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A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English Language andwhat we can — and must — do about it.

When was the last time you heard a politician use words that rang with truth and meaning? Do your eyes glaze over when you read a letter from your bank or insurance company addressing you as a valued customer? Does your mind shut down when your employer starts talking about making a commitment going forward or enhancing your key competencies? Are you enervated by in terms of, irritated by impactful, infuriated by downsizing, rightsizing, decruiting, and dejobbing? Does business process re-engineering and attriting fail to give you ramp-up — in terms of your personal lifestyle?

Today's corporations, news media, education departments — and, perhaps most troubling, politicians — speak to us and to each other in clichéd, impenetrable, lifeless babble. Toni Morrison has called it the "disabled and disabling" language of the powerful, "evacuated language," and "dead language." Orwell called it "anesthetic" language. In Death Sentences, Don Watson takes up the fight against it: the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, the buzzwords, the weasel words and cant, the Newspeak of a kind Orwell could not have imagined. Published in Australia in November 2003, Death Sentences gained a massive following among the legions of bright, sensitive people who Could Not Take It Anymore. More than a year later, it remains a national bestseller.

In this Australian bestseller, Watson takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, buzzwords, weasel words, and "Newspeak" of the kind Orwell could not have imagined. His brilliant and scathing exploration of the sorry state of the English language reveals what people can — and must — do about it.

The publisher of Lynne Truss' phenomenally successful Eats, Shoots & Leaves [BKL Je 1 & 15 04] now brings out a book on language that has been a best-seller in Australia. It is not, like Truss' book, a treatise on punctuation; however, it does share that book's passionate concern about the erosion of language, especially public discourse as practiced by businesspeople, academics, journalists, and politicians. Watson makes an eloquent, elegant, and sometimes scathing case for taking back the language from those who would strip it of all color and emotion and, therefore, of all meaning. Watson deploys devastating examples of the deadening effect of our current use of language by recasting the Gettysburg Address and Shakespearean dialogue in corporate business-speak. Furthermore, he argues that politicians use obfuscating language to foster a climate of deceit: "Spin abounds. Whatever is most hackneyed triumphs. . . . Language goes out the window, and with [it] many opportunities for humor, spontaneity, originality, and surprise." With admirable clarity and logic, Watson makes the decay of language an issue of prime importance for everyone, not just wordsmiths.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Joanne Wilkinson

Don Watson is one of Australia's best-known writers and public intellectuals. For more than twenty-five years he has written books, essays, and reviews for the stage and television. For part of his life he was a political satirist and for another part a political speechwriter, including four years with Paul Keating, the former Labor Prime Minister. His 2001 Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM was a #1 national bestseller and a multiple award winner. He lectures widely on writing and language.

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