{"id":65,"date":"2006-09-08T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T21:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hugoholbling.org\/heterodoxia\/?p=65"},"modified":"2016-12-11T17:50:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T23:50:15","slug":"how-to-write-a-book-full-of-cliches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"How to write a book full of cliches"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“In the beginning, there was the Word. But in the end there only is Clich\u00e9.”<\/em> – Stanislaw Lem<\/p>\n

Writing a book full of clich\u00e9s must be somewhat similar to those “worst essay” writing contests often held in English Departments in Universities everywhere, but certainly it involves a whole different level of irony!<\/p>\n

A book full of clich\u00e9s is a species of kitsch, fake art. Some of the qualities of a kitsch book: it may contain disingenuous remarks and appear ostentatious, be simple enough for the unwashed masses and easily marketable.<\/p>\n

Kitsch is the byproduct of the middle class, for it highlights the sheer boredom of their lives. Unlike the masterpieces in the works of the genius, kitsch does not possess elitist qualities or appeal to snobbery.In order to establish a book riddled with clich\u00e9s, some formula needs to be followed:<\/p>\n

Narration:<\/strong> stock phrases that don’t really mean anything. i.e., have a nice day)<\/p>\n

Formulaic plot<\/strong>: very predictable story, often depending on a very well-known story arc<\/p>\n

Character Archetypes<\/strong>: they must be one-dimensional lacking anything interesting, or well-defined motivation<\/p>\n

Dialogue<\/strong>: consists of quotations (they cannot contain any insights, mere bromides or tired phrases often said by dullards)<\/p>\n

And this, of course, calls for a clich\u00e9d quote:<\/p>\n

“It is a clich\u00e9 that most clich\u00e9s are true, but then, like most clich\u00e9s, that clich\u00e9 is untrue.”<\/em> – Stephen Fry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In the beginning, there was the Word. But in the end there only is Clich\u00e9.” – Stanislaw Lem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,14,1],"tags":[96,76,38],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Af2X-13","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/1485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyperboreans.com\/heterodoxia\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}