American Newspeak : The Mangling of Meaning for Power and Profit

Rating:
Summary: Laughing while dissecting lies
Review: Sure, we've got a warmongering emperor who can't walk and chew gum. But now we've also got American Newspeak from Wayne Grytting. Although neither a dentist nor a furrier, Grytting can walk, chew gum, dissect mendacity, and wisecrack at the same time. He's not only a hilarious satirist but also a mountain climber, a special-ed teacher, an advanced Zen Buddhist, and an ex-commercial halibut fisherman.
This delightful book gathers together Grytting's exhaustive--but never exhausting--examples of linguistic nonsense by the media, corporations, and government officials. It's a joy to read, and I think George Orwell himself would have applauded Grytting's literary style, social savvy, and philosophical perspective. And jokes. Did I mention the jokes?...

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and sobering
Review: Wayne Grytting has assembled a hilarious collection of doublespeak and idiocy from our nation's highest politicians and corporate executives, accentuating it with his own scathingly funny commentary. In thematically arranged chapters such as "Legal Disorders", "The Education Mall" and "McHealth and Science-Mart" he exposes examples of newspeak that are beyond anything Orwell thought up. Once again, truth is far stranger than fiction. One of my favorites is an ad executive complaining about advertising in today's oversaturated market: "Consumers are like roaches--you spray them and spray them and they get immune after a while." There are also the perennial politicians condemning soft money while on their way to soft money fundraisers, news anchors condemning a media circus, etc. The un-logic and disconnect from reality displayed by the victims of his satirical pen is mind-boggling and goes a long way towards explaining the cynicism and apathy of today's society. The genius of this book is that after you're done laughing at the absurdity of it all, he gives ideas on how to do something about the absurdity, how to use humor to reconnect with other people and subvert the efforts of the politicians and corporations that try to numb our brains.