NP : Was " genres are literature too" thread

[Paul Mackin]

On 10/13/2012 6:51 PM, Markekohut wrote:
> I cannot find the lat post on this, from Paul M., I think, but posting one differing opinion
> Still seems necessary to me.
>
> On theme: which is in my use not just a topic or subject but a vision of a topic or subject.
> War:     Topic of The Iliad and All quiet on the Western Front, for example. Themes quite different.
>
> And perhaps themes even the best mysteries cannot have?
>
> But I' m now threadbare on this thread

Not infrequently one runs across the phrase 'unifying theme.' Something 
that holds a whole bunch of diverse symbolic material together.

That usage was in Slow Learner.

It is simply wrong to begin with a theme, symbol or other abstract 
unifying agent, and then try to force characters and events to conform 
to it.

For P here,  a theme is a kind of abstract unifying agent

P




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> Sent from my iPad
>