Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Newspeak on Newspeak?

The first paragraph on this anti-cloning site has an unfortunate error.

The term "therapeutic cloning" is an example of "newspeak," the art defined in H.G. Wells's 1984 as obscuring or reversing the truth through the manipulation of words. The term "therapeutic cloning" was first popularized by the British government as a means of reassuring the public that they would be protected from clones walking the streets by a ban on "reproductive cloning," while experimental "therapeutic" cloning could proceed.

1984 was written by George Orwell; given the site's hostility to human-animal chimeras, they probably got their reference confused and/or conflated with H.G. Wells' The Isle of Dr. Moreau. Regardless, this error obscures the truth of authorship.

No comments: