Energised Fences

December 2003–January 2004, no. 257

Death Sentence: The decay of public language by Don Watson

Knopf, $29.95 hb, 198 pp

Energised Fences

December 2003–January 2004, no. 257

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language. In the preface, he laments the chaotic state of the language: ‘When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetic without rules; wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled and confusion to be regulated.’ He despaired at the scope and futility of his task:

Julian Burnside

Julian Burnside is a barrister who specialises in commercial litigation. He is deeply interested in the arts. He collects contemporary paintings, photographs and sculpture, and regularly commissions chamber music. He is the author of Matilda and the Dragon (1991), Word Watching: Field Notes from an Amateur Philologist (2004), and Watching Brief: Reflections on Human Rights, Law and Justice (2007).