| Author | Message | ||
| GA Sunshine
Advanced Member Username: ga_sunshine Post Number: 1404 Registered: 06-2006 |
Do you think it is possible for a cliché to become so antiquated that it becomes 'born again' new? *Hugs* Susan | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4092 Registered: 05-2006 |
If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, Susan, reborn cliches gestate in wombs of irony. Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| Jane Røken
Advanced Member Username: magpie Post Number: 1563 Registered: 03-2007 |
Susan --- Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time. "A cliché begins as heartfelt, and then its heart sinks." (Christopher Ricks, 1980) --- I see no reason why its heart shouldn't rise again after having been sunk for a few generations. (On the other hand, I can't think of any examples.) Jane | ||
| nia sunset
Advanced Member Username: nia Post Number: 2230 Registered: 04-2006 |
Under the sky there is nothing new; there is only new touches.... with my love, nia  http://www.freewebs.com/butterflywingsofnia/ "Carry the beauties;wash the badnesses with your poetical spirit" | ||
| Jeffrey S. Lange
Intermediate Member Username: runatyr Post Number: 996 Registered: 10-2005 |
I'm going to go with Jane here. Left alone for a while, a tired phrase could be picked up and dusted off, perhaps only if it waited long enough for a new generation to rediscover it. But I can't think of an example either. ;) Jeff | ||
| Rania S. Watts
Intermediate Member Username: cementcoveredcherries Post Number: 641 Registered: 04-2008 |
I agree with Jane & Jeff. A cliché is like an expired fashion statement, they always seem to find a way back to the mainstream. Best, Rania S. Watts "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean" ~ Walt Whitman Cement Covered Cherries | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4105 Registered: 05-2006 |
There is an obsession in Western Culture with newness. This is, by my reckoning, connected to our collective obsessions with progress and growth. When I was young, I bought into this. Now, I'm convinced that only a portion of these obsessions have real social value. What is significantly going on is that if you can be convinced that new is desirable and not-new is undesirable, you will spend vast amounts of your money on cars, clothing, home improvements, and the like. Unfortunately, this obsession has spilled over into literature, producing an exaggerated need for novelty -- and a concomitant repudiation of tradition. Though some verbal expressions are validly boring and treadworn because, like a washrag, they have been wrung dry, other expressions get panned unfairly. I run into people who will denounce a line or phrase if they have ever encountered it or anything highly similar to it. Fred Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30417 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Freddie -- I am terribly sorry to hear that you keep running into people. Do you also run into coat racks and say, "Excuse me, sir?" Perhaps we need to get you some new glasses. Meanwhile, try to stay still. You might start running over people instead of just running into them, and this is very not good. Oh, and do not drive a car. Love, M | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4108 Registered: 05-2006 |
~M~, I must admit: I'm into playing an urban game called Casualty. Though I get 10 points for running over somebody, I earn 15 points for running INTO them. Maybe you know somewhere to stash the bodies . . . Fred Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30426 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Freddie -- I am Sicilian. We invented places to stash the bodies.  Love, M | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4120 Registered: 05-2006 |
So that's why your chapbook is so -- er, pudgy. You've got them pressed between the pages like collector's leaves. Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| veronique deshotels
Advanced Member Username: nude_shoes Post Number: 1260 Registered: 04-2007 |
clichés are the underdogs of any Poetry Lexicon. Set amid startling images, they can radiate a quiet, comforting luminosity. A good poet can make any word combination look good. I'm convinced of that. Then again, I am convinced of many dubious things. Thanks for the charming topic. | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30438 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Freddie -- just don't look in any of your suitcases. I wouldn't clean out the heating ducts either. And for god's sake, stay away from the toilet tank. Love, M | ||
| GA Sunshine
Advanced Member Username: ga_sunshine Post Number: 1417 Registered: 06-2006 |
I'm so enjoying the comments and side topics. The idea sprung from an experiences like this. Beginning poets are delighted when they create, 'her cheeks are as red as a rose.' To them the cliché is new and fresh, they just made the connection. But, the well read instructor praises their attempt and asks them to think of other red things that might be used in the comparison, the first answer, 'apple.' In education, the old techniques (that didn't work twenty years ago) resurface with new up-to-date names. I can't think of a single cliché that has resurfaced. *Hugs* Susan | ||
| Lucia Corak
New member Username: luciacorak Post Number: 34 Registered: 05-2008 |
Then it would seem as though clichés are resurfacing all the time and are therefore never being given the chance to die down. Every new poet is reinventing the cliché, and by doing so they are making sure that the phrase in question remains cliché. So I ask you: is it possible for a cliché to die? LC "Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." ~T. S. Eliot | ||
| Jeffrey S. Lange
Advanced Member Username: runatyr Post Number: 1021 Registered: 10-2005 |
Some are dead or dying, methinks. "Better dead than red" is an example of a Cold War cliché that's not much in use anymore, for instance. Some clichés are rooted in a specific time, and die when that time passes. Jeff (Message edited by runatyr on June 21, 2008) | ||
| GA Sunshine
Advanced Member Username: ga_sunshine Post Number: 1419 Registered: 06-2006 |
Jeff - any red haired middle school student will disagree that 'better dead than red' has died out. I think some must have died because we don't know them. Since we don't know them, we can use the comparisons and they will not be cliché. Just a thought - *Hugs* Susan | ||
| Jeffrey S. Lange
Advanced Member Username: runatyr Post Number: 1022 Registered: 10-2005 |
Hmm, I hadn't thought of that use for the phrase. Maybe that's not a good example. But I don't have another one at the moment. Hehe. ;) Jeff |
