Literary Blasphemy

So last night, the Mrs. and I were doing our usual grocery shopping/lollygagging around Walmart (Walmart may not be the best place politically, but it's cheap & we're starving artist folk with 4 cats, a dog and a three year old. We have to go there!). As we were meandering, we passed by the book section. She reaches out and picks up this book with the strangest cover I have ever seen. It is a woman in victorian dress, except her skin is peeling off & revealing her skeleton. Eeeeew!




The cover said it was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Say what?!




Somehow, some VERY sick mo fo got copyright priveleges to Pride and Prejudice to turn it into a zombie book. I kid you not folks. At first I just thought it was a strange pairing since the front cover had them listed as two different stories. But the back cover explains how some dude turned Pride and Prejudice into a freakin' stupid zombie story! Oh, and his bio said only that he had taken a class in English Lit once in college & that he now lives in L.A.



Excuse me?! You're not even a real literary person/author/person with half a brain?! Sweet Jesus! Are you kidding me? Who the fuck has any right to change P & P? Now, I am not a Jane Austin kind of gal. However, I recognize her as an incredible writer and someone who was ahead of her time. I'm just not into the froo-froo stuff, that's all. But seriously, I couldn't even imagine butchering her story like that!




Who thinks that they can do that & it's good lit?! What publisher was twisted enough to agree on such a project? Has the writing industry gone that low that things of this nature are acceptable?! WTF, people?! WTF?!




Yes, this pissed me off. My better half LOVES Jane Austin. Again, I totally respect her in the literary world. I may not jump out of my skin to go read P & P again, but I have the utmost respect for her work. This was just plain disgusting. No classic work should ever be sullied so. Hell, not even contemporary fiction should be sullied so! Seriously! My work may not compare to something like P & P, but sure as shit, I would be more than pissed to find out that someone had turned Loving Her or Unbreakable Hostage into a damn zombie story! Sheesh! Where do people get off nowadays?



It sickens me to think that people feel that can take such "artistic license" with a work that's been complete for HOW LONG?! Seriously. If this guy wanted to write his own zombie book, then fine! Go ahead and do it! But to make a mockery out of a classic? Why not just change Othello to a ghost married to Desdemona? Doesn't have the same social and political implications, now does it?



Stop ruining other people's art! I may not be a zombie book reader, but I sure as hell have more respect for someone who creates their own story than someone who just uses another's story and throws their own shit in there. In this case, it is shit. This guy could be a great writer, I don't know. To steal or use someone else's work for your own shows a tremendous lack of creativity and talent. Anyone can steal from Pride & Prejudice. Not everyone can create a story from scratch. Do you get what I mean?



This is so wrong on so many levels. This is akin to Hollywood writers who would rather do a remake of the Stepford Wives than to write a new story. I'm sorry, but I have only seen the original, and plan on keeping it that way. Whoever wrote the original had a GREAT idea! Who ever wrote the newer version had no creative skills at all. Yes, I am being harsh but let me know how easy it is to write a full-length novel or movie from sractch! It takes time, dedication, creativity and independence! These literary thieves have NONE of the above. Isn't plagiarism illegal? In cases like this, it should be UBER illegal!




I am done with my rant for today. Seriously folks, let's consider what we put into our books and what books we put into our hands!