My previous entry ended with a suggestion that readers should “read, as they say, the whole thing.”<\/p>\n
Why is the phrase “as they say” there? Well, it’s shorthand for “I do realize that ‘read the whole thing’ is as clich\u00c3\u00a9d a blogging phrase as one could imagine. By adding the phrase “as they say,” however, I am indicating that I possess an ironic awareness of my use of the clich\u00c3\u00a9, which has the effect of making it not a clich\u00c3\u00a9 after all.”<\/p>\n
The problem is that many bloggers other than me have wanted to communicate these same general sentiments, with the result that the counter-clich\u00c3\u00a9 phrase stuck into the clich\u00c3\u00a9d phrase has, itself, become something of a clich\u00c3\u00a9.<\/p>\n
Presumably, I must now start writing “Read, as, as they say, they say, the whole thing,” so that not only the original clich\u00c3\u00a9 but also the newer anti-clich\u00c3\u00a9 clich\u00c3\u00a9 are ironically acknowledged, thus avoiding clich\u00c3\u00a9dom altogether. Yet I fear this sort of escalation. Where will it end?.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My previous entry ended with a suggestion that readers should “read, as they say, the whole thing.” Why is the phrase “as they say” there? Well, it’s shorthand for “I do realize that ‘read the whole thing’ is as clich\u00c3\u00a9d … Continue reading