tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6147920534572837961.post3242630397753736430..comments2023-10-06T12:12:31.468-04:00Comments on The MFA/MFYou Newsletter: Oh that’s SO Cliché!Ashley Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12362214167891115633noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6147920534572837961.post-42702216292163515522009-05-31T14:19:49.873-04:002009-05-31T14:19:49.873-04:00It's like when literary types are so against the s...It's like when literary types are so against the sort of writing that is actually popular. If you've studied writing extensively than you recognize these things as cliches, but the fact is, it works and that's why the writers who are writing the cliched stuff are selling millions of copies and the ones who sit around and complain about how horrible those writers are usually aren't.Ashley Cowgerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12362214167891115633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6147920534572837961.post-7411139093622156112009-05-24T22:18:37.784-04:002009-05-24T22:18:37.784-04:00I once had a professor who said that he was a defe...I once had a professor who said that he was a defender of clichés because they work. I agree, basically, with the idea of defending clichés. Not clichéd language, but ideas and situations and character types that seem perhaps clichéd. And the reason is that when you get completely away from what's already been done, you wind up in territory that people have avoided for a reason. I once heard Aimee Mann talking about her young punk days where her band decided to do away with all the standards of music. They were going to throw it all out and do something completely new. And the result? They sounded TERRIBLE. Of course they did. I think the same thing is true of a lot of experimental writing. Sure, they avoid all the clichés, but they are also pretentious and worst of all boring. If a character doesn't have some clichéd aspect to them, then they probably aren't recognizably human. And if they aren't, then why would I want to invest my time reading a story about them? I'd rather read something that may be familiar but is interesting and engaging and perhaps told in new language. I guess I kind of buy into the old cliché that every story has already been told. You can talk about being original until you're blue in the face or until the cows come home, but there's nothing new under the sun.Justushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12701126200573700215noreply@blogger.com