let's see if we can work out how this might go..

I've been thinking about how writers turn a cliché to their advantage; for instance:

The hairs on the back of his neck were rising. [He] had heard that this was because men had been made out of monkeys, and it meant that there was a tiger behind you.
(Terry Pratchett)

[do you think this might make for an ongoing theme, up there where others might conceivably see it?]