thestruggle
A Little Sparrow
- Joined
- May 30, 2011
- Posts
- 4,953
I've had some serious brainstorms in the past few weeks - and these aren't nearly all of them, just a few. Contact me if you are interested in discussing any of these thread ideas. Please be at least marginally familiar with the literature in question. Also, see this post for more small pieces that can be turned into full-fledged plots.
Superfluous Men: This one would be a modern retelling of Eugene Onegin by Pushkin. I've skewed it so the Byronic character of Onegin would instead be a Russian mobster - someone who most definitely does not fit into societal norms. A description of such characters historically would probably help explain, "typical characteristics are disregard for social values, cynicism, and existential boredom. Typical behaviors are gambling, romantic intrigues, and duels. He is often unempathic and carelessly distresses others with his actions." My idea is to make Tatyana the lover of this modern Onegin but have him be cruel and capricious, perhaps romantic but more than anything disinterested and then inquisitive. Scruples do not figure here. He will reject her, steal the modern Lensky's Olga, and eventually come crawling back to Tatyana only to be rejected in turn. Or, at least, that's how the original went. This isn't done either.
Formidable: Viking thread, maybe Icelandic, pillage burn rawr rawr.
Sanctuary: A reverse of Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a woman disguised as a monk in 15th century France. She is not disfigured, but her "ugliness/difference" is that she is a woman hidden away in a monastery or small sect. A fugitive from justice arrives, thus paralleling the sequestering of Esmeralda, and discovers that she's a female. Desperation drives them together or apart, or one after the other. Haven't figured this one out either, just really like the symbolism and the fact that she would have a shaved head.
One Thousand and One Nights: A small summary of the original collection. "The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his new bride. He is shocked to discover that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her executed: but in his bitterness and grief decides that all women are the same. The king, Shahryar, begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it goes on for 1,001 nights." My idea is to switch up this classic and make it much darker - Shahryar would be decidedly greedier, and would perhaps accompany the storytelling with discipline or training of some kind. Or really as rough as anyone would like to write him. There would need to be some adaptation and collaboration here, obviously. The idea is nowhere near fleshed out.