trying to pass it on
BASTARD.
]]>I look forward to a future where publishing catches up with the age... but in the interim, your essays in this area have pushed me away from the consumption of pirated books and into an unwilling acceptance of walled gardens and other horrors.
]]>Neologisms and references to people and events are a bit cheaty, really, no? It's most effective when a word has one meaning to the present reader but another to a future reader, or where a new word provides inaccurate clues to the real meaning (like the reference to a 'droid' - if it were an entirely novel word, the reader could frankly admit to ignorance. 'Droid' would actively mislead and confuse).
]]>It doesn't seem so long ago since I first encountered the contemporary use of 'austerity' as a euphemism for 'swingeing cuts in public spending' as opposed to an ascetic lifestyle choice or an unfortunate state of deprivation possibly glamourized in retrospect ('Dig for Britain' and whatnot). I'd imagine that someone from a decade or so ago would likely have been unable to interpret the above correctly; and an intelligent reader, if pushed to give meaning to it, might have imagined it to be some kind of satirical statement mocking American consumerism.
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