Description of book
‘ ... in public life the language has never been held in less regard. It withers in the dungeons of the technocratic mind. It is butchered by the media. In politics it lacks all qualifications for the main game.’ Don Watson
Almost sixty years ago, George Orwell described the decay of language and why this threatened democratic society. But compared to what we now endure, the public language of Orwell's day brimmed with life and truth. Today's corporations, government departments, news media, and, perhaps most dangerously, politicians – speak to each other and to us in clich'd, impenetrable, lifeless sludge.
Don Watson can bear it no longer. In DEATH SENTENCE, part diatribe, part cool reflection on the state of Australia's public language, he takes a blowtorch to the words – and their users – who kill joy, imagination and clarity. Scathing, funny and brilliant, DEATH SENTENCE is a small book of profound weight – and timeliness.
Reviews
‘The Book of the Year... witty, erudite and funny. Awfully funny.’ - Simon Hughes, The Australian Financial Review
"Don Watson has written a fine and necessary book. Any citizen who neglects to read it does so at his or her peril."
Lewis H. Lapham, editor of Harper's Magazine
"[a] marvelous polemic..."
forbes.com
"captures the powerlessness and frustration we feel when confronted by meaningless words delivered with authority."
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Watson makes aneloquent, elegant, and sometimes scathing case for taking back language from those who would trip it of all color and emotion and, therefore, of all meaning.
Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist
"many lessons and insights in this book"
Leigh Buchanan, Harvard Business Review
"[Watson is] always clear and precise, even when exposing the verbal pollution that passes for wisdom in the public realm."
Toronto Star