Since the beginning of time, humanity had written, spoken and created cliches...well, maybe not the beginning of time, I just wanted to start this off with something really cheesy. But seriously, cliches have been around for a long time. They present themselves in diverse forms and have been both embraced and rejected by society. Now brace yourself, and hold on tight for the wild ride you’ve just stepped onto.

Written cliches are cheesy, I get it. They can ramble and cause writing pieces to take unnecessary turns. In most cases they are unnecessary themselves. George Orwell argued a strong case against cliches, but also against decadent language in general. Literacy sins all stem from the “slovenliness” of our language, making it easier to have foolish thoughts. These bad habits are imitated and repeated, trapping us in an endless cycle of foolishness. But to commit the ultimate sin of writing in cliches you must be foolish and an imitator. Orwell recognises staleness of imagery and lack of precision in cliches claiming they are dying metaphors that have lost all evocative power. People have began to use these “dying metaphors” out of laziness, relying on pre-invented phrases to serve as metaphors in their pieces. And it is lazy, to rely on the words of somebody else because you have none of your own. But if you refuse to understand your own writing to the point that you can not come up with words yourself… embarrassing.  Orwell finds common ground with Kurt Vonnegut in their opposition for indirect and unclear speaking. George Orwell commented on the use of ready-made phrases, recognizing the ease and pleasant reception that they would be received with yet emphasizing the staleness and lack of clarity that they bring with them. Vonnegut is accepting of simple and eloquent language as long as they are effective in illuminating audiences. He doesn’t want a sentence that will not further inform the audience or remark on a character or an action, yet he still values beautiful speaking. It is these oddities that make writing delightful. It is something to be treasured.

I find that these oddities, cliches, foolish thoughts, ready-made phrases - whatever you might call them - appealing. But these cliches extend to more than just words. Some would argue that stereotypical storylines are also cliches and just as obvious as written or spoken cliches. How often is it that you read a heart-wrenching story of someone searching for a family that they never knew, a team hunting down a murderer or stories of literal and metaphorical knights in shining armor. These scenarios are used over and over again not because writers are able to re-invent them in new ways but because audiences find comfort in stories that are familiar to them, not to mention the predictability of these stories. The bad guy gets caught - have you ever seen a James Bond movie? - the orphan finds his/her family - Disney’s good old Anastasia - and the knight saves his princess (literally any other movie). Pop culture has adapted many of these stories to the screen, the same ideas just varying casts. The most cliche is the ones you probably tune into every Tuesday or greedily binge watch on Netflix, whether its still in production or not. Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Grey’s Anatomy, Game of Thrones, Supernatural...need I continue? And the episodes just keep coming, don't they?

The cliche of supernatural love has been shockingly popular for decades, classics like Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula have urged the production of modern, romanticised replicas, thus creating the infamous Twilight phenomenon. A whirlwind of the same story told over and over and over again. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and The Originals to name just a few. Even the ideas of supernatural worlds and dystopian societies have been reused so excessively that it in themselves have become cliches. But we still indulge ourselves with watching our favorite book or movie adaptation of Divergent, Harry Potter or The Hunger Games because they are comforting to us. New characters and settings give viewers the thrill that they seek of experiencing a new world but in the end, we watch because, we - for better or for worse - know the outcome. And this is why we watch. We endure the suspense and the cheap thrills because we know a satisfying conclusion will be delivered, and we find solace in that. It might be because we crave resolutions that are difficult to come to in real life or that we wish to escape the simplicity or tiredness of our own lives so we escape into words that are reliably thrilling.

We have stolen these storylines from once great works of literature. Whether a plotline was subtly followed or blatantly copied, it seems that no work is original. Shakespeare has been the main candidate for plagiarism through years of production. His work Romeo and Juliet has been repeatedly stolen and written into a cliche nightmare, with over thirteen “classical” book to film adaptations and dozens more unconventional replicas such as Letters to Juliet and Gnomeo and Juliet. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies seem to be a perfect representation of these apparent cliches. Adapted from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, the easily manipulated setting of rural England and an already present love story and injected it with a supernatural storyline. Give me a more typical story. I’ll wait.

Cliches present themselves in more forms than just movies and literature, but in music, art and even fashion. Music follows the cliche of love, as well as any movie, might, singing about the same feelings and experiences that movies and literature convey. Art follows this pattern as well, yet in a different way. What is considered cliche in the moment of production or popularity changes and more depth is discovered as the practice ages and evolves. Art movements - or some might even call trends - started as popular styles such as realism and pop art. Those who participated in these styles could be accused of following trends or   Yet fashion today seems more cliche than ever. Instead of creating and experimenting with new styles we seem to be stuck in place. Females are stealing trends from the 60’s through the 90’s showing the loss of individual growth. This may be the unoriginal thought that Orwell describes.

The question remains whether cliches are as sinful as Orwell and Vonnegut claim or whether they are dependable and should be preserved. Cliches are still present and thriving because we continuously invite and reinvent them into pop culture, we simply can’t get enough.  Orwell would be disgusted with this conclusion, yet it is true. If we didn’t encourage and crave these cliches they would no longer be produced and different, the truly new material would be being introduced. But we continue to watch and anticipate movies and shows that we could predict without difficulty, gush over Hallmark cards and participate in the most predictable activities. Walking your dog under a blue sky, anxiously anticipating the last day of school, and partying with family and friends. Tell me a more cliche thing to do...I’ll wait.