03-28-2013, 03:25 AM | #1 |
Fledgling Demagogue
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Clichés and George Orwell's Six Elementary Rules
In reviewing The Economist Style Guide while working on a British article, I happened to reread George Orwell's "six elementary rules" for style in the introduction:
Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 03-28-2013 at 03:29 AM. |
03-28-2013, 06:14 AM | #2 |
cacoethes scribendi
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If you learned to write from television, pop music or the web then you would probably believe that using cliché was de rigueur. Which, I suppose, was your point, but it also follows that using phrasing that has become comfortable for your readers can have some benefits (in limited doses). For example you can say in a few well known, clichéd, words what may otherwise take much longer (which is where rule 6 comes in, I guess). Like so much in writing, it's a balancing act with no clear boundaries.
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03-28-2013, 06:36 AM | #3 |
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"Using phrasing that is comfortable for your readers" seems to me to be covered in the other five elementary rules.
We could perhaps talk about using informal levels of language and simple sentence structure, but I think Orwell left that out because he didn't want to be too prescriptive or encourage formulaic writing. A cliché only seems to express an individual writer's POV. A thought becomes original when it is formulated in original language. Self-published e-books and blogs are great options for everyone, including people who have never been published before. It's moving to see so many distinct and even anomalous faces. Unfortunately, clichés render those faces expressionless. I want their expressions to have expressions. The saddest thing about the internet might be the abundance of clichés. Too many of us have mistaken overuse for consensus and consensus for truth. And of course, the conflation of opinion with reporting is not unrelated to the substitution of clichés for thought. Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 04-05-2013 at 01:38 PM. |
03-28-2013, 07:52 AM | #4 |
Wizard
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I think that sometimes the cliché can be the right choice. I'm writing some westernised versions of Asian folk tales at the moment, and I used 'in the wink of an eye' yesterday. I was going to scrub it on edit but on reflection I left it in as the phrase resonates with western readers, placing the story firmly in fairy/folk tale territory.
Perhaps the rule should be use clichés knowingly or not at all? Of course, I could just be wrong to have left it in! Graham |
03-28-2013, 09:01 AM | #5 | |
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I don't know exactly how you used your cliché, but I think you've got the gist.
The technique I learned was to use a cliché only if you could find some paradox or turn of phrase to make it unique. "Put a special kind of spin on the ball as you throw it," one editor wrote. An example: "Now that you've played easy to get, don't prove anxious to be owned." Some people would say to use clichés ironically, but reflexive irony can be its own kind of cliché (and surprisingly mindless as well). Quote:
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03-28-2013, 09:05 AM | #6 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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Is there a difference between a cliché and a common idiom? I'm not sure there is a clear line between the two. Some things are obviously cliché, but some phrases have become a more integral part of the language. For example, what about: "didn't know any better"? (I used it above.) Is that cliché? |
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03-28-2013, 09:09 AM | #7 |
cacoethes scribendi
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I think this is a good point. What is cliché does change over time. A phrase is at first seen as clever, it gets widely adopted and eventually seen as cliché, and then later may move into the language or go out of fashion so that it becomes something that gives a text a certain retrospective style.
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03-28-2013, 09:16 AM | #8 | |
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Quote:
Even in that case, I'd try not to overdo it (cf. standard dialogue in '40s slapstick). The phrase "didn't know any better" is one that I might avoid, but I don't find it irritating a la carte. If, however, you'd used it in this way, I doubt you'd have been interested in the discussion we're having: "The streetwalker was just built that way. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, that bad girl didn't know any better." Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 03-28-2013 at 09:20 AM. |
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03-28-2013, 09:43 AM | #9 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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03-28-2013, 05:16 PM | #10 | |
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For example: hyperspace comm raise him/her/it on the comm klick Class M Planet Class G Star humaniod and so on. Are those kinds of things "cliche'" or jargon or etc under these rules? |
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03-28-2013, 06:42 PM | #11 | |
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03-29-2013, 02:17 AM | #12 | |
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03-29-2013, 04:00 AM | #13 | |
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Besides which, the Strunk and White is good but not definitive. I've found other books more helpful ultimately, especially The Reader over Your Shoulder, by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge (if only it were available as an e-book!), and Edward Corbett's Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, as well as -- I say this hesitantly -- The Chicago Manual of Style. And though I detest certain of his assumptions, Fowler's book on usage and its updated versions have been helpful as well. Crich: I realize this is OT, but you might be amused by Derek Pell's parody of Elements of Style, in which he takes Roland Barthes' comment on the writings of the Marquis De Sade literally: "His pornographic messages are so pure they might be used as grammatical models." In fact the entirety of Pell's parody consists of examples taken from Sade to illustrate (along with several ridiculous collages) the rules in Strunk and White. There's also "A Chapter on Writhing." The parody was published as a separate book but is also available from FC2 in Pell's collection, X Texts, which also features two other hilarious pieces: The opening of Breakfast at Tiffany's as written by William Burroughs and a parody of Nabokov which concerns the main character's lust for an extremely old Lolita. Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 03-29-2013 at 04:06 AM. |
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03-29-2013, 04:42 AM | #14 |
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Just googled that Derek Pell. Now here's a guy who thinks outside the box. One might even say he pushes the envelope...
Last edited by doubleshuffle; 03-29-2013 at 04:50 AM. |
04-01-2013, 04:15 AM | #15 |
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George Orwell brilliant man!
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