Return: The Sharpener
Wah-hey! I’m back from my unannounced break from blogging — more about which in another post. And just in time to witness the relaunch (in glorious technicolor) of The Sharpener. This is a group blog dedicated to politics and culture with writers from a wide cross-section of the blogging spectrum. There’s a handful from the lunatic fringes to demonstrate inclusiveness… tories, economists, even me. So you never know what you’re going to get.
Hopefully what will unite the contributors will be the quality of writing. Plus integrity, fairness and honesty. There’s a whole lot of approaches to political writing. The worst kind involves deliberate partisan dishonesty; an attempt to hoodwink the reader through the manipulation and selective presentation of facts. The best kind shows the reader a glimpse of the world through the eyes of the writer… it gently takes their hand, points out of the window and calmly says “See? That’s why I feel the way I do.”
Once in a while I like to think I veer towards that “better” end of the scale. George Orwell was a master at it. As is my friend Merrick. Quite a few of the writers over at The Sharpener hit the mark too. So head on over there and bookmark the place. It’ll be good.
George Orwell was a master at it.
No he wasn’t no he wasn’t no he wasn’t. Wasn’t wasn’t wasn’t. Was not was not was not. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he jolly well was no such thing, not at all, no way, nohow. And contrariwise.
(I myself, on the other hand…)
May 2nd, 2006 | 5:10pm
by Phil
I too am baffled at the Orwell worship. He’s alright, but nothing fantastic in my view.
May 3rd, 2006 | 12:45am
by Simstim
Well, it’s a bit like this Simstim… the people of the world can be divided, roughly, into two camps. On one side you have those who consider Orwell the finest political writer in the English language. On the other side you have everyone else: murderers, child molesters, people who say Orwell is “nothing fantastic”, economists, rapists… y’know? The dregs of society.
Quite simple really.
May 3rd, 2006 | 8:54pm
by Jim
Well, he can be both “the finest political writer in the English language” AND “nothing fantastic”. I am, of course, measuring him against an objective standard of literary value, as opposed to your cultural relativism…
May 4th, 2006 | 12:29pm
by Simstim