One Man's War On Clichés

The Independent:

It was "any time soon" that pushed me over the edge. No. No time soon. Or ever. Just get rid of it. It is not a different way of saying "soon", just a longer one. That was when I posted on The Independent's blog, saying that the phrase "has been added to the list of Prohibited Clichés. By order".

Read the whole story: The Independent

Comments

[thebigbike]

07:33 AM on 06/17/2011

move along folks, nothing to see here.

[fredgladys]

06:39 PM on 06/14/2011

I have an old book that I read if I want to have a laugh, it is Joy of Cliches by Nigel Rees. It seems that interest in cliches, or the derision of cliches doesn't go away. Just ask any politician or journalist, they seem to be the major users of this form of expression.

[JDM73]

06:13 PM on 06/14/2011

No more "perfect storm". Never, ever, ever.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

06:15 AM on 06/15/2011

No more "My bad". Don't know why but that one really really rubs me the wrong way.

[Fmal DeHyde]

06:10 PM on 06/14/2011

"Turbulent priest" and "postcode lottery"? I don't even know what that means, they certainly aren't cliches in my low rent section of life. So... going forward, that's a game changer.

Hahaha!

[WYHKTai-Tai]

06:12 AM on 06/15/2011

Turbulent Priest:
From Thomas Becket: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" A clergyman involving himself too much in politics, getting in the way of the politicians.

postcode lottery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcode_lottery

This guy is British and he's talking about British politicians and the phrases they overuse, so it's not your low-rent life that is the barrier. LOL!!! :))

[Fmal DeHyde]

06:59 AM on 06/15/2011

Thanks for that. I had no idea phrases from the twelfth century were so commonly used over there that someone would be annoyed by it. I imagine Shakespeare references send him over the edge.

[Shawn de Montaigne]

02:43 PM on 06/14/2011

Isn't this snoot's "war" a bit cliche itself? Just asking.

[blackwind]

02:37 PM on 06/14/2011

If this guy thinks he will effect a paradigm shift, he's tilting at windmills.

[BobHiggins]

01:00 PM on 06/14/2011

Short of creating new language, I'm not sure that we can completely avoid an occasional lapse into the the well trodden ruts of cliched language, the wheels just want to go there and the path is convenient, if mundane.

The author of the "Independent" piece linked above claims to have been : "involved in a discussion last week about the difference between a counterfactual conditional and a subjunctive conditional."

I'm glad that I wasn't a "fly on the wall" for that arcane conversation.

[thebigbike]

08:55 PM on 06/14/2011

or: "what's the difference between a lie and a guess? you tell me buddy."

[3fingerbrown]

12:27 PM on 06/14/2011

I was brought up on Orwell's advice, "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."

But there's another approach, put forth by Theodore M. Bernstein, for years an "editor's editor" (oh, that cliche!) at the NYTimes:

"Actually we could not avoid the use of cliche even if we wanted to. The very word 'cliche' is in a sense a cliche -- its original meaning is stereotype. And writers on the subject inevitably find themselves using in the discussions words like 'coinage, fresh-minted,' and 'hackneyed,' all of which are in this same sense cliches.

"... To attempt to write around a cliche will often lead to pompous obscurity. And for a writer to decide to banish all cliches indiscriminately would be to hamstring -- yes, hamstring -- his efforts.

"... The important thing, however, as must be clear by now, is not to avoid the cliche, but rather to use it only with discrimination and sophistication, and shun it when it is a substitute for precise thinking."

I share the post's intolerance for tired cliches, but I never trust an editor with lists of words and phrases that must "never, ever" be used. Such inflexibility seems antithetical to the very creativity he's trying to foster. A few of the cliches on his list, used with "discrimination and sophistication," might be the best way to express a thought in a particular context.

In any creative endeavor, never say never.

[ValdaDeDieu]

12:26 PM on 06/14/2011

Any thing, any word, any expression, any phrase, no matter how unique it is at its inception, can, with enough time and use, (and misuse) become a cliche.

Just like the apt and inspired use of a cliche can make it fresh again.

Exhibit A: "It was a dark and stormy night." Check out its use in "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle! Superb. Ingenious. Marvellous (for you Brits). Marvelous (for Americans).

Keep your "banned words" list; but really, it is writers and their readers who have the last word.

[Nelle]

11:40 AM on 06/14/2011

Darn! Now I can't say anything anymore!