Many years ago, I was watching a documentary (or a "featurette") about the Lord of the Rings movies. In one interview, Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) said something like: "Ultimately, the story is about friendship."
I remember thinking this was a bit banal. Lord of the Rings has many deep and profound themes. "Friendship" seems a bit too basic to count as one of them.
Similarly, Jack Finney, the author of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, once had this reaction to people finding a theme of conformity (or non-conformity) in his novel: "The idea of writing a whole book in order to say that it's not really a good thing for us all to be alike, and that individuality is a good thing, makes me laugh."
Another example. I remember in school, when we were studying The Merchant of Venice, the teacher told us that one of its themes was appearance vs. reality. I can remember thinking: "Well, surely that is a theme of half the plays and books ever written."
I'm not saying any of these reactions are correct. But it's an intriguing question. Can a theme be too basic for an artistic work? Or is it the very greatness of great art that it addresses fundamental themes?
On the other side of the ledger...
One of the things that's often exasperated me about superhero movies-- aside from the fact that there's far too many of them-- is when a critic (or somebody) says something like follows: "This film reinterprets the whole Batman myth."
But what do I care about the Batman myth? If a Batman film aspires to be more than just entertainment, surely it should tackle some theme or themes beyond Batman stories?
Simlarly, when people are praising Dubliners by James Joyce (or some such book), they often said: "It brilliantly captures the Dublin of the Edwardian era."
Again, why should anybody care? This seems more a task for history books than for literature, which surely should have a more enduring relevance.
Or am I wrong? Maybe no theme is too big or small for an artistic work?
it would be very hard to write a story (even a short one) with only one theme, whether big or small, because everything is relational. much like a word is defined through other words, there is no such thing as a 'lone theme'. at least, i can't think of any one theme that would not bring to mind other associations. if i write a story about friendship, it will also be about solitude and individuality and probably enmity too. at the same time, it all depends on execution (not that everything has to be explicit, but the author should probably know what the book is about).
ReplyDeleteLaeth
Well, that's very true. I suppose it's a question of what theme suggests itself to readers and critics and viewers. I still wouldn't consider friendship to be a main theme of Lord of the Rings!
Deleteyeah, i wouldn't either. then again, when people say LOTR is about 'power' i am equally annoyed and or unimpressed. not that it isn't true, but still.
DeleteLaeth
It's a bit more complicated than that, I'd say.
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