When I was reading plays for a theater company in New York, I swear to God 85% of them were about married professors in their late 30s cheating on each other. It was like all these playwrights had gotten together and decided to write the exact same fucking play. So I would add to your list "30-something intellectuals having affairs."
Laura | Homepage | 02.11.07 - 12:20 pm | #

Does typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over, then trying to kill your family with an axe count as a theme?
Here's another: slightly fictionalized memoirs. As in, I'm too cool to write nonfiction, but I don't have enough imagination to write fiction.
josh | Homepage | 02.14.07 - 12:37 pm | #

how about being caught writing a "slightly fictionalized memoir" and the fallout? did you catch what happened to David Sedaris? (I'm addicted to jack schaefer's slate column.) the news seems full of stories about liars, plagiarizers, and non-fiction lately.

this is more of a thought experiment than a "theme." what's it like to be vilified by oprah?

S
sabrina | 03.27.07 - 8:41 pm | #