The Bloody Chamber - An Intervention

This piece was my last assignment of my second year; I still can't believe it's gone by that fast. This was part of the Textual Intervention II module, you may have seen the essay I had to do for this module - The Worst Essay Ever. The creative side of this module is so much easier, and a lot more fun. Last term it was all about the Gothic, this term it was about fairy tales and their morals and messages. Well, something like that. I found last term more understandable, leading me to receive a First. I swear I will stop going on about that one day. Or maybe not.

While I am happy with this piece, I am not certain it will receive a First like I was last term. We didn't have much time to workshop, but my friend The Student Housewife helped me a lot. She's an editing genius.

Looks lovely...

So this story was inspired by Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which I've mentioned only a few times before...I'm not exactly enthralled by the story but it is better than the original Bluebeard. I guess after studying it for A-level English and Art I do feel somewhat attached to it. The guidelines for this creative piece was to retell a fairy tale, or explore the themes, or add a message. Something. It's pretty bad that I don't know this by now. But I stuck with something simple and did a retelling. This may sound boring to you, but it's a creepy, jazzed up version. I spoke of it before in a post called Mark De Sade Idea. It's a play on words of the S&M 'inventor', Marquis de Sade. He wrote a book on the reading list called The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales. It's supposed to be all sexual and grim, but the parts I read were really boring. This story has the basic plot of The Bloody Chamber/Bluebeard, with the theme of curiosity, with some of de Sade's sexual fantasies thrown in for good measure.

I'll stop yabbering on and let you read it now.

Mark Desade’s Misfortune of Curiosity

EDIT - 31 March 2012: I am removing this post temporarily as it is entered in Short Fiction's Competition. It will be back in July.

EDIT: My lecturer's comment at the end was 'OMG! She took pictures of him? I didn't see that coming!' I got my lecturer to say OMG! That must be a sign of a great twist ending.