Yes, I did just buy the collected works of Roger McGough, do you have a problem with that?
"It is not as though there are not more accurate descriptions available to politicians and reporters: to say 'suspected terrorist' or 'terrorism suspect', or even the headline-friendly 'terror suspect' does not carry the same prejudicial charge. But 'terrorist suspect' sounds sexier, more arresting; it gets the buzzword 'terrorist' into the mind first. It may look difficult to pronounce quickly, until you realise you don't have to pronounce the 't' in the middle but can elide it into a long hiss of disapproval: 'terrorisssssssuspect'. Furthermore it has, out of any of the alternatives, the most musically satisfying rhythm, as you trip through the troika of 'terrorist' and land with two satisfying hammer-blows on 'suspect'. In a lighter mood, you could even sing it to the tune of 'Eleanor Rigby'".
- Steven Poole, "Unspeak", p149
. Terrorist suspect
Ahhhhhhhhhhh look at all the lovely Unspeak
yahhhhhh, wontcha doublethink and Newspeak?
Terrorist suspect.
Active denial, exclusion wall, Friends of the Earth
Partial birth
Radical cleric
Homeland security, turning point, tipping point, truce
Disgusting abuse
Asymmetric warfare
Ideology
Coalition forces
Moral clarity
Questioned by experts
Kosova, Kosovo, tax relief, right to exist
Postmodernist
Homicide bombers
Pro-choice, Enlightenment Values, disgusting regime
American Dream
only some percentage
Intelligent design
oh, collateral damage
reform and realign
yahhhhh, check out all the lovely Unspeak
aaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, won't you stick it in yer thinktank?
Aaaaah look at all the lovely Unspeak
Good effort, Squared, but neither ideology nor moral clarity scan properly. You need another syllable in each line (the equivalent passage being the first All the lonely people chorus, if memory serves).
ReplyDeleteI thought that all the opprobrium was going to come down on my attempt to smuggle through a pronunciation of "partial" that would only pass muster in a very small corner of Lancashire indeed.
ReplyDeleteWith poetry like this, you should have won the Nobel Lit Prize in 2005.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who doesn't think Pinter's "Democracy" isn't both a great poem and a good joke isn't allowed to read this blog any more.
ReplyDeleteThere's no escape.
The big pricks are out.
They'll fuck everything in sight.
Watch your back.
Oh. T'ra then.
ReplyDeleteoh come on you bastards, Pinter's fantastic. I am not the greatest fan of his plays, but he is the Noel Coward of swearing. Try reading that poem aloud without laughing. It's great.
ReplyDelete(the one that goes "yeeha, we blew the shit right out their asses" is ace too.)
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we meet in the middle and just agree that "Democracy" is a good joke?
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for catchy dactyl-trochee combinations, "flatulent wanker" works quite well.
ReplyDeletehahahaha. I would just like to clarify that non-Pinter fans like Phil are more than welcome to keep commenting here, particularly if they have comments as good as that, just not to read the posts, which many would think is a pretty small sanction.
ReplyDeletePoem for people who like poems about Roger McGough's poems.
ReplyDeleteA commentator in a thread
wondering what it's like
when poetry goes to his head
You say "Fucked", they say "Free"
ReplyDeleteYou say "No Decency-y-y... For me!"
This is D-squared's Depository.
[This might have been better if I'd correctly remembered the name of this blog.]
I liked the Pinter poems too.
ReplyDeleteDid dsquared find that McGough reference I asked about the other week?