# Cover Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 14, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467 "2023-06-14T03:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/1 "2023-06-14T03:34:43Z")
In much the same way some musicians do cover versions of other musician’s songs, imagine writers doing cover versions of other writer’s works, like Tom Clancy’s _Clear And Present Danger_ covered by Janet Evanovitch. 😄 What rewritten woks would you like to see? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/2 "2023-06-14T05:27:19Z")
Like, what if _The Lord of the Rings_ was written by someone else, that sort of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/3 "2023-06-14T05:28:55Z")
Any example _but_ that one, I think. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/4 "2023-06-14T15:22:03Z")
How about the Old and New Testaments rewritten by Margaret MacMillan. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/5 "2023-06-14T19:59:48Z")
James Elroy covers James Joyce. Add one hundred thousand periods and exclamation points, and a mess of profanity and racial slurs and _Finnegans Wake_ is back on the NYT Bestsellers list. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/6 "2023-06-14T20:06:30Z")
Two real-life examples of cover stories are _Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West_ and _Grendel_. _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_ might too far from the source material to meet your criteria. On my wish list, I’d like to see HP Lovecraft cover any dime-store romance novel with Fabio on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/7 "2023-06-14T20:07:58Z")
There’s one actual example of this I know of. John Scalzi wrote a updated version of H. Beam Piper’s _Little Fuzzy_. > **[Fuzzy Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_Nation)** > > Fuzzy Nation (ISBN 0765367033, published by Tor Books) is a 2011 novel by John Scalzi, described as a reboot of H. Beam Piper's 1962 novel Little Fuzzy. > In 2012, Scalzi's novel received the Audie Award for Science Fiction and it was narrated by Wil Wheaton. > Scalzi's novel, authorized by the estate of H. Beam Piper, was not intended to be a sequel to Little Fuzzy, unlike the books Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey by Ardath Mayhar. It was originally written as an ex... ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/8 "2023-06-14T20:09:46Z")
If only Philip K. Dick could have rewritten the Berenstain Bears books. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/9 "2023-06-14T20:17:22Z")
Did you miss his rewrite of the Berenstein Bears? Oh, wait, you’re not from… never mind. Right now, I happen to be listening to a cover of a song, further remixed by another artist. So, literally (and I do mean that literally), we could have a classic, “covered” by a popular author, but then also have the remix by some young, gonzo writer. And then illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, whose art is then reimagined by Bill Sinkiewicz (excellent comic book artist), then updated by Eric Carle’s grandkids and their posse of graffiti artists. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/10 "2023-06-14T21:39:43Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > If only Philip K. Dick could have rewritten the Berenstain Bears books. I’d pay to read that. Sister Bear plays with Perky Pat - and then it gets weird. As for the OP, since Wicked was already mentioned, there is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/11 "2023-06-14T22:07:44Z")
Mad Magazine once published a “Poetry Round Robin,” consisting of a dozen poems each rewritten by Frank Jacobs in the style of a different poet. It started with [Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” as written by Joyce Kilmer](https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2014/10/02/mad-poetry-round-robin-poes-raven-by-kilmer), followed by Kilmer’s “Trees” as written by John Masefield (“I must go up in a tree again”), etc……eventually coming back to Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” as written by Edgar Allen Poe (“Once upon a final inning, with the other ball-team winning…). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-story/985467/12 "2023-06-14T22:18:50Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Mad Magazine once published a “Poetry Round Robin,” 10 year old me was probably glad he missed that issue.