1984 - Planet eBook

egulated by the two Newspeak words SEXCRIME (sexualimmorality) and GOODSEX (chastity). SEXCRIMEcovered all sexual misdeeds whatever. It covered fornication,adultery, homosexuality, and other perversions, and,in addition, normal intercourse practised for its own sake.There was no need to enumerate them separately, since theywere all equally culpable, and, in principle, all punishableby death. In the C vocabulary, which consisted of scientificand technical words, it might be necessary to give specializednames to certain sexual aberrations, but the ordinarycitizen had no need of them. He knew what was meant byGOODSEX—that is to say, normal intercourse betweenman and wife, for the sole purpose of begetting children,and without physical pleasure on the part of the woman: allelse was SEXCRIME. In Newspeak it was seldom possible tofollow a heretical thought further than the perception thatit WAS heretical: beyond that point the necessary wordswere nonexistent.No word in the B vocabulary was ideologically neutral.A great many were euphemisms. Such words, for instance,as JOYCAMP (forced-labour camp) or MINIPAX Ministryof Peace, i.e. Ministry of War) meant almost the exactopposite of what they appeared to mean. Some words, onthe other hand, displayed a frank and contemptuous understandingof the real nature of Oceanic society. Anexample was PROLEFEED, meaning the rubbishy entertainmentand spurious news which the Party handed outto the masses. Other words, again, were ambivalent, havingthe connotation ‘good’ when applied to the Party and