🚀 go-pugleaf

   I know this subject has probably been hacked to death, but I
have been struggling with the concept of theme since reading what
John Garner wrote in his guide for the beginning writer.  He points
out that stories need a theme if they are to be effective(?), etc.

   My problem with this, is that writing a story with a theme implies
that every story has a moral to be told.  Or should have a moral, but
I have problems with this concept because I believe that the essence of
truth is chaotic.  That life, death, and the pursuit of happiness is
random and therefore, if fiction imitates life then it to must be a
random occurence without moral implications.  A story of love is only
a series of sporadic events in which multiple random events are brought
together by chance.  Dick meets Jane at the park, they fall in love and
through a series of events marry each other.  Their chance encounter
in the park is not a moral passage in time, but characteristic of the
chaos that occasionally brings unlike events together.  What is the
moral of a love story if the people involved are unknowingly pawns in
the chaotic scheme of the universe?  How would solving a serious of
violent, and completely random, murders involve a moral theme?
   If one is to imply that love, murder, hate, jealousy, or any of the
other human qualities can be packaged into a neat little bundle and
explained in the context of a theme, they're wrong.  There is no theme
to explain the serial killer in todays society, nor is there any way
to unlock the deep physiological torture of chaotic rationale and say
that murder doesn't pay or that you'll be caught eventually.  There is
too much criminal evidence in the FBI's archives suggesting that mutiple
murders by strangers is not something that can fit into a moral theme.
I can't believe that people still write from the perspective of the
theme in their stories.  I can't imagine why anyone would try to
influence the reader with their idea of what is moral and what isn't.

What do you think?  Does anyone out there still use a theme in their stories?


Jon  -- If there is a moral to this, I would reckon that it happened
        by chance.