Sometimes, more than anything else, I find the word itself quite interesting. Of course word does not only mean syntagmatic form but also the connotation of it. Today, I am going to talk about the word 'cliché'. it may be a beautiful word for many people. But I don’t know why it has quite a negative effect on me.
The word has haunted me for days. I recently asked one of my closest friends, “What is your opinion oncliché?” His reaction was quite normal, although I asked him suddenly out of the blue. He asked, " In which sense are you asking me?" I told him that I had asked him generally. Then he replied- what you are saying. it is itself a cliché. Somehow I was convinced on his opinion. The dictionary defines it a stereotypical opinion or phrase but in a larger sense, we can see it in our thought process, a system of governance and also in a bureaucracy. I think we all are the product of clichés because we hardly raise the question over the existing thought process, culture and discourses. And we accept the beauty of the same stereotypical and overrated opinions and phrases, for example, boys are boys, brave as a lion, every cloud has a silver lining, everything is fair in love and war so and so. However, the world can be more democratic and equal if we cross the so-called boundaries of clichés.
Life a Cliché
When I was totally into cliché, I found one beautiful quotation about it, “The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather they are the superficial articulation of very good ones.” And my take on cliché is not totally different than this. If we deny the depth of anything and we accept the superficial aspect of that particular thing than it is a cliché. We can see these kinds of clichés everywhere, dining hall to parliament, local market to shopping mall, and wallpaper to the newsroom. And I considered myself a clichéd form of everything.
I am talking about cliché and I am forgetting “Samuel Beckett” which is not fair . When I think about it, obviously I remember him and his characters. The funniest thing is that when I think about his character I take life as a cliché. Indeed life is a cliché, I tried to redefine it but I couldn't. However, I always say it’s better to be unsung than to be a cliché.
