Tragic Cycles

A friend at work was telling me about some of her favorite novels. I knew she loved Great Expectations. Then she said that Great Gatsby is another of her favorites. 

Here's our conversation (more or less)

Me:"You like the stories where people start from nothing, get a lot of money, and then lose it, huh?" 

Her: "Oh, you're right! I guess I do! I just like that it starts back at the beginning." 

"It's a nice cycle." 

"Yes, I love the cycles!" 

"It's a tragic cycle." 

"I guess I just love the tragic cycles." 

Later I was telling her about the Name of the Wind, and I realized that it's also a tragic cycle (we don't know the ending yet, but we can tell where it's headed).  So now she wants to try it since it fits the tragic cycle she likes. 

Just like I discovered that she likes tragic cycles, long ago I once discovered that Nicole doesn't like flying people with umbrellas. Because she doesn't like Mary Poppins or Totoro. 

Aren't I just so amazing at figuring out people's tastes?

Funny enough (back to the cycles), as a kid I used to like to pretend that some movies were basically the same story happening over and over. The young characters evolved into the older mentor characters and inherited the new problems that came up. I specifically remember that with Fern Gully. The bad guy was trapped in a tree by the old mentor. Then the young student takes over and traps him in the tree again. It can repeat over and over.