It is a mistake to confuse a cliche with a platitude. Cliches are far more fun. Art creates cliches, refutes them and recycles them. A movie like "The Wrestler," for instance, which perhaps we should be more embarrassed than we are to have enjoyed as much as we did, works with a cliche that might not have been around for awhile. How old is that story? Still, we care to revisit it from time to time. Archetypal maybe (but try not to say that in the wrong crowd). Platitudes, on the other hand. . . they thrive in the realm of people who cannot be named.
The thing I'm trying to sort out now is what is cliched and what is archetypal and what is platitudinous this holiday season. If I can work that out, perhaps I will enjoy myself more. Cut the platitude, enjoy a few cliches, focus on the archetypal. . . Bingo!
It is rough work, though, all this thinking and living. I watched "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" last night on the recommendation of C.C. If you haven't seen it, watch "The Dancing Outlaw" first. It will make more sense. I don't think those Wild Whites are going to have the trouble I will with the holiday season, though. I am trying too hard, harder than I should.
I'm open for suggestions.
“A man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man. The instructed man is ashamed to pronounce in an orphic manner what everybody knows, and because he is silent people think he is making fun of them. They like a man who expresses their own superficial thoughts in a manner that appears to be profound. This enables them to feel that they are themselves profound.”
ReplyDeleteVan Wyck Brooks
Love it. Thank you!
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