Something Familiar, Something Peculiar

As a kid in the 70s, I loved watching the CBS Saturday night comedy lineup, considered to be one of the greatest combos of all time. It began with All in the Family, followed by M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and finally The Carol Burnett Show. I may be wrong, but I believe the sequence was preceded by the song, "Comedy Tonight," from Stephen Sondheim's musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Something familiar, 
Something peculiar,
Something for everyone:
A comedy tonight!

If anyone remembers this differently, please chime in, but I am almost certain I heard this song on network TV back then. I also fondly recall the NBC "Mystery Movie" theme, "Midnight, Moonlight & Magic" (by Henri Mancini of Pink Panther fame), that ran before a rotating selection of classics: "Columbo," "McCloud," and "McMillan & Wife."

I'm not writing to this to reprise my favorite 70s TV music, rather to proffer a writing tip that came to mind as I thought more deeply about the "Comedy Tonight" lyrics. Though the song most likely intended something familiar and something peculiar to be two distinct offerings (though within one performance), the combination of the familiar and the peculiar in a single character, action, place, or scene is what makes the best fiction work. We want to be surprised by stories, yet at the same time feel the surprise was inevitable. We want the character's tic, the plot twist, the room where it happens, the specific scene, to feel both peculiar and familiar, to be not what we expected and at the same time feel completely right. It's a delicate balance, a literary high-wire act, where we feel the sickening yet exhilarating sensation of almost falling while at the same time we know we won't fall. The best stories move us by shifting something inside us while at the same time reminding us of who we are at the core. I believe this what Anne Lamott meant when she wrote: "I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us."

Coming to the familiar, peculiar place in writing is not easy; it requires consistent work. But when you nail it, you know it, because it feels as natural as being naked, as true as the truest truths you know.

Here are some examples.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
— Charles Dickens

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
—William Shakespeare

Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief.
—Herman Melville  

You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
—Vladimir Nabokov

If perfection is stagnation, then Heaven is a swamp.
—Richard Bach

Perhaps you have your own examples, from your own writing or your favorite writers.

I hope this musically-inspired musing helps you with your craft.

Image attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comedy_and_tragedy_masks.svg