The Conqueror Worm: Retelling Poe in the Modern Age |
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What if we retold Poe stories in modern parlance with the following rules? Conqueror Worm stories have to be...
*No more than 3 pages (12 point text, 1 inch margins). This keeps it short and focused. It also ensures it will be read by people primarily interacting with the text on a screen.
*Has to mimic the original plot of the story. You can add...you can subtract...you can rename...but you should be able to find Ligeia, Prince Prospero, or Roderick Usher skulking around, even if they have different names.
*Unmistakably set in the present time or the foreseeable future. Have you looked at the world lately? There is monstrosity to spare. This should be a cakewalk.
*Focused on the single effect Poe himself demanded, _commencing with the consideration of an effect_. Again, this keeps it focused on that punch that keeps us reading his original material all these years later.
*Has to end with some part of the original last line (or at least the most famous one!) of the original work. E.g. a retelling of _The Fall of the House of Usher_ should end with _the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the HOUSE OF USHER._ or as close as possible. Can we really improve on that deep and dank tarn? I do not think so.
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