Ennet House facts: the cliché that turns out true

The most concentrated single statement of the theme's paradox. The phrase is a cliché — worn, embarrassing, the sort of thing irony exists to sneer at — and it is also, "unfortunately," true, the truth made worse by being unoriginal. That one adverb carries the whole freight: you would rather the platitude stayed a platitude, because if it's accurate then the identity-vertigo it names is really yours, not a greeting-card sentiment you're too smart for. It's the litany's method in miniature — a cliché picked up, turned over, and found to have a live edge under the wear.