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thoughts about theme
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From: Rosanne Parry <rosanneparry_at_comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 10:35:48 -0700
Wow, thanks for all the resources Helen! I write poetry all the time and read it more than any other genre but I have no urge at all to publish my poetry. And maybe part of what I love about writing poems is that its nothing I'll ever do on a deadline. But I am always looking for something new to learn about poem craft. Off to the library to find the titles you've recommended! :-)
Since you asked about theme, Here's what I think. I have a hunch that it's one of those words that's a bit of an intellectual bully, in that whatever you say about it is so easily refuted that it's nervous-maing to say anything at all. I think of reading as a collaborative enterprise in which the writer and each reader brings their whole life's worth of experiences to the page. That life experience shapes which elements of the story become prominent and which details recede. It informs which character the participant allies with (often not the viewpoint character.) It impacts the expectations and prejudices that inform the reading/writing. So I think theme is likely to be very different for different people, and even different for the same person should they come back and read a book again at a different point in their life.
For example when I read the Little House books as a child I thought of them as how-to books with the odd adventure thrown in. (how to mold a bullet, how to churn butter, how to train a yolk of oxen, and occasionally a daring river crossing or outrunning a storm.) Interestingly I did not think of them as western expansion stories because to my 8 year old thinking the trip from Wisconsin to Minnesota was so short, they hardly came west at all. If they'd made it to Oregon or even Idaho or Montana I bet I'd have thought of them differently. Rereading the books as a parent I was completely appalled by how often the Ingalls family nearly died. (malaria, river crossing, blizzard, fire, etc.) So then it was a survival story for me.
For this reason I try not to hold too tightly to the notion of crafting a theme. I think theme tends to show up in a manuscript whether you want it to or not and it's more a matter of nudging what's there in one direction or another than specifically making something up and calling it theme.
I think of plot as the noisy youngest child in the process--all questions and cleverness, demanding to know what's to eat for second act, going off on a funny tangent, tracking mud into act three. You get the idea. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and continuity are definitely the province of the oldest child, the one you hand the keys to ask him to head out to the dictionary for you--again. The one who usually, but not always, waits until you've turned away before rolling his eyes. The one who keeps track of word count and readability and stands there tapping his foot until you read it all aloud. Theme, on the other hand, is the middle child of this group, the one who, after you have sent the oldest for take out from the neighborhood manual of style, and after you've momentarily shut up the youngest with a dialog and plot point sandwich, is sitting there at the table beside you quietly munching on your favorite box of metaphors. And when you say, "Have you been there this whole time?" she says. "Loss, I think, and maybe a bit with Redemption toward the end." And then she polishes off the last of the metaphors and takes your favorite minor character out into the yard to play and you don't hear a word from either of those kids for at least a week.
How do I not have a PhD in English! :-) "commence with the eye rolling"
Rosanne Parry
Written in Stone, 2013 Second Fiddle, 2011 Heart of a Shepherd, 2009 www.rosanneparry.com
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Received on Sat 19 Apr 2014 12:36:07 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 10:35:48 -0700
Wow, thanks for all the resources Helen! I write poetry all the time and read it more than any other genre but I have no urge at all to publish my poetry. And maybe part of what I love about writing poems is that its nothing I'll ever do on a deadline. But I am always looking for something new to learn about poem craft. Off to the library to find the titles you've recommended! :-)
Since you asked about theme, Here's what I think. I have a hunch that it's one of those words that's a bit of an intellectual bully, in that whatever you say about it is so easily refuted that it's nervous-maing to say anything at all. I think of reading as a collaborative enterprise in which the writer and each reader brings their whole life's worth of experiences to the page. That life experience shapes which elements of the story become prominent and which details recede. It informs which character the participant allies with (often not the viewpoint character.) It impacts the expectations and prejudices that inform the reading/writing. So I think theme is likely to be very different for different people, and even different for the same person should they come back and read a book again at a different point in their life.
For example when I read the Little House books as a child I thought of them as how-to books with the odd adventure thrown in. (how to mold a bullet, how to churn butter, how to train a yolk of oxen, and occasionally a daring river crossing or outrunning a storm.) Interestingly I did not think of them as western expansion stories because to my 8 year old thinking the trip from Wisconsin to Minnesota was so short, they hardly came west at all. If they'd made it to Oregon or even Idaho or Montana I bet I'd have thought of them differently. Rereading the books as a parent I was completely appalled by how often the Ingalls family nearly died. (malaria, river crossing, blizzard, fire, etc.) So then it was a survival story for me.
For this reason I try not to hold too tightly to the notion of crafting a theme. I think theme tends to show up in a manuscript whether you want it to or not and it's more a matter of nudging what's there in one direction or another than specifically making something up and calling it theme.
I think of plot as the noisy youngest child in the process--all questions and cleverness, demanding to know what's to eat for second act, going off on a funny tangent, tracking mud into act three. You get the idea. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and continuity are definitely the province of the oldest child, the one you hand the keys to ask him to head out to the dictionary for you--again. The one who usually, but not always, waits until you've turned away before rolling his eyes. The one who keeps track of word count and readability and stands there tapping his foot until you read it all aloud. Theme, on the other hand, is the middle child of this group, the one who, after you have sent the oldest for take out from the neighborhood manual of style, and after you've momentarily shut up the youngest with a dialog and plot point sandwich, is sitting there at the table beside you quietly munching on your favorite box of metaphors. And when you say, "Have you been there this whole time?" she says. "Loss, I think, and maybe a bit with Redemption toward the end." And then she polishes off the last of the metaphors and takes your favorite minor character out into the yard to play and you don't hear a word from either of those kids for at least a week.
How do I not have a PhD in English! :-) "commence with the eye rolling"
Rosanne Parry
Written in Stone, 2013 Second Fiddle, 2011 Heart of a Shepherd, 2009 www.rosanneparry.com
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Received on Sat 19 Apr 2014 12:36:07 PM CDT
