{"id":9936,"date":"2022-08-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9936"},"modified":"2022-08-10T17:28:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T21:28:33","slug":"theme-vs-meaning-in-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9936","title":{"rendered":"Theme vs. Meaning in Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author, teacher, and literary agent Donald Maass recently wrote a thought-provoking essay<\/a> in Writer Unboxed in which he makes a distinction between \u201ctheme\u201d and \u201cmeaning\u201d in a novel. I\u2019ve written about theme<\/a> before, specifically, whether a writer should set out to create a book around a certain theme and how hard that can be to pull off, because it focuses the writer on an abstract concept, when creating a story is the dominant concern. At least that\u2019s true for novels written for US and UK audiences. Characters in novels translated from other languages often seem to wander in some misty realm without reference to the concrete world of, say, peanut butter sandwiches, and perhaps it\u2019s because they\u2019re written to theme. Just a guess here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme of my mystery\/thriller, Architect of Courage<\/em>, is redemption, which I discovered embarrassingly late in the game. And now that it\u2019s printed and has covers around it, I am still recognizing minor themes. These likely reflect attitudes and beliefs so ingrained that I don\u2019t consciously think about them, but that come out nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Maass, a novel with a theme \u201cpoints out something we must heed about ourselves and our world,\u201d whereas a novel focused on meaning aims to \u201ctell us who and how we are.\u201d Or, as he says, it\u2019s descriptive, <\/em>not prescriptive<\/em>. Genre novels (mysteries, thrillers, romance) tend to be of the former type, and coming-of-age stories and historical fiction tend toward the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to think of examples of both. On one hand, the theme of books like Razorblade Tears<\/em> (SA Cosby) and many police procedurals is that justice is being done, while the theme of The Water-Knife<\/em> (Paolo Bacigalupi) and The Cartel<\/em> (Don Winslow) is the urgent need to put things right before it\u2019s too late. On the other hand, \u201cmeaning\u201d books, like The Ones We Keep <\/em>(Bobbie Jean Huff) and The Great Alone<\/em> (Kristin Hannah) describe life as it is, sort of, with all its bumps and distortions and wierdnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This distinction is worth thinking about, but as to how it affects the reader, Maass further suggests that the thematic approach is like being told<\/em> something, and the meaning approach is like sharing<\/em> something. \u201cLiterary\u201d fiction mostly camps out in meaning territory and disdains genre fiction\u2019s tidy endings, whereas genre writers defend their approach, saying that at least their stories have<\/em> an ending.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I\u2019m persuaded Maass has articulated an interesting distinction, perhaps it shouldn\u2019t be interpreted too rigidly, too either-or. For one thing, authors are wholly capable of bait-and-switch. For most of their pages, Where the Crawdads Sing<\/em> (Delia Owens) and Atonement<\/em> (Ian McEwan) seems like coming-of-age \u201cmeaning\u201d books, and only at the very end do you discover they\u2019ve upended the \u201cjustice will be done\u201d theme. Currently, I\u2019m listening to My Heart Is a Chainsaw<\/em>, by horror-writer Stephen Graham Jones, and I would be hard-pressed to place it in either category. Can\u2019t I choose both?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good writing deserves good readers. My quarterly newsletter contains tips for reading, writing, and viewing. Sign up here<\/a> and receive three prize-winning short stories!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author, teacher, and literary agent Donald Maass recently wrote a thought-provoking essay in Writer Unboxed in which he makes a distinction between \u201ctheme\u201d and \u201cmeaning\u201d in a novel. I\u2019ve written about theme before, specifically, whether a writer should set out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The difference between theme and meaning in fiction--is there one? Donald Maass says yes!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,174,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Ag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9938,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions\/9938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}