Margaret Atwood ... Would Probably Not Endorse This Page

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IMAGINE

You are an author

of every type

of literary endeavor

and

your worldly renown

is beyond measure

If you needed

subject matter

for a novel

that would put 

a gazillion dollars

in your pocket

would you consider

doing the following:

Write nothing more

than an update of what

was considered 

"Modern Fiction"

in 1721

The subject matter of that book

was the Bubonic Plague

that killed 

one-fifth the population of

London

but its author made 

repetition + morbidity + corruption

into an Art form

It is a book so old

the author's name

is hardly readable

 

His name is 

Daniel Defoe

 

But 

you are someone 

whose imagination

wears high-heeled sneakers

and you create a plague

that will decimate 

people + places + things

beyond count

and

set it in 

the 20th Century 

You recall how many times

in Defoe's journal

there are references to 

hand maidens

 

Would you not be 

inspired by

the cover of

this 1962 paperback edition?

 

However

you are smart enough

to not  significantly

modify that image

until you wrote the sequel

as it appears below:

 

!!!

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