I wanted to comment on the bantersnatch post but for some reason the app won’t let me. I just wanted to say, well done 👍, I really enjoyed the post. It was well written and hit the nail bang on the head.
FWIW I wasn’t offended and yes I loved Crank an Crank 2, were they good movies? No. Totally over the top nonsense, were they funny and entertaining, yes, 100%.
Hey James, I’m a new sub and I have a question regarding an anthology of short stories I’m writing—adaptations of classics gothic American literature (Twain, Melville, Hawthorne) along with some old country songs (Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn).
I’m having a hard time judging whether they justify themselves on their own though. I don’t just want to make a cheap imitation, what’s the best way to go about that?
Any help would be appreciate. I need at least a pipe-full if you can afford it!
It's always really hard to adapt something from one form to the same form without pastiche or plagiarism.
The country songs will be naturally fresher because you're changing the form completely, but taking a story and making another story? That's pretty hard to do without it being a cheap imitation to be honest.
I'd be more inclined to take some other gothic literature like Poe, and recast it in the American west - or something completely different like a sci fi story - but make sure you're thinking through what would change by the change in setting and people etc. and not just reskinning it.
I’ve posted one of them to my Substack if you need a point of reference. To Beat the Devil is based on the Kristofferson song of the same name. It follows a man who goes to a bar, desperate and not his full self. The Devil sings him a song that tells him to despair, what is the point of continuing to butt your head against the wall, it will do nothing.
The narrator of the songs takes his advice, and his beer, and decided he will continue to butt the wall because it’s worth doing, in his opinion.
My story is not a devil or a bar, but could happen at Target.
My process is deep analysis of authorial intent (depending on the author it’s different) and the message then retelling it as what I think it would be like in modernity, make the story more palatable for a craft award and sophisticated audience.
I feel like that’s been done a lot with Poe already. People know tell tale heart without realizing it. I’m aiming for other works in the canon that aren’t widely known.
For instance…
Hawthorne is talking about PTSD in Malvin’s Burial, but he has to write it as sin because of his puritan beliefs. What would it look like if he was about to write about a Vietnam veteran bringing trauma to his family.
I’ve been having a hard time finding readers to see if I’m hitting the mark. It takes a certain type you know?
I was hoping you could point me in the right direction for a more literary minded collaborative experience.
I wanted to comment on the bantersnatch post but for some reason the app won’t let me. I just wanted to say, well done 👍, I really enjoyed the post. It was well written and hit the nail bang on the head.
FWIW I wasn’t offended and yes I loved Crank an Crank 2, were they good movies? No. Totally over the top nonsense, were they funny and entertaining, yes, 100%.
And that quote by Larry Niven 😘🤌
I'll need to look at that, maybe something wrong in the settings…
I loved Crank, but Crank 2 was just a bit too much for me. Love a good Jason Statham film though.
Hey James, I’m a new sub and I have a question regarding an anthology of short stories I’m writing—adaptations of classics gothic American literature (Twain, Melville, Hawthorne) along with some old country songs (Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn).
I’m having a hard time judging whether they justify themselves on their own though. I don’t just want to make a cheap imitation, what’s the best way to go about that?
Any help would be appreciate. I need at least a pipe-full if you can afford it!
It's always really hard to adapt something from one form to the same form without pastiche or plagiarism.
The country songs will be naturally fresher because you're changing the form completely, but taking a story and making another story? That's pretty hard to do without it being a cheap imitation to be honest.
I'd be more inclined to take some other gothic literature like Poe, and recast it in the American west - or something completely different like a sci fi story - but make sure you're thinking through what would change by the change in setting and people etc. and not just reskinning it.
I’ve posted one of them to my Substack if you need a point of reference. To Beat the Devil is based on the Kristofferson song of the same name. It follows a man who goes to a bar, desperate and not his full self. The Devil sings him a song that tells him to despair, what is the point of continuing to butt your head against the wall, it will do nothing.
The narrator of the songs takes his advice, and his beer, and decided he will continue to butt the wall because it’s worth doing, in his opinion.
My story is not a devil or a bar, but could happen at Target.
My process is deep analysis of authorial intent (depending on the author it’s different) and the message then retelling it as what I think it would be like in modernity, make the story more palatable for a craft award and sophisticated audience.
I feel like that’s been done a lot with Poe already. People know tell tale heart without realizing it. I’m aiming for other works in the canon that aren’t widely known.
For instance…
Hawthorne is talking about PTSD in Malvin’s Burial, but he has to write it as sin because of his puritan beliefs. What would it look like if he was about to write about a Vietnam veteran bringing trauma to his family.
I’ve been having a hard time finding readers to see if I’m hitting the mark. It takes a certain type you know?
I was hoping you could point me in the right direction for a more literary minded collaborative experience.