Posts tagged parody

24 February 2009

Don't worry, gentle reader, this is just one brief moment of zany Mardi Gras culture making before we enter the season of Lent (in the Western churches at least) and resume our usual measured, sophisticated commentary on culture and faith. But in the meantime, really, what could be more a model of cultivating and creating than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

re: literature, parody, pop culture, zombies

Andy:

from "I Was a Regency Zombie," by Jennifer Schuessler, NYTimes.com, 22 February 2009 :: Thanks, Marcus, for the reminder!

Minor pandemonium ensued in the blogosphere this month after Quirk Books announced the publication of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” an edition of Austen’s classic juiced up with “all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem” by a Los Angeles television writer named Seth Grahame-Smith. (First line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”) . . .

According to Mr. Grahame-Smith, who confessed to being “bored to tears” by “Pride and Prejudice” in high school, the idea was mostly to sell resistant readers on the joys of Jane while having a bit of fun. The book, probably the first Austen/horror mashup to make it into print, is roughly 85 percent Austen’s original text, with references to monsters, putrefying flesh and ninja swordplay added on just about every page.

“I think Austen would have a sense of humor about it,” said Mr. Grahame-Smith, whose previous books include “How to Survive a Horror Movie.” (Rule No. 1 in a zombie attack: “Stop Being So Pathetic.”) “Or maybe she’s rolling in her grave. Or climbing out of it.”