Word: themes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Clancy's first two books, The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, were both cold war thrillers that told grand stories (grand enough that they were both # 1 bestsellers for many months) but had little to offer in terms of theme or message. His two follow-ups, Patriot Games and Cardinal of the Kremlin, struggled to escape the cold war mentality and succeeded only thanks to Clancy's knack for describing gadgets...
...intensifies; the walls shake. No longer do you hear the music, you feel it rattling your rib cage, shaking your elbows, your knees, your thighs. Harmonies become distorted, and as they change, they disrupt the rhythm of your heartbeat. A hint of melody develops, disappears, reappears; it is the theme to E.T., except it appears to have been rewritten by someone under the influence of LSD. M appears onstage and the music subordinates itself to the patterns of her monologue, but only temporarily--it frequently rears up, roaring, driving M deeper into the depths of her insanity...
...remains true to Glass's experimental use of time and changing rhythm. At one point M, sinking hopelessly into madness, cries out "Time is a lottery!"--a lottery that pays off only delusion. Hwang also plays with the notion of illusion being more powerful than reality, continuing with a theme he develops in M. Butterfly. Like M. Butterfly, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof is in many ways a study of what happens to the human spirit when all conventions and beliefs are stripped away, leaving the soul unprotected and forced to face a mocking reality...
Henry C. Moses, dean of first-year students, could have played it safe in his welcome address to first-year students and their parents. He could have talked about maturity, responsibility, change or some other inane theme which would cause everyone to nod and nobody to care...
...shoemaker's fortunes rely heavily on advertising. Nike's theme, "Just Do It," which urges would-be customers to get off their couches and onto their exercise bicycles, has been widely praised. But Reebok's recent "Let U.B.U." ad campaign, which starred eccentric characters in surrealistic situations, was considered a bust. All the major manufacturers have hired celebrity pitchmen. Nike pays multitalented pro athlete Bo Jackson to sell its cross- trainer shoe, and Joan Benoit Samuelson to advertise its running line. L.A. Gear keeps retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on its payroll; his former coach Pat Riley...