Is it the comfort in knowing how it will end?
Or who the characters truly are?
What if they weren't who you thought they were?
What if evil was good and good was evil?
What if it all went to hell after the story ends?
I like to think that I am an avid reader, sometimes I don't read enough other times I can't stop. I enjoy classic stories, ones full of whimsical creatures and crazy adventures.Ones with a forbidden romance and a happy ending. but I also like the idea of a story after the original ends.
I often find myself thinking about the stories afterwards.
Like what if Alice never actually left Wonderland and was stuck in a never ending cycle of complete madness? Maybe the mad hatter slowly became a nightmare, getting increasingly crazier and slowly transformed into something evil. Maybe the caterpillar was indeed a complete stoner who smoked himself insane. His paranoia slowly consuming him until he snapped.
That is one twisted Wonderland, but if it was once peaceful would it ever return? Was Alice just in a coma being kept alive by strange drugs? was she just on a bad trip?
What if Dorothy was led astray by the wizard and was tricked into some nasty evil experiments? What if whatever she did in Oz was just for the sole purpose of the wizards creepy fantasy? What if the Wicked Witch was just trying to warn her about the wizard? Or maybe it was her sick twisted fantasy after all she always did say "I'll get you my pretty".
Was it all really just a dream from being knocked around in a tornado or was auntie em just as messed up as the witch herself? Or maybe she was actually the witch all along?
What if Winnie the Pooh suddenly decided that his friend Christopher Robin looked a lot like a delicious treat? What if he went on a killing spree and murdered everyone within a 100 acre radius of the Hundred Acre Wood? Would guilt consume him or would he be too full on roasted rabbit with honey?
What if?
What if we twisted all of our old favorite children stories to become new ones, for our own adult amusement. Would we be considered crazy? insane? devoid of feeling? genius?
Next time you read an old favorite try to imagine the effects the story will have after all the characters have moved on. Imagine the opposite of the characters. What would you do if it was twisted beyond recognition?
I know I'd enjoy it.
From one twisted mind to another,
toodles xoxo
Jess
