Escape Artists
PseudoPod => Chamber of Horror => Topic started by: Heradel on April 27, 2009, 07:09:55 AM
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This is a bit more formal than I usually write here, it's also focused at horror fans, which I must admit I'm not really one of. So this is a bit outside the areas of my expertise.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.“ So begins Seth Grahame-Smith mashup of Zombies with one of the masterpiece of Regency Romance, Pride and Prejudice. For many of you the title, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, will be all the review you need.
The prose retains Austen’s text, with Mr. Grahame-Smith adding, deleting, and modifying as he goes. The mother is still daft, the father is still aloof but lovable, and the sisters Bennet are still, to varying degrees, as in chase of husbands as they were originally. The effect of the additions is to create a more dystopian Britain, far more brutal than the one Austen portrays, as befits a zombie tale.
The zombies have infested England for over a half century preceding the events of the novel and are the deadly but frail shambling sort, capable of spreading their infection mainly through bites. The best of Victorian-era science is still at a loss for how to cure the afflicted, which are called Unmentionables in the polite society of the novel.
The only other real modification to the backstory of the novel is that The Bennet sisters were taken to China by their father at a young age in order to study defense against the Unmentionables under a Shaolin monk. The main characters, despite the warrior ethos now infusing and distopia the novel, feel little different from in the original. It’s addition is most noticeable in the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, who in one scene dispatches three ninjas and in another comes very close to beheading Mr. Darcy. She is, basically, Elizabeth, Vamp—, er, Zombie Slayer. Which, given Elizabeth’s sharp tongue, isn’t that much of a leap and does add a bit more of a modern feminist vibe to the story.
With this kind of a transmogrification the question is what exactly is accomplished by the change? The addition of zombies does not disrupt the emotional core of the book — it’s still a boy meets girl, girl dislikes boy, finds out boy is in love with her, is greatly offended by boy on many levels, boy does damage control, and girl is eventually won over by boy kind of story. There are Ninjas and undead walking around, but the additions do not much change the plot.
As Mr. Grahame-Smith does not go the Clueless route of a more radical rewrite, the main effect of the translation from a pastoral England to a zombie-infested one is to make physical the fights between the characters (Clueless being the movie starring Alicia Silverstone which translated the plot of Emma to mid-ninties Los Angeles). Where previously battles of wit sufficed now only steel does, and it’s not really an improvement in terms of the story.
If you like zombies, ninjas, Public Domain mashups, and sanguinary love stories, it’s pretty much required reading. Or viewing, as a movie based on the mashup is about as inevitable as Fox screwing Joss Wheadon.
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I heard about two sentences of this book on NPR a couple of weeks ago and considered punching the radio into smithereens. My wife had it on order at Amazon, but cancelled it after listening to an interview with the author.
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I heard about two sentences of this book on NPR a couple of weeks ago and considered punching the radio into smithereens. My wife had it on order at Amazon, but cancelled it after listening to an interview with the author.
That's quite a reaction! What was so horrible about the author?
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This sounds kind of fun. And I do love the original.
It does also sound like a gimmick, and only gimmick, without any real heart of its own.
Which is okay as long as there's plenty of brains.
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I also heard n interview with the author. He pointed out a couple of things in the original that left open questions. One was, "why was there an army encampment nearby?" It was never explained in the original. In his version the army was there hunting zombies.
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Not a real Jane Austin guy, but adding some zombies will make me read anything it seems. It's on the to-buy list.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/_jZVE5uF24Q&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0
quote [ The book trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. ]
Link goes to a video trailer for the book, and is fun. Quote from the press release in extended as for why they didn't go with vampires, as well as link to audiobook version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was quite good.
Editor Jason Rekulak explains the choice of sea monsters for this highly anticipated literary mash-up:
“A couple of publishers are crashing Jane Austen vampire novels that will no doubt capitalize on the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and there were certainly plenty of people who urged me to do the same. But I didn’t want to go out with the one-millionth vampire novel that’s going to be published this year. I know there are a lot of vampire fans, but the genre feels exhausted to me. Whereas Sea Monsters allowed us to draw inspiration from so many rich and diverse sources—most obviously Jules Verne novels and Celtic mythology, but also Jaws, Lost, Pirates of the Caribbean, even SpongeBob Squarepants! I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fans are counting on us to deliver something original, and I don’t think they will be disappointed.”
Mod: fixed link
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My sister and I got this book as a feel better present when our cat died. I haven't read it, but I think she has. She told me it was just like the original, and she'd only kept reading it cuz of the zombies otherwise she would have stopped. I've tried to read the Jane Austin books, and I got through one, but the other I stopped reading half way through. They just get boring. I feel like I have to make myself read them. I don't think I'll read it, since I don't think I'll ever finish it. I also bought the Zombie survival guide thinking it would be so cool. Then as I'm reading it I realize that this is an actual survival guide. I got bored and never finished it.
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My sister and I got this book as a feel better present when our cat died. I haven't read it, but I think she has. She told me it was just like the original, and she'd only kept reading it cuz of the zombies otherwise she would have stopped. I've tried to read the Jane Austin books, and I got through one, but the other I stopped reading half way through. They just get boring. I feel like I have to make myself read them. I don't think I'll read it, since I don't think I'll ever finish it. I also bought the Zombie survival guide thinking it would be so cool. Then as I'm reading it I realize that this is an actual survival guide. I got bored and never finished it.
You would probably like World War Z — It's probably one of the better Zombie books ever printed.
I like Austen, but I'm an english major and it's very easy to see how the old conflicts/issues of extreme social importance don't directly translate to present conflicts/issues [...]. Things are also a lot more spaced out in older literature, and the tempo of stories seems to have gotten faster over the last few centuries.
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I love Pride and Prejudice and I love zombie stories so I thought that naturally, I would love this.
Did I? Not really, no.
I kind of lost any investment I may have had when Elizabeth fought the ninjas. I feel ridiculous telling my friends this, but I could buy the Bennets and the zombies but ninjas was where he lost me.
Also the stupidest "joke" that gets replayed over and over again: yes, balls are a euphemism for testicles- may we please move on?
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Initially- I was gleeful at the idea. But, it feels campy to me also. I just can't get invested. I was never a really big fan of Pride and Prejudice in the first place. Zombies are great and all.. but there are other formats to find them in. The mashup is an interesting idea- but is it just a cash cow?
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Seems like a pretty straighforward cash cow to me. That said, anything from Austen would benefit from thr addition of zombies and ninjas. I only object on grounds of principle.
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Seems like a pretty straighforward cash cow to me. That said, anything from Austen would benefit from thr addition of zombies and ninjas. I only object on grounds of principle.
Personally I will go for Sense and Sensibility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_and_Sensibility_and_Sea_Monsters) and Seamonsters (http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Sensibility-Monsters-Jane-Austen/dp/1594744424). it reviewed better
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You would probably like World War Z — It's probably one of the better Zombie books ever printed.
I have the Zombie survival guide, and I didn't think it was that great, but then I went to a Q&A with the aurthor at a horror convention, and now I think I'm going to buy it. He made it seem really interesting.
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Reincarnating this zombie thread to point out entry #18 here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/29/GA2010032903934.html?hpid=artslot
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This is probably the #1 purchased, yet unread book of the past year. People love the title and cover art, but the content...
It totally cracked me up!
Yes, it is a bit long for what's more or less just a gimmick...
Yes, it's a bit too Jane Austen for people who don't like Jane Austen and a bit too zombie/ninja for people who aren't into zombies and ninjas...
but it's a solid laugh for those of us in the middle, and Sense and Sensibilities and Seamonsters is even better.
The book is bashed a lot for ideological reasons-- stodgy, scholarly folk defending the classics, jealous small-time writers who work hard trying to write quality original stuff, but there is definitely a market for what Quirk is doing with these mashups.
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I am not particularly stodgy, not scholarly, not jealous, not...ok I guess I am small time. I understand the idea of the initial mash-up as something original and kind of a joke. Unfortunately there is now a slew of these piles of crap out there and they irritate the s*** out of me. Ok, ha, ha, Jane Austen with zombies. Joke's over folks, try actually writing something of your own.
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I definitely see your point.
I'd totally be irritated by Android Karenina if I wasn't totally stoked about it. http://quirkclassics.com/index.php?q=quirk-classic-4 (http://quirkclassics.com/index.php?q=quirk-classic-4)
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perusing IMDB I came across the fact the Natalie Portman has been cast in the movie version.
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::) I have some free time this summer, so I thought up my own mash-up of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities: Story of the French Revolution. Seriously, my version is called Tale of Two Cities: Story of the Werewolf Revolution.
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I don’t like the idea of Classics like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility
being made as movies with zombies and Ninjas They are nice just in their original
self and it’s a pity that it is being “mutilated” by our movie makers I think Jane Austen would
have turned in her grave if she were to know that her work of art is being made into a
“milking Cow” by our producers and directors
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Funny that the author says there were "a couple of things in the original that left open questions. One was, "why was there an army encampment nearby?" It was never explained in the original." I guess it didn't need to be explained in the original as most people would get that the books were set aound the time of the Napoleonic Wars, so there probably would be a few army encampments around...
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I love Pride and Prejudice and I love zombie stories so I thought that naturally, I would love this.
Did I? Not really, no.
I kind of lost any investment I may have had when Elizabeth fought the ninjas. I feel ridiculous telling my friends this, but I could buy the Bennets and the zombies but ninjas was where he lost me.
Also the stupidest "joke" that gets replayed over and over again: yes, balls are a euphemism for testicles- may we please move on?
I couldn't agree more. My husband very sweetly gave to me as a gift and I thought I would just gobble this up.
Then the Ninjas came. BOOOOO!!!!
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I listened to this as an audiobook. I think it made it easier to plow through the so-so bits, because with audio you can just let your mind wander until it gets interesting again ;)