Week 6 Lab: TedEd Videos on Style

For this week's story lab, I watched the eight TedEd videos about creative writing and style. Here are some of my observations and key takeaways from my two favorites!

I really enjoyed the video on creative constraints. I learned about how some restrictions on tasks actually help us produce interesting things and help our brains better process what we want to do. In some subjects, like science and engineering, certain constraints are inevitable. These constraints can be especially useful though in helping humans achieve our goals and invent interesting devices. Constraints can guide our decision making in many critical ways. Many extraordinary scientific inventions that have impacted multiple fields were the product of facing creative constraints.

Another video that I especially enjoyed from the set was "What 'Orwellian' really means." I've heard this term a lot and read parts of George Orwell's book 1984, so I had some base knowledge before watching. I learned from the video that "George Orwell" was just a pen name for author Eric Blair. The video explains that reducing the term "Orwellian" to simply be a synonym or substitute for "authoritarian" doesn't fully capture the author's message in the classic 1984. In fact, the video asserts, lazy use of the concept "Orwellian" actually relates to a passion of Blair's: the use of words and how language can shape societal ideas. The state in 1984 dramatically alters the English language to discourage critical thinking, thus altering the populace's perceptions of reality. Orwell was concerned about a form of this occurring in not only authoritarian states, but also in democratic societies. The video also introduces the concept of immoral actions and evil concepts being disguised in complicated, scholarly language to obscure how bad they are. Even the language used in basic marketing ads and normal speeches by politicians are crafted to make us think certain things and in ways. Additionally, the urge to mindlessly regurgitate certain phrases and sentences we hear in modern media actually can discourage us from insightful critical thinking. The ability to communicate complex thoughts with clarity and sound structure is an essential component of mental freedom.

Headstone of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) in All Saints' parish 

churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. Source: Wikimedia