---
BaxDeal@aol.com wrote:
> If one utilizes established genre conventions,
ie:
> first person pov, femme
> fatales, psychotic sidekicks, is one
automatically
> trafficking in clich鳿
> If so, does putting a unique spin on said
convention
> eradicate the clich鿠
John,
You posted this a while ago, but I saved it because I think
it's a good question and I figured it was likely to generate
some good conversation. I was surprised that it didn't, but
perhaps it got lost in the nominating and voting for the Top
100 Plus 11.
Anyway, my two cents: No. No.
I think part of what makes a genre comfortable and enjoyable
to its fans are the things that they come to expect from it.
Some writers, however, manage to keep the work comfortable
AND "make it new" as Pound said. Some things--first person
POV, for example--are typical of the genre, but certainly not
required. Also, given the rather limited number of POV
choices, I think you could call any of them "overused." In
fact, this sense of overuse of the 1st person probably helps
give rise to the rather silly
first-person-alternating-with-third-person stuff of Parker's
CRIMSON ROSE and THIN AIR, Burke's PURPLE CANE ROAD and
Block's HOPE TO DIE (I think the latter two do much better
jobs with it--Burke's is unquestionably more subtle--but I
know I'm in the minority on that).
Having said that not all such conventions automatically
equate to cliches, however, I should balance that by arguing
that avoiding cliche goes beyond, in my opinion, "putting a
unique spin" on the convention. When I was in high school,
I'd write silly little PI stories in which the PI was
basically Spenser with a different name, a black belt in Tae
Kwan Doe, and a penchant for perfect Manhattans (not just a
Manhattan, mind you) rather than Irish whiskey and beer. His
psychopathic buddy was kind of a displaced backwoods guy who
wore overalls and grubby long underwear shirts--but he
performed the basic function of a Hawk or Clete. I'm
oversimplifying, of course, but I think I spun the characters
pretty well
(for a 15 year old, anyway) and yet remained cliched.
But, heck, what do I know? You're the screenwriter; I'm just
a poet.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07 May 2002 EDT