Another Austen horror
Posted by admin on July 15, 2009 in News tagged withQuirk Books has announced the next title in its series. I never did manage to get into the zombie P and P, so think I’ll give it a miss. But in case you’re interested, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/15/austen-sea-monster-mashup
Excerpt from this news item:
The book, which Quirk said would be 60% Austen and 40% tentacled chaos, sees Elinor and Marianne Dashwood contending with giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed serpents and other ferocious sea monsters as they set out on their quest for love. As in Austen’s original, Marianne first meets Mr Willoughby when he rescues her, but instead of being saved from bad weather and a sprained ankle, this time it’s from a giant octopus.
"As she lay gasping on the bank, soaked by the fetid water and the foul juices of the monster, spitting small bits of brain and gore from the corners of her mouth, a gentleman clad in a diving costume and helmet, and carrying a harpoon gun, ran to her assistance," write Austen and her new co-author, Brooklyn writer Ben H Winters. "The gentleman, opening the circular, hinged portcullis on the front of his helmet, offered his services; and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, took her up in his arms without further delay and carried her down the hill."
Yes, well….
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Maybe they’re easier to enjoy if you haven’t read the originals…
I haven’t actually read PP&Z, but wouldn’t be surprised if the humour dried up before the end. A ‘sequel’ doesn’t seem particularly necessary and would lack both the novelty factor and the pop-culture currency of zombies that made the original an amusing proposition.
Unless the authors get down with some intertextual ancient marineering, I can’t see the sea monsters being especially hilarious and there’s presumably less potential for ironic parody: you might liken the regency marriage market to zombification (if, you know, that was your thing) but I’m not sure there’s much to be done with rakes and giant octopi.
A pint at the 2011 IGA for whoever thinks up the funniest riff on a remaining Austen novel. The best my tired brain can come up with is Man’s-fear Pork: an ecological pastiche that replaces the novel’s famously invisible plantations with a series of battery pork farms whose inhabitants turn the tables on their masters.
Yup, that’s pretty terrible.
Having listened to Steven Bruhm’s (as usual) fabulous paper at the IGA this year, I want to see Northanger Abbey gets the Wilis.
(Wilis as in Ballet Giselle type of wili, the spirits of betrothed girls who die before their wedding)
I missed that one unfortunately, but I’ll have to see if Professor McGoogle can enlighten me