The story is vague running through my head, but once I'm able to really put pen to paper, I think it should come easily enough. If I'm sticking with my original idea, I'm going to need a lot of research done. The story I have in mind centers around the Salem Witch Trials. The only details of the story I really have set in stone is that it will be a dark and dryly humorous story combining the Witch Trials and the modern porn industry.
Yeah, I know, what the fuck. Wish me the best.
Like I had said, though, after I hit the ground running with the story this weekend, I'm going to see how big of a challenge this is to put those two worlds into one. If it proves too difficult, I'll find another story to do. Most likely, that story wouldn't focus on mixing the past and the present but one time period. It would also probably be darker.
That's it.
Well...
ReplyDeleteHonestly I laughed a bit after I read this. It sounds like an interesting premise, and there's definitely a lot that would be considered polar opposites when comparing the two very different time periods.
The near-Puritan age of the Salem Witch Trials when placed in contrast to the rather immoral (by comparison) world of modern pornography will definitely lend some help in a potential analysis between the two time periods.
I'm worried that I don't quite see how your story is going to relate to the Gothic literature we've read in class; your description is very vague and that may have something to do with it. I'm just concerned that this short story will become a sort of satire or social commentary that will lose sight of any goal to be a reflection of that which you have learned in class this year.
You almost seem to be focusing more on an application of the post-modernist theories we touched on in class by blending these two very distinct time periods in a genre-bending short story; I'd need to know a little more about the story itself before I could make a detailed analysis of your proposal.
In any case, I hope the writing goes well and you successfully forge something you find enjoyable.
Best of luck!
This is a very risky idea but I think it will work as long as you make sure to bring in enough evidence from the class. I do have some questions about how the plot will work though. Is the story going to be about making porn in the 1700s or whenever the Witch Trials were? Or is it going to be a witch hunt in the modern day porn industry? I think the story may get rather confusing if you jump between past and present, but if you are looking to draw parallels between the persecution of "witches" and the modern persecution of the adult film industry I think it could be quite compelling.
ReplyDeleteI also have to ask, just for your own sake of getting a good grade, how will the story bring in evidence or references from the class and the works we read in class? Will you reference the conservative environment of The Monk or the comparatively "open" environment of Interview with the Vampire?
PENUMBRA, it's really difficult for me to give feedback on this project. I would love to look at a rough draft sometime. I mean, what could go wrong? Salem witch trials and porn could never be boring! But like previous posters, I'm interested in how you are incorporating elements of the gothic together and how you are skirting both time periods in terms of narrative structure.
ReplyDelete