Clickbait: those nagging online ads at the bottom of otherwise respectable websites. We try to avoid them. We try to not click on “One Crazy Secret For Reducing Belly Fat” or “A Lion and an Elephant Met. Aww! I Couldn’t Believe What Happened!” but, alas, we often fail.
But what if clickbait led, instead, to classics of Southern literature? What if Flannery O’Connor had called her most famous short story “A Grandma and A Notorious Murderer Met. What Happened Next Will Astound You!” instead of the (so unclickable) “A Good Man is Hard To Find”?
Here is our thought experiment.
1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
(Remember how Cash Bundren makes that leg cast out of cement? Hm?)
4. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Summer readers, take note: this imaginary clickbait will be of no use to you on the pop quiz.
