danger @ liaisons.com
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Set in the world of American fashion publishing at the end of the 20th century with an all male cast of characters, Don Bapst’s new epistolary novel “danger @ liaisons.com” brings Laclos’ classic Dangerous Liaisons into the volatile age of electronic communication and HIV, exploring the timeless influence that words can have in illuminating the most fatal passions.
“My characters are 200 years younger than those in Laclos’ novel (give or take a few botox injections),” says Bapst about his darkly satiric story. “But though they have the nightclubs and ‘vubicles’ of New York and Hollywood as their playground rather than the palaces and parlors of Paris, a closer look at the two seemingly different literary worlds reveals that things haven’t changed all that much in two centuries over two continents.”
Bapst says he intends his work to be more than a playful modern retelling of the 18th century French novel that inspired it. “Anyone who knows the original work should get a kick out of the literary games played throughout the book, but I also hope the story will provoke some thought in this rapidly changing time. We may have fewer formalities than in Laclos’ days, but the stakes are even higher now, the duels more dangerous than ever. Hitting that ‘reply all’ button in the heat of passion, for example, can take out the competition a lot faster than that old parchment delivered on horseback by your valet, and drawing one’s swords takes on a whole new meaning in the age of barebacking.”
