Hell Is a Young Man: Fraternity by Benjamin Nugent
The brutality of frat culture, Nugent suggests, is a veneer that hardly masks its devotees’ miseries and insecurities.
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Posts Tagged: cliche
Fresh Comics #9: Bird in a Cage
Countering our culture’s disregard for all things elderly, comics have become a medium of choice for celebrating the lives of our oldest and wisest generation. Bird in a Cage (Conundrum Press, 2016) joins a growing roster of graphic novels about the elderly that explore how much they are loved, how rich and complicated their lives are, and […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
The grief story: it’s sympathetic, moving, and even cathartic when done well. It’s also a trap for clichés, overwrought metaphors, sticky sentimentality, and hyperbole. Add that to the ubiquity of the grief story, and you get a subject that can be damn tricky to write well. Some writers may spend hours coming up with new […]
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War Narratives #4: Meet the Civilians
Each character achieves independence in his own way, but independence winds up looking a lot like loneliness.
...moreHacking Away at Old Saws
In an interview with NPR about his new book, It’s Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Cliches, Orin Hargraves acknowledges the utility of well-worn shorthand even as he counsels against its use. Clichés work because their prepackaged meaning is immediately accessible, making them ideal tools for journalists trying to convey […]
...moreDon’t Throw the Clichés out with the Bath Water
Most people think clichés aren’t worth a hill of beans, but over at Salon, Orin Hargraves says they just haven’t gotten a fair shake. Hargraves thinks clichés are just a red herring; if you want to make sure your writing really is one-of-a-kind, he has this advice: The best way to free your speech and […]
...moreOn the Particular Origins of Some Literary Cliches
The phrase “little did she/he/they know” has plenty of history. The question is, when did it start being used for cheap suspense? The inversion of subject and verb sounds stilted and melodramatic, so the obvious culprit would be 19th century fiction. But perhaps not everything is as it seems. Once upon a time, in an […]
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
Cliches are something every writer has to deal with at some point. This weekend, Steve Edwards acknowledges the cliché and comes to something of a reckoning. Edwards declares: That’s how the heart works—it doesn’t give a shit about what it’s supposed to feel, it just feels. Using the context of a failed marriage, Edwards shows […]
...moreThe Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Jonathan Lethem has been hired for David Foster Wallace’s old teaching post at Pomona. (via @maudnewton) “Lots of people in Indiana Jones hats today. I approve.” From @WriterDaniel at this Twitter roundup from the LA Times Festival of Books. GIANT’s got a pretty good summary of what different kinds of editors really do. Thankfully, they […]
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