WHO WILL SAY a good word for the cliché? Its sins are so numerous. Exhausted tropes, numb descriptors, zombie proverbs, hackneyed sentiments, rhetorical rip-offs, metaphorical flat tires, ideas purged of thought and symbols drained of power - the cliché traffics in them all. A lie can be inventive; an insult can be novel. Even plagiarism implies a kind of larcenous good taste. But a cliché is intellectual disgrace. The word itself seems to shape the mouth into a Gallic sneer.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Let us now praise...the cliche
Don't be fooled by the opening paragraph below. The author of this article ends up heaping some unexpected praise on this linguistic villain. At the end of the day, I'll still avoid cliches like the plague.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment