we're not startled when someone says "King Alfonso of Spain," but we are when we hear "Alphonse I of Bemidji." The bane of language, for [John] Ashbery as for Flaubert, is the "received idea"--the idea everyone mouths and takes for granted. Even after the received idea has been overturned (say, by a war), the agents of cliché immediately try to restore it:About fourteen passengers working overtime
by the end of the war restored challenged idées reçues,
set things to rights.
from The New York Times: John Ashbery, Toying With Words
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