Cliches

Clichés? I love them. Counting the current buzz phrases used in meetings helped me keep a sense of humor back in a prior life. I am grateful to them. But not in books. 

Next to entertainment, I read to be surprised and enlightened. Recently, I came across a scene in Mitchell Kaplan’s novel, By Fire, By Water, where he describes the Spanish roads filled with Jewish refugees fleeing to the ports in 1492. Despite living 500 years later, I reacted in that moment as if I were truly watching the horror. Although I am familiar with the story, he did not numb me with a single cliché. 

Clichés are not only boring, they insult our intelligence or coddle and deaden us. Perhaps the original use of the cliché amused or shocked the listener into looking at something differently. Too much use, however, kills the surprise. No wonder people fall asleep in business meetings or zone out when a newsperson or politician falls back on yet another buzz word. 

Perhaps public figures and corporate types can get away with clichés, and even be praised for their demonstrated awareness of the popular theories, but clichés have no place in literature, unless the use points up an aspect of character. As writers, we’re supposed to be creative! 

I’m not saying that each book must be a self-conscious manual in clever phrasing, but originality should be there no matter how deliciously light or gravely serious. Jose Saramago, in Death with Interruptions, handles the societal difficulties when death takes a vacation with piquant wit, an original but not outlandish writing style, and compelling twists. It does not read like a treatise, is entertaining, and there is not a cliché in sight. 

Did I mention he won the Nobel Prize for Literature? 

I rest my case—or is that a cliché?

Comments

[Staci]

Priscilla, my husband works for a big company and he's forever bringing home new buzz words that make me laugh. And the acronyms, oh the acronyms!
I agree cliches have no place in literature. They can be hard to avoid, but I appreciate the extra effort when an author offers fresh writing.

[Camille Minichino]

Thanks a lot, Priscilla, I'm afraid to write anything, now. LOL. (oops, is that a cliche or an acronym?)

[Susan C Shea]

Priscilla, you're right and I'm as self-conscious at the moment as Camille! I agree that when a writer manages to bring something to life with her own carefully-chosen arrangement of words, I relish the results, especially if she has achieved that without making herself as the writer visible.

[Priscilla]

Ignore me. The Puritan DNA made me do it. I am trying to climb down from the soapbox, from which I should be banned, and channel a more civilized part of my ancestry...

[Camille Minichino]

You are nothing if not civilized, Priscilla!

Sorry I can't think of how to put that more elegantly!

[Liz]

Oddly, the longer we're around, the more cliches there are.

[Mysti]

Cliche phrases almost always sound anachronistic, even if they were contemporaneous...not sure why.

Cliche situations, cliche characterizations, those are the things that frighten me. I can tune my eyes to hunt down cliche phrases, but the others...yikes!

Your books are fun to read precisely because they do not present any of the cliches of the period that I'm familiar with. I don't think you can have rich characters and cliched characters :)

[outdoor playground equipment]

I agree that when a writer manages to bring something to life with her own carefully-chosen arrangement of words..

[rita lakin]

Right on, as always, Prisilla.
Rita