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Thanks, Fathom, for this essay. (Apologies for only now getting around to reading it!) I used to assign Orwell’s English language as retribution to bombastic students; eventually, I took to assigning it to the whole of classes as the first assignment of the semester. There was (and is, I suspect) something in the brain of a post-grad that compels him to write such avoidably bad codswallop. It needed to be ripped up by the roots as soon as possible!

In retrospect, I suppose I should have also assigned Nineteen Eighty-Four — if not for my sake, then for the sake of the future of western civilization.

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