9:40
Did you ever see Bedazzled? A Brendan Fraser movie, where Liz Hurley is the devil, exchanging wishes for (of course) the bumbling mortal’s soul. And naturally, as with all deals with the devil, she delivers exactly what he wishes for. But twisted, distorted–receiving the exact deal as specified in the wish doesn’t make him happy.
The original Bedazzled was a better film (and play), but no Liz for eye-candy.
Deals with the devil are always like that. Genie wishes are too, for that matter. Betrayal and disappointment seems to be a big part of every “wish” scenario in the literary genre.
So it’s the first thing that title made me think of, the deal that seems to good to be true, inevitably, always is.
Of course once my brain was on the Bedazzled topic, it noted how smoking hot Liz Hurley was in that movie. The Bad Boy that women can’t seem to resist, but reversed.
The Bad Girl, the Succubus, demonic sex goddess that will take your soul if you accept her offer.
Once again; the beautiful and desirable deal that it would be a great, big mistake to accept.
(But Liz Hurley looked gooooood in that red dress! Sha-wing.)
So is there ever any wish-fulfillment offer that we can safely accept? It doesn’t seem so, literature expects us to get screwed by any “Too Good To Be True” deal, the classic and expected outcome from this particular plot line.
So…
Could I just have a chocolate ice cream cone, please?
9:51 (ran a minute long, stop editing!)
Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”
Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!
I’ve read far too much to fall for that Your Wish Is Granted trick.
My favorite response thus far. Thanks for the laugh!
Welcome. What else would I write for?
Isn’t there an O’Henry story like that?
Even older, Richard Francis Burton, “The book of a thousand nights and a night.”
I haven’t read O. Henry since high school, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it too! Common morality-play theme.
In morality plays it is always bad for the worker bees to have aspirations.