Browse motifs · 104 catalogued
The collected preoccupations
Recurring images and obsessions that thread through the catalogue — from labyrinths to lighthouses, ruined cities to tarot cards. Each motif gathers the writers preoccupied with it.
mirrors
14 appearances
entropy
12 appearances
invisible cities
11 appearances
stray dogs
11 appearances
genetic engineering
10 appearances
ruined architecture
10 appearances
tape recorders
9 appearances
tarot cards
9 appearances
urban decay
9 appearances
boarding schools
8 appearances
checkpoints
8 appearances
faded photographs
8 appearances
simulated realities
8 appearances
stolen identities
8 appearances
taxidermy
8 appearances
unreliable narrators
8 appearances
archipelagos
7 appearances
clocks
7 appearances
combinatorial structures
7 appearances
founding documents
7 appearances
jazz records
7 appearances
masks
7 appearances
paranoia
7 appearances
supermarket aisles
7 appearances
typewriters
7 appearances
bureaucracy
6 appearances
car crashes
6 appearances
chessboards
6 appearances
cold cases
6 appearances
concrete high-rises
6 appearances
courtroom transcripts
6 appearances
designer labels
6 appearances
dying suns
6 appearances
firebombing
6 appearances
galactic empires
6 appearances
haunted houses
6 appearances
hospital corridors
6 appearances
infinite libraries
6 appearances
kitchen tables
6 appearances
monastic libraries
6 appearances
motorcycles
6 appearances
mountain passes
6 appearances
neon signs
6 appearances
orbital elevators
6 appearances
orbital mechanics
6 appearances
poisoned tea
6 appearances
prison cells
6 appearances
railroad tracks
6 appearances
rain-slicked streets
6 appearances
repressed memories
6 appearances
small-town gossip
6 appearances
space stations
6 appearances
stately homes
6 appearances
wardrobes
6 appearances
country estates
5 appearances
desert highways
5 appearances
desert landscapes
5 appearances
family secrets
5 appearances
ledger books
5 appearances
monoliths
5 appearances
moral ambiguity
5 appearances
ocean liners
5 appearances
sentient oceans
5 appearances
shadows
5 appearances
small-town secrets
5 appearances
sod houses
5 appearances
train compartments
5 appearances
Catholic guilt
4 appearances
ancient ruins
4 appearances
assembly lines
4 appearances
bell jars
4 appearances
betrayal
4 appearances
bicycles
4 appearances
diaries
4 appearances
diplomatic cables
4 appearances
interstellar anthropology
4 appearances
kitsch
4 appearances
linguistic barriers
4 appearances
maps
4 appearances
non-Euclidean geometry
4 appearances
peacocks
4 appearances
porch swings
4 appearances
railway stations
4 appearances
red wheelbarrows
4 appearances
rocket ships
4 appearances
shifting identities
4 appearances
tralfamadorians
4 appearances
trench warfare
4 appearances
true names
4 appearances
tulips
4 appearances
walled gardens
4 appearances
alien biology
3 appearances
anarchist societies
3 appearances
archaeological layers
3 appearances
arctic ice
3 appearances
aristocratic decline
3 appearances
assassination plots
3 appearances
cosmic misunderstanding
1 appearance
failed communication
1 appearance
failed technological utopias
1 appearance
futuristic robots
1 appearance
incomprehensible machines
1 appearance
interstellar misunderstandings
1 appearance
unintelligible alien artifacts
1 appearance