Good and Bad, Then and Now: a contest
by
DrNo
07/05/2008, 9:00 PM #
George Orwell, in his essay Politics and the English Language, said this:
I am going to translate
a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here
is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to
the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,
nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill;
but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Here it is in modern English:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel
the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities
exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that
a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken
into account.
Here's the challenge:
Find a well-written, simple-English passage and transpose it into meaningless, jargon-ridden doggerel referencing nothing concrete.
The winner, judged by me, will receive compensatory virtual digital-appendage application accolade upon sensitive upper extremities (cyber slap-on-the-back).