The cliche is That Guy of English. His nasty little brother is the trite phrase, e.g., “I’ll circle back” or “ literally Hitler”. Repulsive, slimy, yet omnipresent. I can hear my late English major mother huffing indignantly from the afterlife!
If you really want to overdose on cliché, listen to any standard pop song written in the last 30 years, particularly by Boyzone, Westlife (or Wetlife as I always call them), any yank songstress, I could go on. The clichés tumble out, it matters not how mellifluous the voice, how innovative the musical arrangement. If the words are duds....it's a sure fire hit. 🤣😂
As I started reading your article I thought “the ultimate cliché is intellectuals hating them”, but then you concluded with that. Does that make it a meta-cliché, or a meta-meta-cliché? Meta is pretty cliché too, so maybe it’s a cliché-meta-meta-cliché? Sorry, I haven’t taken my meds this morning yet (what a cliché excuse).
IMHO( Sorry!) to coin a phrase (whoops) this piece was really not bad.
Dictionary of English clichés? I must immediately scour the Internet for a copy. It should fit nicely on my kitchen bookcase in between the Arabic dictionary and the dictionary of Intellectual Property.
I am not a hoarder. I can stop buying dictionaries whenever I want to. I just don't want to. There's nothing harmful about collecting them. They're not expensive; they look nice; some people might be fooled into thinking I must be intelligent, and they Are interesting to dip one's virtual, virtuous toe in from time to time.
And they're not hurting anyone, huddled together like paternal fargers protecting their young in the depth of a snowstorm. It really isn't a problem.
I have an extensive self help book library and I'm currently working on a 12 step book to help them recover from buying self help books. I'll let you know when I've finished writing it but at the moment I'm still researching so I really have to keep buying them...
Dang it. I was going to write you back, It is what it is. But you threw it in at the end. So I raise you: It’s never nothing!
This was interesting because I’ve also had some pretty persnickety teachers of writing in my time—Thank you, Profs!
At the same time, I believe that cliches are similar to shorthand. That is why they are so widely used. A lot can be conveyed in a few cliched words, with the benefit that most people reading them instantly understand the gist.
Now, your writing is above that, and I mean it sincerely. I’m not good with iPad and copy pasting, but in this article alone, I was, “Whoa, I need to keep that. It was astonishingly great.” And I LOL. Thank you.
There's nothing new under the sun.....and I think that's the problem. Every thought has been thunk, every song has been sung, so...what's new, Pussycat?
Regarding your comments on cliches- “Perhaps the real cliché is the war on cliché itself—a war without end, and one only a fool would wage.”
The problem with cliches is not so much the formulaic expression of ideas but the predictable “so last year” ideas themselves. I would put up with fairly rudimentary language if it actually described a new idea I had not seen expressed elsewhere before.
Ok the mode of expression could be more (insert your favorite adjective) but the real problem is the paucity of thought.
I enjoyed this. Cutting the mustard springs to mind, and the one cliche I refuse to accept is "It's all good." Each time I hear it I question the narrator, because looking around me that's untrue. Cheers, Victoria
Having difficulty finding a hill worth climbing much less dying upon. Eye of the Beholder (and/or Ear of the Belistener) being the missing metric perhaps?
A fan of James Thurber told him “Mr. Thurber, I think you’re a genius “ to which Thurber replied “If I am a genius I’d like to know why I have to do 13 rewrites.” A truly modest great writer (Dare I say rare as hen’s teeth). Darrell in Toronto
I feel like you have to earn the use of clichés.
The cliche is That Guy of English. His nasty little brother is the trite phrase, e.g., “I’ll circle back” or “ literally Hitler”. Repulsive, slimy, yet omnipresent. I can hear my late English major mother huffing indignantly from the afterlife!
If you really want to overdose on cliché, listen to any standard pop song written in the last 30 years, particularly by Boyzone, Westlife (or Wetlife as I always call them), any yank songstress, I could go on. The clichés tumble out, it matters not how mellifluous the voice, how innovative the musical arrangement. If the words are duds....it's a sure fire hit. 🤣😂
Yes. Whilst on hold, EE subjected me to forty minutes of such piffle. Lord!
40 minutes? Bloody hell.....almost as deadly as Radio 2 🤣
As I started reading your article I thought “the ultimate cliché is intellectuals hating them”, but then you concluded with that. Does that make it a meta-cliché, or a meta-meta-cliché? Meta is pretty cliché too, so maybe it’s a cliché-meta-meta-cliché? Sorry, I haven’t taken my meds this morning yet (what a cliché excuse).
I've opened up a black hole, here!
IMHO( Sorry!) to coin a phrase (whoops) this piece was really not bad.
Dictionary of English clichés? I must immediately scour the Internet for a copy. It should fit nicely on my kitchen bookcase in between the Arabic dictionary and the dictionary of Intellectual Property.
I am not a hoarder. I can stop buying dictionaries whenever I want to. I just don't want to. There's nothing harmful about collecting them. They're not expensive; they look nice; some people might be fooled into thinking I must be intelligent, and they Are interesting to dip one's virtual, virtuous toe in from time to time.
And they're not hurting anyone, huddled together like paternal fargers protecting their young in the depth of a snowstorm. It really isn't a problem.
Ha, do you also have a dictionary of excuses for addicts? 😂😂
I have an extensive self help book library and I'm currently working on a 12 step book to help them recover from buying self help books. I'll let you know when I've finished writing it but at the moment I'm still researching so I really have to keep buying them...
HAHAHA. I have a spare copy. It's yours to keep!
I neeeeed it and I neeeeed it NOW
Yes please! I'd love that!
Dang it. I was going to write you back, It is what it is. But you threw it in at the end. So I raise you: It’s never nothing!
This was interesting because I’ve also had some pretty persnickety teachers of writing in my time—Thank you, Profs!
At the same time, I believe that cliches are similar to shorthand. That is why they are so widely used. A lot can be conveyed in a few cliched words, with the benefit that most people reading them instantly understand the gist.
Now, your writing is above that, and I mean it sincerely. I’m not good with iPad and copy pasting, but in this article alone, I was, “Whoa, I need to keep that. It was astonishingly great.” And I LOL. Thank you.
At the end of the day, that cliche was the best man for the job.
There's nothing new under the sun.....and I think that's the problem. Every thought has been thunk, every song has been sung, so...what's new, Pussycat?
🎼Woah, Woah, Woaaah!!!🎶
🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, thanks for the earworm 😑
Regarding your comments on cliches- “Perhaps the real cliché is the war on cliché itself—a war without end, and one only a fool would wage.”
The problem with cliches is not so much the formulaic expression of ideas but the predictable “so last year” ideas themselves. I would put up with fairly rudimentary language if it actually described a new idea I had not seen expressed elsewhere before.
Ok the mode of expression could be more (insert your favorite adjective) but the real problem is the paucity of thought.
Yeah beware of Dummheit, there’s a lot of it about!
Indeed.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
TaDah!
Yeah but you know, thinking is just So old school...
Cliches are cliches because they are true. Not always so, or the appropriate response, but true enough.
I enjoyed this. Cutting the mustard springs to mind, and the one cliche I refuse to accept is "It's all good." Each time I hear it I question the narrator, because looking around me that's untrue. Cheers, Victoria
Having difficulty finding a hill worth climbing much less dying upon. Eye of the Beholder (and/or Ear of the Belistener) being the missing metric perhaps?
If not for the cliche
I would have nothing to say...
😁
A fan of James Thurber told him “Mr. Thurber, I think you’re a genius “ to which Thurber replied “If I am a genius I’d like to know why I have to do 13 rewrites.” A truly modest great writer (Dare I say rare as hen’s teeth). Darrell in Toronto