What's in a word?

A quote attributed to George Orwell caught my attention today. It was, "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out." The reason I reacted to it is because that is how I write and I related to the thought.

Next, I wondered who was/is George Orwell? Since Google is a wonderful free tool I checked him out. I discovered it is the pen name used by English dystopian novelist/journalist, Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950); his most famous work is Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book, published in 1949, was among the top 100 best English-language novels from 1923-2003, listed in Time magazine 2005.

Kind of interesting considering the author died in 1950.

Just goes to show that if you make a contribution to society it goes on and on. Just make sure it's a good one, you wouldn't want to be a Lizzie Borden or a Charles Manson.

In checking out Mr. Orwell the other thing that caught my attention was the word dystopian, which I was not familiar with. In case you aren't either, it means: an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives; also the exact opposite of utopia.

The word dystopian sounds extremely dysfunctional to me and abruptly ended my curiosity about George Orwell, A.K.A. Eric Arthur Blair.