The Shock of the Same: An Anti-Philosophy of Clichs

(Hardback)

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Since the birth of modernity, Western thought has been at war with clichs. The association of philosophical and cultural integrity with originality, and the corresponding need for invention and novelty, has been a distinct concern of a whole spectrum of ideas and movements, from Nietzsches polemics against the herd, the shock of the new of the artistic avant-garde, the Frankfurt Schools critique of mass culture, to Orwells defence of political dialogue from dying metaphors.

This book is the first examination of the clich as a philosophical concept. Challenging the idea that clichs are lazy or spurious opposites to genuine thinking, it instead locates them as a dynamic and contestable boundary between thought and non-thought. The book unpacks the constituent phenomena of clichs repetition, circulation, the readymade, same-ness through readings of anti-philosophical thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Paulhan, de Certeau, Derrida, Sloterdijk, Badiou and Groys. In doing so, the book critically articulates the techniques and technologies through which the boundary between thought and non-thought is formed in modern Western philosophy.

Rejecting the idea that clichs should be dismissed out of hand on normative frameworks of good and bad thinking, or new and old ideas, it instead interrogates the material, cultural and archival ground on which these frameworks are built.

Reviews

"In this unprecedentedly fine-grained exegesis, Thomas Grimwood establishes a home for clich in the Western philosophical tradition. His analysis of writers as diverse as Arendt and Nietzsche, Orwell and Kierkegaard, brings the reader what is rarely expected from an examination of clich originality, depth, and a freshness of perspective." --Orin Hargraves, author of 'It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use' and 'Abuse of Cliches'

"The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard referred to an excess of information as the 'obscenity of language'. To engage meaningfully in this current ecstasy of communication, Tom Grimwood faces the clich - a kind of monster of language and reflection. His brilliant critique is essential reading for anyone who wishes to filter out the noise and reflect on the value of language operating with precision in our information saturated world." --Simon Morris, professor of art, Leeds Beckett University

In this unprecedentedly fine-grained exegesis, Thomas Grimwood establishes a home for clich in the Western philosophical tradition. His analysis of writers as diverse as Arendt and Nietzsche, Orwell and Kierkegaard, brings the reader what is rarely expected from an examination of clich originality, depth, and a freshness of perspective.

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard referred to an excess of information as the 'obscenity of language'. To engage meaningfully in this current ecstasy of communication, Tom Grimwood faces the clich - a kind of monster of language and reflection. His brilliant critique is essential reading for anyone who wishes to filter out the noise and reflect on the value of language operating with precision in our information saturated world.

Author Bio

Thomas Grimwood is senior research fellow at the University of Cumbria. He has published on a broad range of topics within the field of cultural hermeneutics, from Nietzschean misogyny to medieval anorexia, and his research has a particular focus on representations of ambiguity within the act of interpretation. He is the author of two books: Irony, Misogyny and Interpretation, and Key Debates in Social Work and Philosophy.