1984 Foreword, The Principles of Newspeak

[jbor]

> Could that be basis for Pynchon's
> faith in the english language, and perhaps, what lies behind it?
> 

Thinking about Pynchon's interpretation of why that essay on Newspeak was
written and included as an appendix, what it implies (its "hints of
restoration and redemption ... to brighten an otherwise bleakly pessimistic
ending" xxiv-xxv), and why Orwell stood his ground with the American Book of
the Month Club (well, duh, why wouldn't he have?), it strikes me that
Pynchon skips over the obvious question of how this "restoration"
(interesting choice of term) has actually come about, which is something the
text gives no answer to.

It might be as Pynchon says, but it is only an interpretation, as he does
admit. ("The answer may lie ... ")

Who's to say that that "scholarly appendix" isn't *itself* a chapter from
one of the subsequent editions of the approved Oceania dictionary? And,
perhaps, the novel's text something likewise churned out on one of those
novel-writing machines where Julia works in the Ministry of Truth? A version
of Winston's diary, appropriated, sanitised by one of the Fiction Department
committees, and leaked out to us like Goldstein's book? How close are we to
Camus here?

best