“Rainbow Generations” from Todd & Zach’s (the “beta couple”) perspective.
Ooh, I got one. Show Boat, a novel by Edna Ferber, has been filmed umpteen times, the most popular being the 1951 film starring Kathryn Grayson as Magnolia and Ava Gardner as Julie. In the movie and the book, the sheriff arrives to arrest Julie, who is half black, for being married to Steve, a white man (which was illegal back then). When they hear the sheriff is coming, Steve cuts Julie’s hand, sucks some blood, and can then say with perfect truth that he also has some black blood in him. The couple are not arrested but are told to leave town, immediately. Julie had been the main performer, and Magnolia stepped into her place, acting out popular melodramas of the day with the dashing new leading man.
Over the years, Magnolia marries her leading man, Ravenal, and they leave show business to live in the city. Ravenal turns out to be a gambler, a drunkard, and frequents houses of prostitution. Though they enjoy high living at times, his luck runs out. They become impoverished, Magnolia becomes pregnant, and eventually Ravenal deserts her…In the book, Magnolia’s parents have died and left her money, and the show boat. Before she leaves the city to go back there, she feels obliged to repay money that had been lent to Ravenal by the madam of his favorite whorehouse. She goes there and is shocked to find that the madam’s secretary is Julie. They look at each other for a moment, then Julie runs from the room. That’s all. One moment. Magnolia leaves and goes on with her life, wondering about Julie.
Well, that’s the thing. What happened to her and her husband from the time they left? What, in fact, happened to her husband? How did Julie get to that point in her life?..The story of Magnolia and Ravenal is a familiar one, naive girls married to dissolute gamblers and usually coming out of adversity after many ups and downs. I would have liked to know more of Julie’s story. Did she never recover from the shock of being told to leave her familiar enjoyable life? Was life too difficult for a “mixed” ccouple? Did Julie, a talented performer, never go back on the stage? Questions, questions, never to be answered. I wish Edna Ferber had put in some of Julie’s backstory, but as she was a secondary character, maybe Ms. Ferber wanted to concentrate on Magnolia’s story.
I’ll second Luca Brasi’s story.
And add in the last few Heinlein novels, which all kinda sucked in the main plot, but which had a generous helping of subplots that hinted at fascinating things. I’m thinking specifically of Friday, and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls. Perhaps, recognizing that he didn’t have time to write out all his neat story ideas, he satisfied himself with inserting a few references into the novels he did write.
I happen to have a copy of CAT in front of me, as I’m writing about it for the blog. What subplot do you think of? Do you want details on the mission to rescue/resurrect Mike?
Tolkien’s underground dwarf home of Moria always fascinated me. I would have appreciated a novel-length treatment of its rise and/or fall. I know there’s some more about Moria it in the posthumously published books, but that’s not quite what I wanted.
I’d like to see more of Monkey from Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth. A lot more. Preferably in a graphic novel illustrated by Milo Manara or Frank Cho. What prior relationships made her into the woman she was? What specific events? And what acts in particular? I want details. Roth would be the ideal writer, of course, but Chris Miller would do in a pinch.
Scald – Lessee…It’s been a while since I last read it (it’s not really very good), but, I’d like to know more about (1) The Golden Rule and other habitats, (2) the Lunar frontier (where Gretchen and her family lived), (3) how the libertarian Luna City of TMIHM became the bureaucratic nightmare of CAT, (4) the place where Mannie retired (was that with Colin Campbell’s family?), (5) Gwen/Hazel’s life between TMIHM and RS and between RS and CAT, (6) that cool wheelie vehicle the pirates used.
How’s that?
I don’t think Katniss really spent all that much time worrying about the guys in that sense. Really, she struck me as largely indifferent to them for long stretches of the books, except when they pushed the issue or she had to fake it. Did they both matter to her? Yeah, but she would have been plenty happy never having a relationship at all. She repeatedly expresses that. More of Haymitch would have been good, though, and we do finally get some more backstory on him in the third book. Not enough, though, and speaking of the third book…
I’d like to see Peeta’s treatment at the hands of the Capitol. Just what the hell was done to him? What are the delusions he believed, that drove him to attempt to kill Katniss? What was going on to get him to placidly repeat the Capitol party line? Was it a threat or did he believe it while he was saying it?
From Tolkien’s stuff, I would like to see Elendil & Sons’ life in Numenor. I want to know how they acquired the “seven stars, and seven stones, and one white tree”.
From Heinlein’s Space Cadet, I want to know if Uncle Bodie’s life was as interesting as Tex claimed.
I loved The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. But found The Navidson Record and their story about the house they bought that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, their exploration of it and all those bits and pieces to be greatly intriguing. Even though I was satisfied by the ending, I felt a book about even that alone would’ve been gripping.
In “A Fire on the Deep” there is a section set in a solar system colonized very long ago by a very advanced race, which has been visited and added onto by other races, it’s a tremendously successful civilization, consisting of a sort of disk of space habitats radiating out from the central star to, oh, what might be the Oort cloud here. All planets long since urban renewed, I guess, or perhaps hidden in all the clutter. Dwarfed by it. E-fucking-normous. Well beyond the scale of anything we can possibly conceive. (OK, granted, Vernor Vinge conceived it, but only in very broad terms.) A novel set in that solar system, thinking out the implications of such a sheer scale and variety of life would make Ringworld look like a desert island story!