Changed Endings

I read a Romance novel the other day. The author is long dead and the culture she wrote in has rolled up like a lizard tongue touching hot concrete.

The Me Too generations insists on strong female leads and for most of the book Deborah seems ahead of her time. She kept her love interest at bay and even kidnapped him to put him at a disadvantage.

Then at the end of the book she folded. In two paragraphs she swooned, begged and capitulated her way into his arms.

I was disgusted. I do not insist on strong female leads. My life experience has taught me that there are women who succeed by quiet confidence and humility. There are moments when every human is compelled to capitulate in order to survive.

But if she starts off strong, the reversal in two paragraphs drives me to pen and paper.

I crafted a new ending. Absolutely they win each others’ affection and a deeper sympathy of love in the end. They just do it with dignity and respect, that’s all.

All I have to do now is frame the revision in the modern era, give it a contemporary disguise so the author does not come back to haunt me!