Several years ago I participated in a local writing anthology that was about "Near Myths", i.e. taking existing myths and fairy tales and twisting them in some way. I wasn't feeling inspired by any until I thought of Harrison Bergeron, which was a childhood favorite story of mine and left a lasting impression.
I decided to twist the story and make it about a world in which everyone had to constantly be coming up with new ideas, and couldn't think of the same ideas twice, or else they'd be punished (squeezed by a collar, that I called Doublethought Inhibitors), as the world craves novelty and new ideas and the government recognized it and decided to enforce it. There wasn't any TVs anymore, as those showed the same images to people, just individual Inspirators that showed unique imagery to everyone to help them come up with new ideas.
One cute thing I just remembered now that I'm reading it over again for the first time in a couple years. In Harrison Bergeron, the couple is named George and Hazel. In my story, I decided to name my couple Curious and Nut. You have to compare their names in both stories to catch the joke there.
It's not the same story but I did refer to the original while writing it and kind of kept similar beats.
Ended up calling it 'Fatterson Boogieton', just what popped into my head when I was trying to twist the original name. It's mostly a humorous story anyway, that tends to be what I write.
The paperback of the anthology is on Amazon pretty cheaply at the moment, if anyone is curious. They never made a Kindle version, which is unfortunate.
I should probably get the story online somewhere. It's been long enough I should be able to do so now. Not sure where though, without creating a proper personal website again.
I decided to twist the story and make it about a world in which everyone had to constantly be coming up with new ideas, and couldn't think of the same ideas twice, or else they'd be punished (squeezed by a collar, that I called Doublethought Inhibitors), as the world craves novelty and new ideas and the government recognized it and decided to enforce it. There wasn't any TVs anymore, as those showed the same images to people, just individual Inspirators that showed unique imagery to everyone to help them come up with new ideas.
One cute thing I just remembered now that I'm reading it over again for the first time in a couple years. In Harrison Bergeron, the couple is named George and Hazel. In my story, I decided to name my couple Curious and Nut. You have to compare their names in both stories to catch the joke there.
It's not the same story but I did refer to the original while writing it and kind of kept similar beats.
Ended up calling it 'Fatterson Boogieton', just what popped into my head when I was trying to twist the original name. It's mostly a humorous story anyway, that tends to be what I write.
The paperback of the anthology is on Amazon pretty cheaply at the moment, if anyone is curious. They never made a Kindle version, which is unfortunate.
https://www.amazon.com/Near-Myths-Tim-Yao/dp/1977642527/
I should probably get the story online somewhere. It's been long enough I should be able to do so now. Not sure where though, without creating a proper personal website again.