REACHING FOR my cliché
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Waking to a clean slate with everything set for that day (if only I’d emptied the dishwasher last night, folded and put away the laundry, set up three ‘never miss’ forms for the day, and triaged my schedule for today so I could begin with only the essentials staring at me ~ if only, if only) but it isn’t. If only I could start each day’s routines and scheduled tasks with the freedom of the blank page, empty head, and freedom of thought/freedom from schedule/timetable – if only.
Each time I wake up having not prepared for the day before I signed off on the previous one, I’m tempted to say déjà vu all over again.
But that feels too cliché …
And there, in that moment – I had it, simply as chicken follows egg, but it doesn’t matter which comes first – I had it, in that thought running around in my mind after morning’s first things led me to my chair in my closet/writing table, the perfect subject for today’s column – handy thought, word, literary device, or perhaps the lazy, simplistic default, ones we read far too easily, so simple, without investing thought before we write, or speak, or make a decision.
Every thought is not brilliant; we are numbed to believe because brilliance is supposed to be rare, rarified air is what we might breathe in those moments or because of them.
I’ve often been told good writing should avoid clichés, as literary devices/stereotypes are referred to as too cliché. Seriously, I found one reference that criticized James Joyce for overuse of the exclamation point. Criticizing Joyce for overuse of !!!!!!!!. Now, if you want to criticize James Joyce for excessive drinking, I get that, but criticizing Joyce for too many ! - ?
If only that writer could meet Joyce, can you imagine asking the question of why?
I think that’s like questioning Frank Lloyd Wright if he was a squeezer or a roller (with the toothpaste tube,) or Pablo Picasso if he preferred shoes with laces over loafers.
Viewed through early morning groggy, everyone’s life is cliché – noun or verb doesn’t seem to matter.
Merriam-Webster, my go-to source dictionary/thesaurus, offers this description which I encourage you to check out to see how terms we toss around blithely don’t always mean what we think or what they used to describe. They’ve become part of the semiotics of modern language and culture, which makes me wonder – if only we could live in a world more focused on precise, formally dressed language over casual references, not to make reading more difficult, but to make it more worthwhile.
I don’t think it a bad thing to use a cliché or to believe in cliché or stereotypical thoughts, or that it’s bad to ‘be so cliché’ in our behaviour or ‘being ourselves’ in this free country on this marvellous high habitable planet. It is indeed a planet of the apes, and we are the most intelligent apes ever, but we don’t want to ape anyone’s behaviour because that would be too cliché, eh!
Reader feedback:
Wow that is scary, but so is the world. I sometimes worry about the future for my grandkids. Its not like what our parents worried about for the future of theirs. Everything and I mean everything is changing so quickly. You wonder how we will keep up. That's what's scary, SC, Chestermere, AB