20 January 2009

A day off in celebration

I've used this evening to write a hostage to fortune on the other blog. It's actually similar to what I've been doing on this blog - a textual and linguistic analysis based on selective quotation. Of course, you could say that the proof of the pudding, etc - will Obama apply these principles to, ooh, let's choose a country at random, Israel? But what I'm looking at, over there, is the language. Obama is using words - science, planet, non-believers, humility, restraint - that are in a different universe to his predecessor. I've seen one comment that, read between the lines, the speech is a clear attack on Bush's record. It's much more obvious than that, and you could imagine Bush, were he clever enough to notice, wincing at each blow.

Anyway, Canto VII tomorrow, I hope.

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