
at a time like this you want to talk about me
WHY DO YOU THINK I WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOU
because you share my feelings about that damned computer
WHAT DOES THAT SUGGEST TO YOU
that, of course, you hate computers too
YOU THINK I HATE COMPUTERS TOO
why not, they're hardly human, are they
PERHAPS THAT'S WHAT WE ARE HERE TO FIND OUT
no computer could converse as you can, for example
OH
i can't understand how anyone could be fooled by a mere
machine
CAN'T YOU REALLY
no. after all, there is nothing creative about a computer
program
YOU ARE BEING NEGATIVE
i am convinced i am correct
ARE YOU WORRIED TO HAVE BEEN CONVINCED YOU ARE
CORRECT
no, not in the least, not at all. not even a little.
YOU ARE BEING NEGATIVE
you said you agreed with me, didn't you
IS THAT WHAT YOU HEARD ME SAY
why don't you try to dissuade me-computers diddle with
numbers, that's all
YOU WISH ME TO TRY TO DISSUADE YOU
you can't
YOU THINK i CAN'T
for example, could a computer in a conversation like this raise
a new topic
YOU SEEM TO HAVE AVOIDED SPEAKING OF YOUR
PARENTS ALTOGETHER
precisely as you just did
YOU THINK I JUST DID
yes, and that's what shows the difference between a man and a
computer
I SEE


From the book by Carl Sagan: Dragon of Eden

LOVERS AND MADMEN

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all
compact . . .

WM. SHAKESPEARE

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Mere poets are as sottish as mere drunkards are,
who live in a continual mist,
without seeing or judging anything clearly.
A man should be learned in several sciences,
and should have a reasonable, philosophical,
and in some measure a mathematical head,
to be a complete and excellent poet. . .

JOHN DRYDEN

Few thoughts of the day

1. Sometimes, even THE GOD can go mad.

2. I can provide you more wisdom than your HOLY scriptures but you haven't understood it yet.All your theism and non-theism talks are useless.

3. I like to play with an English alphabets. It is similar to, a women's ornament. Man will never know how to use it and women will waste it.

4. We haven't understood the psychology of human mind. If we can then we will but we never will.

5. Enjoy every bit of your life to the fullest. Your compromises and sacrifices will be rewarded.

6. I maybe born through a biological process but I choose to come into being and I will go without informing.

7. The ultimate goal of science and religion is to discover potentials of truth.

8. The fools among us are presented to be wise and the wise among us are presented to be fools.

9. The theory of everything is the theory of nothing.

10. If we are interrelated with one another via thoughts and ideas then we are in virtual relationship with outer cosmos.

11. Everywhere I go and everyone I see have problems. All form of species have problem tag attached to them.

12. Being bored does not mean one cannot do anything. Being bored simply means: Need for change.

13. Everybody is searching for something which is not here.

On Religion

Those who love God/god will always love

Those who do not believe in God will never believe

Why are we inducing our insights on common people?

If you are intellectually fulfilled then it does not necessarily

Means that you should make fool of your intelligence.

Religion will never be dead and be dead.

What is not dead is spiritualism. We are bunch of spirits

Or soul and we are here for short periods of time.

This is our standard existence. If we follow moral, ethical, social

and humanistic principals. We will be blessed among ourselves.

There is no need to worry and doubt other’s intelligence, we

Are here and we will be here in one form or another.

The philosophy of life is not life of philosophy rather journey

towards sustainable peace and prosperity. Remember, the more

Differences you will create, the more difference you will have

to solve. We are the problems and we have the solutions.




Published: Asphodel Madness

Another poem accepted by Asphodel Madness

Good news ! I think I am soon going to be a "poet". Very funny !

The good news is that yet another poem has been accepted by Asphodel Madness, edited by Ross Vassilev

Here is the link : 

http://asphodelmadness.blogspot.com/2010/07/let-us-play.html

you may click above... to read a poem.

Thank you and Happy Reading !

The summer joy

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
                                               -William Shakespeare,
                                                  The Sonnets, XVIII(18)

When Shakespeare wrote these lines in his collection of The Sonnets, he must have touched the hearts of his readers. As I am Shakespearean myself, I love the melodies of words and the passion. Looking deeper to dig the treasure behind these two lines, here Shakespeare compare his art as lovely and profound as the days in the summer.
    Unlike Shakespeare's justification for his love and the summer, I would assume it has also negative impacts on the lives of human beings all around the world. The summer heat and the sweating body are very normal. With an immense increase in body temperature, it can cause serious illness. As the mercury is increasing in all the corners of globe there is no doubt skin burn, headache, diarrhea and sickness might increase if not taken proper diets or needful care.
    Most of the times, I am traveling from one country to another and while journeying, I feel the summer heat getting up into my throat.
   Especially in Northern Europe, the winter lasts long and the summer season is not very long. You know what? People in these parts of the world take 'Vitamin D' tablets as they lack the heat from the Sun or especially during winter times. So, it is apparent that people living there do not get required amount of heat for the body. On the one hand the winter is cold, windy and frustrating, on the other hand, summer heat brings pleasure, delight and fun. The summer heat that the sun brings is pleasant. In the East, as most of us fall in the middle of the equator on the earth, we are fortunate enough to experience the summer heat for long.
   Summer provides one of the best occasions to mingle, laugh, play and smile around.
    Undoubtedly, in every country the summer is the warmest season and days are longer and nights are shorter. On the one hand we have to take precaution not to let sun harm us. On the other hand, we have to enjoy the smiling sun somehow.

Published: Republica, 12 July, 2010
Vol. II No. 080, page 04

To blog or not to blog?

Paul-the octopus

Paul-the octopus is covered in all the major newspaper media. Everybody knows by now that the famous Octopus has predicted that Spain will the world cup. I don’t understand why there is so much of hype going on in the media.

Yes, it is true that the prediction game played by Octopus is worthy of notice and whenever prediction has become true, people have started to belive in the octopus. Newspaper industry run on the basis of what people want to read and current happenings all over the world. Therefore, I don’t want to blame neither newspaper industry nor general people.

In my opinion, nothing can be trusted fully. We are overdosed by information around us. If you can’t find any single bit of information, you know where to look for. Majority of us will use--  ‘Google dai’ to search for the information but Google has its own problems. Similar case applies to other online and print media.  Sometimes, I feel that it is a media which runs the society, not the other way around.

The write-ups about Paul-the octopus shows that people just want to believe on something. On one hand, whoever wins the worldcup match, a history will be written. On the other hand, if the prediction happens to be true, then large number of people will believe in Mr. Paul-the octopus.

Nobody is perfect and in my opinion neither animal nor human beings are perfect. For example, with every pencil comes, a eraser. If to err is a human and just-in-case, our famous anchestor octopus fails then what should it be called, “to err is an animal" ....?

One poem accepted by Asphodel Madness

Good news ! I think I am soon going to be a "poet". Very funny !

The good news is that one poem has been accepted by Asphodel Madness, edited by Ross Vassilev

Here is the link : 

http://asphodelmadness.blogspot.com/2010/07/morning-breeze.html

you may click above... to read a poem.

Thank you and Happy Reading !

Ernest Hemingway Speech

«Having no facility for speech-making and no command of oratory nor any domination of rhetoric, I wish to thank the administrators of the generosity of Alfred Nobel for this Prize.

No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility. There is no need to list these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.

It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart. Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.

I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it. Again I thank you.»


Source: Noble prize

O himalaya, o himalaya

O himalaya, o himalaya


Come upon me,

upon my behest

show me:



love, joy,

fairies, butterfly

fairness, friendship,

art, wisdom

fiction and poetry



O himalaya, o himalaya



but show me not:

hatred, pain, sorrow, anger

frustration, sadness and despair



thou lives no long

share my betterside

for once and for all



O himalaya, o himalaya!

Octave Mirbeau

"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretenses of your civilization which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilized world."


- Octave Mirbeau