intertribal | "the novel," etc.

I've decided to start working on the novel again. This is a big step for me, but I imagine it means nothing to most, haha. "The novel" in this case refers to a saga/story I came up with about freshman year of college, after I had finished up the seven-book-series I spent middle school and high school writing. "The novel" is the first of one of those dreaded trilogies, and I got halfway through the second book before I got tired of it, mainly because I realized I didn't know where the hell I was going. This is why you worldbuild and outline, boys and girls. Anyway I feel strongly about "the novel," and giving up on it entirely was never an option.

The seven-book-series will never see the light of day because it has all the problems you'd expect a 15-year-old's stories to have, but it's always interesting when I see themes from that series arise again in "the novel." And I mean, I realize these similarities like years after the fact. It's good, though. It means I'm thinking about "the novel" as a story and not just my accumulated babbles!

1. I've never seen the movie Stigmata, but I feel like I should, because I have a real Stigmata thing going on.
2. The "religious right." Although my feelings in re: this issue are pretty much summed up by the X-Files episode "Signs and Wonders."
3. Frowned-upon marriages.
4. Social exile. Class issues. Communities that eat their own.
5. Militarism. Military leaders. Law enforcement. Abuse of power (by all characters).
6. (Negative) Self-fulfilling prophecies.
7. Competing definitions of what makes a "man." The role of violence.
8. Revenge. Lots and lots of it. I'm pretty sure this is a reason I like Sons of Anarchy; I'm all about the revanchism, mothafucka.
9. Guilt, Revenge's ugly sister.

And I am doing this issues differently - more nuanced, I hope, and expanded in different directions - but I guess these are recurring themes for me.