Monday 25 May 2015

Jaime de Wolfe and Paulette Cooper...you rock...who's the other guy?

Jamie_DeWolf_Paulette_Cooper2
Well, the language you see in Scientology leaflets is not what Mark Twain, Melville or Hawthorne would have expected but I am not sure it is because Sea Org aliens (that's how British customs refer to foreigners).
Hubbard himself was a very poor writer because he was careless and never took the time to polish his syntax and to avoid repetitions like any other writer would do. People born into Scientology are cut away from civilisation. They know Manuelita Saenz existed because there is a reference to Simon Bolivar in "The Responsibility of Leaders" otherwise they would have never heard of them. I am sure the average young American Sea Org member doesn't know who Emily Dikinson or George Sand were.
Scientologists in general are sucked into ignorance because anything outside Hubbard or Scientology is not worthwhile. I re read recently 1984 and there is a conversation between Winston and one of his colleagues where they describe the process of gradually eliminating words and concepts. Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum. It reminded me of having to simplify texts in Scientology PR because of the possibility of misunderstood words, once I quoted Voltaire's Candide and my senior had concerns about the complexity of the language. (In theory any French High school student should be able to understand it).
I remember also a meeting in which an expert on a legal case was criticised for using the word "catharsis" this was in French of course, but it is just a Greek word which was used by a psychologist in the following sense:
2 (Merrian Webster's)
a : purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art
b : a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension
The use of language in Scientology is far from ideal in the US, but in French, German or Italian that have more complex grammar the result is either appalling or utterly funny. Just for fun a quotation from "Much ado about nothing" on the arrest of two suspects...
DOGBERRY
One word, sir: our watch, sir, have indeed
comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would
have them this morning examined before your worship.
LEONATO
Take their examination yourself and bring it me: I
am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.
DOGBERRY
It shall be suffigance.
LEONATO Drink some wine ere
you go: fare you well.

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