I'm a cliché!
From an interview with Ira Glass:There are definitely certain things ... that we would never do today because they just seem like a cliché today.... It's such a trope of our own show, and of thousands of memoirs that have been written. Especially you get this kind of memoir where it's a really smart person who had a really rough childhood of one sort or another but then went to a really good college and now basically they're living in brooklyn or park slope or something and they write a book about, you know, where they go back to have the conversation with their dad that they always meant to.
Well, given that Ira Glass is a probably a good judge of the zeitgeist, it sounds like I should give up on writing my memoirs. Ok, I'm not really writing my memoirs, but it's still kind of disappointing to find out that my life is a cliché. On the other hand, I think the reason stories like that have become a cliche is that the Internet is giving access to new social support structures, and making it easier for kids in tough situations to envision something better, and that is kind of awesome.
Well, given that Ira Glass is a probably a good judge of the zeitgeist, it sounds like I should give up on writing my memoirs. Ok, I'm not really writing my memoirs, but it's still kind of disappointing to find out that my life is a cliché. On the other hand, I think the reason stories like that have become a cliche is that the Internet is giving access to new social support structures, and making it easier for kids in tough situations to envision something better, and that is kind of awesome.