Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Theme and Variations and Themes

So we're all excited about the Third Annual Literary Lab Contest, right? We've all read the two "theme" stories and are now wondering how to create an interesting variation on one or both of these stories, right? Right?

What's that? You're stuck for ideas? You aren't sure how to turn an existing story into something your own without simply paraphrasing it? Well sit yourself down and I'll attempt to give some advice. Actually, "advice" is probably the wrong word. What I'm really going to do is sort of talk about what goes through my mind when I look at these stories and wonder what I'll do with them. It might be messy and pointless, but here goes. Ready?

First, there are some images common to both stories. Each starts with a guy walking through a forest and meeting a woman. One of them is a witch and the other is the man's abandoned wife. Hell, there's plenty of material there. What if both the witch and the abandoned wife showed up at once? or if the man's estranged wife was a witch? What if the witch or the estranged wife was the main character instead of the man? Lots of possibilities.

Next you've got (in the Chekhov) the wife pleased despite herself to see her husband, and she begs him to come home. But what if she wasn't pleased? What if he was trying to weasel his way back into her affections and she didn't want him? What if she'd found someone else? Hmm?

In the Anderson tale, the witch begs the man to do her a favor. She offers riches in payment for his retrieving her magical tinderbox. There must be some ways to turn this around, to spin it sideways, though I can't think of anything this second.

So anyway, in the originals both women want the man to do something for them. You could get all Freudian and examine the idea of the man climbing up a tree to go down its hollow trunk carrying the witch's apron. That's clearly some sort of sexual imagery, isn't it? What on earth is going on with the soldier putting dogs onto the witch's apron and getting money? I have no idea but it's a disturbing image if I dwell on it so I don't. The forest has long been a symbol of feminine sexual presence and power in European fairy tales. So the soldier's already on her turf, in a way, with his rifle or his sword. Lots of freaky area to explore there, unless you want to just say that sometimes a forest is a forest, a hollow tree is a hollow tree, a sword is just a rifle etc and ignore the subliminal sexual images. But note in passing how the witch's request mimics sex while the abandoned wife offers the possibility of actual conjugal sex. Are there kids reading this? Go to bed, kids. Your mother and I are talking.

In the Chekhov story, the man declares that he's happier being single, working on an estate for a lord, and he leaves his wife in the forest, turning back and giving her a ruble out of guilt. This is a story about selfishness and guilt, and because the wife watches her husband as he goes out of sight, still pining for him, it's a story about unfulfilled love and hopeless dreams.

The fairy tale has the typical task-in-three-parts structure, with the stakes and the rewards escalating. It's also clearly (if you ask me) some sort of hybrid, with two stories grafted together: the magic dogs in the magic tree is one story and the forbidden princess in the tower is another story. I might be tempted to only focus on one of these stories. Or I might make the estranged wife the princess in the tower, somehow. Metaphor might be the way to go here.

Setting and tone will determine much of this. I might set it in modern day, and the witch might be a witch or something else. The hunstman/soldier might be a soldier, or he might be an arbitrage trader; I don't know. The whole thing might be told in letters, or via emails or text messages. Hard to say but I don't know how much that matters at this stage. Intriguing, though.

Endings? Well, there are the endings of the "theme" stories, with the huntsman going off without the wife and the soldier getting the girl and the riches. Use them or not as you like. I'll probably look for some other way, and I'm more attracted to the open and indeterminate nature of Chekhov's ending. More things might be to come; we just don't know, do we?

There are multiple characters in these stories, and you could write something from any of their points of view. The huntsman's new employer, maybe. Whoever owns the forest where the action takes place. And maybe the huntsman is The Huntsman, and the abandoned wife is Red Riding Hood and this is years after the Wolf was killed. Who knows? Maybe the soldier is a deserter and he hides in a tree stump and the witch discovers him while looking for her tinderbox, which she needs to light the fire under her oven which contains Hansel and Gretel? The directions you can take these stories are pretty much endless.

Me, I've decided to work forward blindly from this sentence: She was always meeting men in the forest. I have no idea what it means, but that will be a spur to creativity. So good luck, Mighty Writers! Off you go to write!

25 comments:

  1. If this post isn't inspirational enough, I'm not sure what would be. And here I'd thought you'd gotten all stuffy lately and you have me cracking up this morning. Anyway, thanks for the inspirational ideas.

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  2. Those were great examples, I think they will influence my submission. I'm targeting the quest for treasure, but shown from dual perspectives, one rewarding and the other tragic.

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  3. I'm going to wait a month, re-read both stories and then begin to write. That way I will forget everything I've read the last two days and start from a fresh conscious point of view. Lord knows what my subconscious will come up with.

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  4. Eric: I'm definitely stuffy. I'm an overly-formal, repressed person. But I'm still a Nice Guy. And I want us all to have fun with this contest.

    Rick: I can't wait to see what you do (though, of course, all the entries will be anonymous when we read them).

    Chuck: Yeah, I plan to read the stories once more and then try to forget them, so that they're influences instead of templates. It's some tricky.

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  5. I've been paying attention to the vague parts of the fairy tale. I plan to write something about that, or maybe not. Like the whole dog on the apron thing makes no sense to me, so I'm fixating on that. My story might be called "Dogs On Aprons".

    (I'm not sure if I'm being serious or not.)

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  6. It's so fun to take a ride along in your mind going every which way.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds the dogs in apron bizarre even for fairy tales. Apron with puppy paw prints, now that is cute.

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  7. Davin, "Dogs on Aprons" is such an Agni-worthy title.

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  8. Maybe I shouldn't use the word "Dogs" in anymore of my titles. The threat of being typecast looms!

    Besides, so many other animals can be placed on aprons: marmots, (smaller) goats, sloths...and, really, with the sloths one wouldn't have to worry nearly as much about them walking away.

    "Sloths on Aprons" by Davin Malasarn

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  9. "I Am Waiting For My Dogs To Get Off My Apron."

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  10. Well. If you want to get all Zoetrope about it.

    :)

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  11. Yeah, anyway, I'm looking for the buried, subliminal meanings of the stories. I'm also looking at the three dogs with their big eyes and the white hat worn by the huntsman and wondering how the witch got her tinderbox in the first place and why it's in the tree and why she can't go after it herself. That bit's clearly sexual. And the dogs and the apron. Maybe I'll research apron images in fairy tales. Maybe I won't.

    Maybe I'll read a bunch of Angela Carter stories next.

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  12. Speaking of Agni, a couple of minutes ago I was at a news stand and I opened the latest issue to a random page and what do I find? A poem about a dog. Makes you think.

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  13. This was great and fascinating to read, Scott. Thanks! I was going to do something very odd with these stories and mix them up and probably make the princess something nobody would ever expect - anything but a princess, that's for sure. Either way, my final story might not even resemble anything in these stories, but it will have started there and that's what counts. :)

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  14. Scott, of course there was. As for making you think, it makes me think he should embrace the typecasting.

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  15. Scott, I'm also going to make sure there is kinetic energy...although I never seem to do that consciously. :)

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  16. Michelle: I'm going to try to write mine without using dialogue. It will be like a silent movie. Maybe. I'll fill the spaces with what people want to say but won't. Or something. And I think there won't be any paragraph breaks, either. Possibly no punctuation, for that matter.

    And dogs named Agni and Ubu. Yes, it's all coming together now!

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  17. j a: I agree. Davin should change his name to Canus and write about nothing but dogs. And he should keep writing prose but call the pieces poems.

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  18. Yat-Yee: What if the dogs are wearing the aprons? What if the dogs are like Keebler elves and bake cookies in the hollow tree for innocent passers by? That would totally rock.

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  19. I'm into that. I've been looking for a gimmick for some time and this is definitely one of those! Actually, it's two of those if you look closely enough.

    Besides, if Michelle gets to be Ivana, then I should get to be Canus. It's only fair.

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  20. Of course, that should be Canis, not Canus. The latter means "gull." F@*king Latin.

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  21. This was actually really helpful.

    And now I really want to see "Sloths on Aprons". Yes.

    I want to incorporate a flamethrower into my story. (Maybe in the place of the tinderbox)

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  22. I was kind of confused and wary at first, but after reading this, I feel more confident that I could possibly write something decent for this. Thanks! It's going to take some work though...

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  23. Jake: Just keep spinning the ideas. Flame-throwers worked for Shakespeare; they'll work for you!

    Aimee: It's really like writing anything else. Just use whatever in the stories catches your fancy. Ask yourself what you're reminded of when you read the "themes." Write about that. Etc.

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