What Highbrow Tale Have You ReWritten?

[SimonDoom]

My all-time favorite modern reworking of an old classic is John Gardiner's novel Grendel, which is a retelling of the Beowulf story from The Monster's point of view. I strongly recommend it. It's funny, profane, sad, thoughtful, and extremely well written.

I've always thought it would be fun to write a porny version of a Jane Austen story. All that repression and propriety would make a great background for a lascivious tale.

My latest concept is of a kind of space version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, featuring a space pirate hired to do a clandestine job against a rogue scientist at the far end of the galaxy. There would be lots of interesting space sex along the way. I've been watching Firefly lately, and watching it gave me the idea for a series. Of course, there's not nearly enough sex on Firefly. Seems like a waste of Morena Baccarin's character. If I wrote that show I'd make it about her.

 

[dirk2024]

I've been watching Firefly lately, and watching it gave me the idea for a series. Of course, there's not nearly enough sex on Firefly. Seems like a waste of Morena Baccarin's character. If I wrote that show I'd make it about her.

Oh yes, Morena would be a fantastic erotica character. I could see her Domming Kaylee too.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My novel, The Story of Nix, is not a modern reimagining of Jane Eyre, but owes its general vibe of a smart and resourceful woman making her way in an often difficult world to Brontë’s seminal bildungsroman. It also repurposes a couple of JE’s plot elements, and many of the place names are twisted verisons of those in the much greater earlier work.

The challenges women face in 2025 are in some ways different to those in 1847 (some are exactly the same of course) and my story addresses many of those.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Interesting. With a name like "Wuthering Heights" it certainly sounds like a highbrow story set in Victorian England.

Well, to be precise it's set in Yorkshire. We don't need to consider any other factors - that alone immediately disqualifies it from any claims of highbrowness.

More seriously, lots of classic works that might be considered highbrow now were just standard stuff back in the day. Sure, even being able to read was fairly 'highbrow' a century ago, but Dickens, for example, was a middle-class popularist author (the claim that if he were alive today, he'd be writing for East-Enders is a bit overstated, but kind of hits the point). The Barber of Saville is absolute fluff with some great tunes, etc.

 

[MrPixel]

I attempted to channel the linguistic style of Fitzgerald in Ice Cream. It was too much for many people. Heads exploded. The clean up took weeks.

I thought you were channeling your William F. Buckley, Frances!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I've been watching Firefly lately, and watching it gave me the idea for a series. Of course, there's not nearly enough sex on Firefly. Seems like a waste of Morena Baccarin's character. If I wrote that show I'd make it about her.

I blame it on it being cancelled.

 

[HelenL]

Reinterpretations of the classics could be a neat contest category.

 

[HelenL]

Of course, there's not nearly enough sex on Firefly.

"Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!"

 

[dirk2024]

"Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!"

Poor Kaylee.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Hyacinth Bucket likes to think she's highbrow. I wrote a couple of 750 word stories based on her.

- "Keeping up appearances" was the show.

 

[AlinaX]

Jane Austin has been quite a muse for me. Fam and Futanari is Pride and Prejudice, and Chastened is Persuasion with a little of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as a play-within-the-play. Also inspired by Jane Austin, but only in style, is my Bellway series.

 

[StillStunned]

If we're going with "inspired by", "The Countesses of Tannensdal" draws some inspiration from "The Prisoner of Zenda". Not just the Ruritanian Romance set-up of travelling to an obscure Central European country, but the idea that the narrator is looking for distant relatives from an extramarital affair of his ancestor, and the ending where the lovers can't be together - I took those explicitly from "Zenda". The rest is Gothic.

 

[FrancesScott]

I thought you were channeling your William F. Buckley, Frances!

Maybe not quite my politics.

 

[MrPixel]

Maybe not quite my politics.

You know what I meant - his hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianism.

 

[FrancesScott]

You know what I meant - his hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianism.

I understand, I’d just prefer not to be associated with his views.

 

[AchtungNight]

My story “Passion 4” is partially inspired by and mentions “Romeo and Juliet”. Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” influenced “A Request for Help”. Game of Thrones was an inspiration for “Kings in Conflict”.

Oh yes, Morena would be a fantastic erotica character. I could see her Domming Kaylee too.

I’ll be in my bunk.

 

[DeMont]

@CreatingKate did this rather brilliantly in Drink Me. Recommended.

Good luck with your own version.

@THBGato, I hope I can maintain the standard... going off to have a read of the @CreatingKate version. see how far short I'm falling thus far...!
Respectfully,
D

 

[THBGato]

@THBGato, I hope I can maintain the standard... going off to have a read of the @CreatingKate version. see how far short I'm falling thus far...!
Respectfully,
D

Cool, but please remember;
A) writing is not a competition. It's not about "falling short" (or "beating a mark" for that matter)
B) my post was intended to inspire and recommend, not intimidate.
X