Shock of the Same

This book is the first examination of the cliché as a philosophical concept. Challenging the idea that clichés are lazy or spurious opposites to genuine thinking, it instead locates them as a dynamic and contestable boundary between ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’.

Tom Grimwood

Prologue CHAPTER ONE: THE MEANING OF CLICHÉS CHAPTER TWO: DEAD SPACES: ARENDT, ORWELL AND THE MORBIDITY OF POLITICAL CLICHÉS CHAPTER THREE: CYNICAL MODERNITY FROM NIETZSCHE TO SLOTERDIJK CHAPTER FOUR: SAYING IT WITH FLOWERS: JEAN PAULHAN'S INAPPROPRIATE METAPHORS CHAPTER FIVE: THE SHOCK OF THE SAME: BORIS GROYS AND THE METANOIA OF THE CLICHÉ CHAPTER SIX: ON THE PROBLEM OF SAYING SOMETHING NEW: KIERKEGAARD'S ARCHETYPES, MCLUHAN'S CLICHÉS CHAPTER SEVEN: STOCK IMAGES OF MADNESS: RHETORIC AND CLICHÉ IN VIDEO GAMES CHAPTER EIGHT: "THIS WILL ALL MAKE SENSE WHEN I AM OLDER": REBOOTING CLICHÉS CHAPTER NINE: GATEKEEPING THE "NOISE": EXPERTISE, OPEN-MINDEDNESS AND PUBLIC DEBATE Bibliography