Doing Our Own Thing

Once languages become written they change. Only in writing does language develop the artfulness and richness that we associate with a Shakespeare a Proust or a Whitman. Yet over the last forty years the English-language has effectively gone into reverse - taking our lead from America and the legacy of the 1960s our culture increasingly privileges the oral over the written spurning the art of elaborated 'written'-style language in favour of returning to the state of a spoken culture. Parallel developments have occurred in music. In this controversial and thought-provoking book John McWhorter argues that the 1960's rejection of cultural traits associated with the Establishment as well as a democratic celebration of what anyone can do over what requires training or talent has led to our culture being increasingly impoverished both intellectually and artistically...