Originality and voice including cliché by Tyler Alexander and Megan Turner

Having an original voice as a writer can be difficult. I feel that we as writers tend to take things from the various works that we have read and incorporate them within our own work. There are many different elements that a writer may put into their work, however it’s easy for them to get overused, therefore becoming a cliché. Cliché is an expression or idea that has become overused to the state that it is no longer an original idea.

  

 Cliché’ can be easy to fall into, especially if you watch a lot of films or read a lot of books. Novelist and poet, Samuel Becket, calls clichés “anonymous speech that belongs to all and bears the mark of society”, but, as they can be such an easy route originality can be lost within the piece. One author who has no problem avoiding cliché is writer Clarice Lispector. Lispector’s voice is original because it doesn’t have a structure; it goes wherever she wants it to go. Her voice is very idiosyncratic in the sense that the reader may be left confused about what she’s trying to say. This makes her work different and unique, meaning that it’s easy to recognize. Even though her work may be seen as difficult to understand, I feel that the way in which she writes makes the reader think as well as letting them have their own interpretation of the piece.

In Lispector’s Água Viva she writes about childbirth in a way that I feel no other writer has, she also writes about being reborn. She writes “You who are reading me please help me to be born”. She also writes, “I ate my own placenta so as not to have to eat for four days.” She uses innuendo and double meanings in ways that are difficult to understand. I find that this makes her work very unique and original, not many people would write about childbirth in such a way. Lispector’s writing was so bizarre at times that her editor (Benjamin Moser) changed quite a bit of what she wrote and as a result of that it took away something that was very special to her…her voice.

Clarice Lispector’s novels have a reoccurring topic of feminism, in which many authors have written about for centuries. Her pieces specifically focus on the lives of women who struggle with society and their limitations. I feel that this is a big part of her voice as a writer since its something that she was very passionate about. Authors who tend to stick to the same genre when writing stories or other pieces may be classed as cliché by a few, however this is more of cliché within their own work rather than an idea that they have taken from someone else. Although Lispector and many other writers may produce something of feminism, it’s likely that we will be able to tell apart her work due to the fact that we have picked up her style throughout all of the other pieces that she has done. By sticking to the same genre, these authors have created their own originality within the genre they have chosen.

Writers can often talk about the same subjects yet take completely different approaches. This is due to the fact that every author has a different voice that they have within their writing. For example Charles Bukowski takes a humorous approach to the subject of alcohol and essentially alcoholism. Where as Olivia Laing (an essayist) takes an objective approach, in the sense that she’s speaking about the subject rather than her own experiences of it. She does this through examining the links between creativity and alcohol. Their styles, approaches, opinions are just poles apart, although discussing the same issue, which is alcoholism.

Now, this is how we can understand that different authors can take the same subject, but produce their own adaptation of it.

Another author who has an original voice however incoherent is Werner Herzog. In his travel piece ‘Of walking in Ice’ isn’t like any other travel piece. Throughout this piece Herzog uses a lot of short sentences and then he will continue on to a new idea. For example “With my compass I gauged the direction of Paris; now I know it. Atchternbusch had jumped from the moving VW van without getting hurt”. As you can see a new character has been thrown into the picture and as soon as he is brought into the story, abruptly he is then taken out “then right away he tried again and broke his leg; now he’s lying in Ward 5”. The way in which Herzog writes I feel may leave the reader overwhelmed by all the different aspects of the story and the constant change of idea/setting. However there is no denying that his voice as a writer is unique/original.

  

 The Russian theorist Baktin, stated ‘for the prose artist the world is full of other people’s words, among which he must orient himself and whose speech characteristics he must be able to perceive with a very keen ear. He must introduce them into the plane of his own discourse, but in such a way that the plane is not destroyed.’ (Cited in Lodge, 1992, p. 128).

Originality within a piece may be easier for a writer who has decided to close themselves off from the world and all of the other works that writers have produced (whether that may be film or books). However maintaining an original voice may be harder than we think. For example I could start a story that I intend to be completely original however throughout the writing process I may slip back into the habit of putting cliché in my work. With writers like Lispector and Herzog their voice is something that can’t be imitated, this is due to their state of mind and the way that they think. The way in which your mind works, as both a writer and individual will help you to mold your voice and hopefully keep it as original as possible.

Werner Herzog “Of walking on Ice’ Taken from the UCA student portal in the week 4 folder

https://myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-489180-dt-content-rid-665621_1/courses/FJCW5001_15/Herzog%2C%20Of%20Walking%20in%20Ice.pdf

Check out an Interview with John Berryman, who talks about originality in his writing.

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4052/the-art-of-poetry-no-16-john-berryman