rm | on matters of theme

One of my keen interests is the obsessions of creative people -- that is, the stories they tell over and over again whether they mean to or not. Peter Jackson, for instance, seems to have an obsession with romantic friendship; Baz Luhrmann with prostitution; Sofia Coppola with the results of the absence of force; Minghella with matters of (in)fidelity; Steve Erickson with the idea that sound awakens us to impossible choices; and so on.

These same sorts of patterns are often in evidence in fandom as well. Certainly, we all know about the Mary Sues (e.g. "Draco is a cutter") or people who write dozens of stories in multple fandoms all about one particular and not all that common sexual kink. But those are the obvious, and to me, rather uninteresting examples.

What I'm curious about, oh fanfiction (and other) writers on my friends list, is what your thematic obsessions are? What story is it that you seem to tell over and over again without meaning to? What wounds hide in your work? What graces?

When I look at the themes in my own written work -- both fannish and not -- I think of reading 1,001 Cranes when I was little. I could never do that particular orgiami figure, and after I read that book, it terified me more than a little that I could not. But each time I tell the story I never meant to tell once, much less over and over, I think it's like one of those cranes, like a little prayer that maybe adds up to one big one. So what I want to know is, what is the story of your life, regardless of whether it has anything to do with your life at all? And why? Where did it come from? And what would it take to drive it off?

I'll write about mine later/in the next couple of days. I have to eat dinner and write and work on the fencing and all that. But I really want to know. I love the drive for theme and the ways in which it propells us.