Welty's "Moon Lake"
Eudora Welty’s short story “Moon Lake,” from her interconnected collection The Golden Apples, was published in 1949. “Moon Lake” and most of the other stories in the collection take place in the small fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi, and follow Morgana’s citizens across decades while providing a close (and often critical) look at numerous social norms and traditions.
Camp Moon Lake does not replace Welty’s original story, nor is it meant to. Rather, this project presents a creative interpretation of Welty’s work informed by myriad scholarly sources. If you are interested in academic articles or would like to read more about the criticism and reception of “Moon Lake,” click here. For more information on the project, continue reading below.
Transmedia Storytelling
With the evolution of media to a predominately dynamic digital space, the nature of storytelling is experiencing a revolution. Transmedia storytelling, as described by Andrea Phillips in A Creators Guide to Transmedia Storytelling, “tell[s] a story through multiple communication channels at once, particularly channels such as the web and social media” (6). Projects such as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries take advantage of the newfound variety and sociability of digital media to enhance a reader’s – or viewer’s – experience. Transmedia projects also tackle an increasingly pressing issue as digital media continues to take precedence over static “old” media, such as novels: the longevity of the stories and writers we love. Through this project, I hoped to have breathed new life into Eudora Welty’s story.
This website and accompanying media are not meant to replace but to enhance Welty’s story. My website presents itself as a website for ‘Camp Moon Lake,’ where the characters of the story are attending camp. As transmedia requires more than one platform, the experiences of four of the main characters, Jinny Love Stark, Nina Carmichael, Loch Morrison, and the orphan Easter are partially displayed through Instagram pages and a Tumblr blog, found through the Meet Our Campers page.
‘In-universe’ pages, intended to be a part of the ‘Camp Moon Lake’ site, will have the forest header of the home page.
How to Use the Website
The website has five major pages, including the home page and this “About” page. However, there are several avenues that allow a deeper exploration of its content, all seeking to deepen various aspects of “Moon Lake.” Other digital media are also incorporated into the storytelling. Just let your curiosity guide you, and the story will tell itself!
For the social media aspects, feel free to engage the characters of the story. Send questions or comments to Nina’s tumblr page, or follow the users on Instagram.
Other Media Platforms
Welty’s prose overflows with descriptions of the environment of her characters, and prove to be a fertile ground for various mediums of storytelling.
Through Instagram pages for the four main characters of Jinny Love Stark, Nina Carmichael, Loch Morrison, and Easter, parts of the story as well as their characters are explored and developed.
Nina Carmichael, perhaps the most introspective character of the story, provides her own thoughts through her Tumblr blog, which she treats as a diary.
Works Cited
Phillips, Andrea. A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences Across Multiple Platforms, McGraw-Hill Education, 2012.
Welty, Eudora. “Moon Lake,” Eudora Welty: Stories, Essays, & Memoir, The Library of America, 1998, pp. 412-450)
A project of the Millsaps Digital Welty Lab.