The war against cliché by Martin Amis

The war against cliché
by Martin Amis.

“The War on Cliché” is a book written by British author Martin Amis, published in 2003. The work is a compilation of Amis’s best articles and essays in the last twenty-five years, in which he addresses a wide variety of topics. , from chess, nuclear weapons, masculinity and film censorship to Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, Hillary Clinton and Margaret Thatcher. Additionally, it includes writings on authors such as Cervantes, Milton, Coleridge, Jane Austen, Dickens, Kafka, Joyce, Wodehouse, Nabokov, Evelyn Waugh, William Burroughs, Philip Roth, VS Naipaul, Kurt Vonnegut, JG Ballard, Malcolm Lowry, Gore Vidal, Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, Tom Wolfe and John Updike.

What is a cliché? According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, it is a “very repeated or formulated expression in advance.” In other words, it is a cliché that is used without thinking and that lacks originality or creativity. Clichés abound in literature, journalism, cinema and advertising, and are considered a style defect that impoverishes language and communication.

But are clichés always a negative thing? Aren’t there cases where they might be useful or even necessary? How to distinguish between an acceptable cliché and an unacceptable one? These are some of the questions that the British writer Martin Amis asks in his book “The War Against Cliché”, a compilation of essays and literary reviews published between 1971 and 2000.

Amis is known for his agile, ironic and provocative prose, and for his desire to renew the language and form of the novel. In this book, he sets out to analyze and criticize the clichés that he finds in the works of authors as diverse as Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John Updike, Salman Rushdie or JK Rowling, among others. His objective is not only to point out commonplaces and clichés, but also to explore the reasons that lead writers to resort to them and the consequences they have for literature and culture.

Amis does not limit himself to verbal clichés, but also addresses thematic, narrative and aesthetic clichés. Thus, for example, he criticizes the tendency to repeat the same love, war, horror or science fiction stories; the lack of originality in the characters, dialogues, plots or endings; or the abusive use of certain literary resources such as metaphors, allusions or cultural references.

Amis’s book is an invitation to reflect on language and literature, and on the role of the writer and the reader in the creation and reception of works. Amis defends that the writer must be aware of the clichés he uses and avoid them whenever he can, looking for new forms of expression that surprise and stimulate the reader. And the reader must be critical and demanding with what he reads, not settling for what is easy or predictable, but looking for what is original and authentic.

“The war against cliché” is an essential book for all lovers of literature and language, which offers us a lucid and fun vision of the work of some of the best writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, and which challenges us to question our own habits and prejudices when reading and writing.

Amis, recognized as one of the greatest novelists and critics of his generation, dissects in his essays an astonishing variety of commonplaces with razor-sharp wit and inimitable judgment. The work is an example of Amis’s ability to address diverse and complex topics, as well as his ability to analyze and criticize contemporary literature and culture.

In “The War Against Cliché”, Amis not only focuses on literary criticism, but also reflects on the main dilemmas that contemporary criticism faced, since the Age of Criticism that began in 1948 with the publication of “Notes for a “Definition of Culture” by Eliot and “The Great Tradition” by Leavis, to the collapse of criticism in more recent times.

The book has been described as extraordinary, and although some critics have noted that Amis is not a typical critic, his personal approach and unique style make “The War on Cliché” an interesting and provocative read. The work is a response and shows to what extent a writer’s perspective, when he has sufficient intellectual power, can offer a unique and valuable perspective on literature and culture.

In summary, “The War on Cliché” is a work that offers a unique and personal perspective on a wide variety of topics and authors through the essays and articles of Martin Amis. His focus on literary and cultural criticism, as well as his ability to tackle difficult topics and his unique narrative style, make this book an interesting and challenging read.