September 24, 2012
What's the Big Idea, Locke?
Locke's view on language and how it needs to be purified is one thing. But wanting a plain style of text, who would ever want that? As writers we create works that would appeal to an audiance. Plain text is so boring, in my opinion. But I get what he is saying in a way, to make text a universal symbol, something that everyone can understand. He says that words represent ideas, not things. I agree with this, but sometimes in areas such as poetry and other descriptive senses words can represent things symbolically. I agree with everyone when they sy Locke's style of writing is contradicting to his message. However, his message gives us a different view point on what text can be. Also, if it was as plain as he proposes it should be, I would have a lot more difficulty reading through it.
1 comment:
As boring as plain text is, I think it serves a purpose of direct understanding. I think they did have a radical change from the flowery language of previous years to simple plain language, but it does get the clear message across without much interpretation from the "decoration" of the words. I can see both sides of the argument-- I see value in rhetorically-enhanced text, and plain text. Now, however, I think we have found that there is a time and place for each.
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