Jane Austen. With Zombies.
Posted 3 February 2009 in Books by Catriona
Seriously.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Now, I may have come to this a little late. (As usual.) But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to read it.
I imagine there’ll be a little flurry of dissatisfaction online that someone would take such a dearly beloved book and add a zombie apocalypse.
But I’m not too fussed about that.
It seems I’ve reached either an age, or a degree of maturity, or a state of stubbornness—I’m not sure which, but feel free to take your pick—in which I don’t much care what happens to certain books.
Well, no: it’s not that I don’t care, it’s that it doesn’t seem to bother me the way it used to.
Take C. S. Lewis, for example. I only got around to watching the films of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian last weekend. And I thoroughly enjoyed the first: particularly the way in which it paid delicate homage to Pauline Baynes’s position as the illustrator of Narnia—much as Peter Jackson drew from Alan Lee and John Howe in creating Middle Earth on screen—so that for viewers like me, to whom Baynes is as important as Lewis, the whole movie felt and looked right.
But Prince Caspian—well, I warn you that the next paragraph is ranty and also contains spoilers if you haven’t seen the film.
That attack on Miraz’s castle was ridiculous. Peter was a warrior king: he not only won his kingdom, he and Edmund both, in battle, but he then spent the twenty-odd years of his rule fighting giants and taking part in tournaments in the Lone Islands and the like. Furthermore, Lewis insists that the Pevensie children, after a sort time in Narnia, become more like the kings and queens they were than the English schoolchildren they are. He states this explicitly before Edmund’s duel with Trumpkin, and shows it, too, in Edmund’s stance as he delivers Peter’s challenge to Miraz and in the duel itself. And the movie pays some degree of homage to that in Peter and Miraz’s duel, which only makes the attack on the castle more absurd. No warrior would ever attack a heavily defended castle with such a small body of warriors. And if the intention was to show the horror of the Old Narnians being cut down at the gate, well, that could have been shown elsewhere—Caspian and his troops had seen some hard fighting before Peter and the others showed up, little if any of which is shown in the film.
Anyway.
My point is that even though I found it ridiculous, there’s no way it could ever hurt my love for the books or the way in which I read them. I’ve loved them too long and read them too many times to be hurt by a silly adaptation.
And I’m thinking that Jane Austen with zombies will work the same way.
Plus—well, it’s just cool, you know?
(Don’t forget: live-blogging of “New Earth” tonight at 8:30pm, Brisbane time.)
Share your thoughts [5]
1
Wendy wrote at Feb 3, 05:27 am
well i would hope mr collins, lady catherine and the dastardly wickham come to bad zombie- like ends
I haven’t seen prince caspian – but you’re right nothing can ruin the enjoyment of some books…not even poor film adaptations
2
Catriona wrote at Feb 3, 05:42 am
I don’t really want Mr Collins to come to a bad end—he was irritating but not evil, and Charlotte would find herself in dire straits if she were left the widow of a not terribly rich clergyman and with a child to support. (Although, I suppose if she had a son, the entail would work in his favour. I suppose.)
Prince Caspian wouldn’t have been too bad if it hadn’t been for that central section, which I don’t think was even necessary. Nick pointed out that they clearly felt the book was lacking in action and wanted a bit more cutting and hacking, but as I argued, they could have had that if they’d stuck to Caspian blowing Queen Susan’s horn at the correct time (instead of almost as soon as he fled the palace), which would have allowed them time to show Caspian and the Old Narnians making sorties against Miraz’s men and suffering some heavy defeats.
It did make other changes to the book, but—with one other exception—they either weren’t that major, were in keeping with the basic spirit or structure of the stories, or were responding to questions I’ve been asking myself for years, anyway.
3
Wendy wrote at Feb 3, 05:45 am
do zombies make a distinction between irritating and evil…i can see your point on mr collins…still it would be fun to see the end of him… maybe charlotte would prefer to be a widow than to endure a lifetime with mr collins?
4
Catriona wrote at Feb 3, 06:04 am
Zombies don’t, but I’m making a distinction in my blood-thirsty anticipation of carnage.
I think, given that Charlotte entered in marriage with Mr Collins in an entirely cold-blooded fashion, for convenience, she probably wouldn’t want to shift for herself or move back in with her parents as a young widow. Maybe if the entail came down to her son, she might be comfortable, but Mr Bennett doesn’t look likely to die, and she might have a daughter. How, then, is she going to make her own living? I doubt Mr Collins has much independent wealth, and Lady Catherine would need to pass the living on to a new clergyman.
5
Wendy wrote at Feb 3, 07:20 am
perhaps she’d just have to seduce the new clergyman..providing he didn’t already have a wife.
Either that or the zombies get her too? If it’s carnage all round I can’t see her being spared.