Themes in Forms of Defiance
There will always, inevitably, be a theme in what a writer produces.
I am not alone, though, in the belief that beginning a story with a theme is one sure way to kill that story. Meaning arises from the actual work itself. That said, once a story is finished, perhaps a theme or themes can be identified within. The caveat is that the writer, being the first reader, may have a hint of a story’s meaning, but hers is not the most important one, and certainly not the only one available.
That caveat aside, certain things haunted me over the time I wrote these stories. Here are some of the most important ones, but not in any particular priority or order.
For page references to the story examples listed with each theme, please refer to the comprehensive Forms of Defiance Table of Contents.
Looking for Love
Human beings long for love all of our lives. Perhaps because the love in our lives makes our precious lives worth living.
All the stories in the first section deal with this topic. Good examples are: Sound of My Love, Stamp and The Complaint.
Choices
At each point in time, choice is offered to each of us – some monumental, some not important at all; some of these are even forced upon us. Each one appears with collateral effects hidden within: some foreseen, most unforeseen.
Good examples are: Forms of Defiance 1, 2 and 3, Extol Him and Dr. Pepper with Lime.
Religion
All secular things exhibit a spiritual component; all spiritual things exhibit a secular component. Every soul is part of a created world; all of the created world influences each soul. Pretty much every choice made is made against that backdrop.
Quite often the spiritual component is not made explicit; hints, however, are inevitable.
This theme is slightly evident in each story but good examples are: Telling Phrase, Big Bend, Dust to Dust and especially What to Know About Coffins.
Death
As people approach death, consider the ending of their significance, the entire world can begin to change in surreal ways. When we can no longer count on our physical, or even mental, lives being ‘bullet-proof’ --when death forces the recognition of its non-negotiability upon us -- what is left? Are WE left?
Good examples include: Dust to Dust, Ticking, What to Know About Coffins and Indian Blanket.
Telling Ourselves our Stories, Searching for Our Value
As we move through the world, some part of us is talking to the rest of us, sometimes in words and sometimes in other ways. Our consciousness is a continuously wrestling match with our unique narrative, our unique explanation of our value.
Each one of us has our own form of expressing this explanation, thereby revealing our true self at that point in time --- some through language, some through religious ideas, some through outward actions. This narrative is set in concrete for some, is fluid for others, but very often it is in defiance of a finite definition of the self as that person knows herself/himself to be.
All of section 2 have this element, but examples are MetaFictional Reality, Oral Fixation, Jericho and Plumage.
Time
I was taught once that the writer’s first job, and most pressing demand, is to deal with time. In these stories, I chose a hyper-short expression of ‘big’ moments in characters’ lives, in order to express the reality that every present moment contains all the past and also the seeds of all the future.
Even though each element of past and future are embedded in the present, choices are made on the basis of what is significant to that character’s heart, soul and body at a particular time. I wanted to characterize according to that reality … and within the most parsimoniously expressed moments.
My entire reason for this approach is my understanding that the present moment is all we really have.
Good Examples are: Extol Him Who Rides the Clouds, 1 and 2, Chad’s Room, Ticking and Twist.
Reading
The data bank of our minds includes all that we observe, all we remember, all we love and hate, etc. etc. etc. We bring all of that to the page, whether we are writing or reading, praying or acting.
Underestimated is the reading we have done and are doing. When a person reads, the world outside their physical reality is suspended; that person’s life is fueled by imaginative energy into an entirely different world and an entirely different set of considerations. Mentally, the reader ‘falls into’ the world the writer has presented. Both writer and reader experiences that world from an entirely new perspective.
The importance of this experience cannot be overstated. Good reading expands the mind … offering guidance and compassion as well as just the pure joy and understanding offered to us by listening to something besides our own consciousness.
Not least among the gifts of reading is the development of an attuned sense of our connection to the rest of the world.
Good examples of the theme of reading are: Oral Fixation, Regular Theft, Genius, Duty and Glamorous Bitch.