Enjoyed the Wallace speech ("Morning boys, hows the water?" = priceless) and your blog. It's a self-evident truth that human beings think in symbols and our brains always try to attach symbolic meanings to any event we see or hear about. Makes sense to keep giving our screenplay human quandaries and stakes that universally resonate with the entire species. A cliche, banal or otherwise, most often gets to be that way because it's true. Thanks!

As much as David Foster Wallace eschewed irony as a cowardly device, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by it reading this bizarre defense for banality summed up in the line "Am I actually suggesting that aspiring screenwriters not try to thematically explore something new and original? Yeah, I guess I kinda am." ....what a frightening belief to pass on to young writers. For example, the core idea that it has all been said before discounts the symbiotic evolution going on as humans meld with the things they create....computers, recursive art, nanotechnology, television to name a few. Steve Mazur, do you really believe that you are the same sort of child intellectually (having been raised on television) as a child of the Middle Ages? You are fundamentally different, and that is reflected in your art. As much as David Foster Wallace talked about the comfort of banal platitudes, his writing was anything but...he wrote complicated, ghastly uncommercial pieces that defied formula writing and cliches. Steve, I recommend you read Infinite Jest to appreciate the irony of offering him in support of your post.