Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: If you thought that might be the punch line for a joke about what could get guys to read chick lit, you’re half right. It’s also a new well, kind of novel, in bookstores today, by “Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.”
Austen was unavailable for an interview, but Grahame-Smith, 33, is promoting the collaboration. A comedy writer with five books to his name, he’s writer/executive producer of a pilot filming for MTV, Hard Times.
Grahame-Smith retained Austen’s plot and characters but added a 55-year zombie infestation of the English countryside. The husband-hunting Bennet sisters still sally out to tea parties and balls, but they go armed with muskets, swords and their training as ninja zombie killers.
It’s all rendered in Regency-style prose, complete with the wit that’s an Austen hallmark. When one of Elizabeth Bennet’s friends announces her marriage to an unsuitable suitor, she confides that she has been bitten by a zombie: “I don’t have long, Elizabeth. All I ask is that my final months be happy ones, and that I be permitted a husband who will see to my proper Christian beheading and burial.”
Grahame-Smith chatted by phone from Los Angeles.
Collette Bancroft: What’s the origin of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
Seth Grahame-Smith: My editor, Jason Rekulak, and I had done five books together. He always had this obsession. He wanted to add some ridiculous subplot to a classic book.
One day he called me and said, “All I have is this title, but I can’t get it out of my head: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
I said, “I think that’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard.”
CB: People thought this might be a short, one-joke item. Why rewrite the entire novel?
SGS: Jane Austen did all the hard work. She gave her characters such life and such unpredictable arcs, she let the plot unfold so brilliantly. All I had to do was paint over it.
Take Elizabeth. Instead of the sharp-witted, independent young woman, she’s a sharp-daggered, independent young woman. She just happens to be a talented slayer of the undead.
CB: Did your publisher think it was a brilliant idea?
SGS: We had to work hard to sell it as a concept. Finally they said, “Okay, but you’ll have to do it quickly, and we’re not going to spend a lot of money on it.”
Then some industrious blogger found it, and suddenly it propagated throughout the blogosphere.
CB: Despite its crazy concept, you took the writing of the book very seriously. Why?
SGS: I wanted people who would never read Austen to pick this up. I also didn’t want to write a book that wouldn’t be palatable to her fans. I was afraid it might offend the Janeites. I call it the “How dare you, Sir? syndrome.” But so many Janeites have loved it. They have a great sense of humor.
CB: Do you think we’ll see Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Film?
SGS: Hey, it’s no crazier than half the movies that get made.
Seven hundred job applications. One interview. Marco Mascaro arrived in Taiwan last year with a PhD in engineering physics and years of experience at a European research center. He thought his Gold Card would guarantee him a foothold in Taiwan’s job market. “It’s marketed as if Taiwan really needs you,” the 33-year-old Italian says. “The reality is that companies here don’t really need us.” The Employment Gold Card was designed to fix Taiwan’s labor shortage by offering foreign professionals a combined resident visa and open work permit valid for three years. But for many, like Mascaro, the welcome mat ends at the door. A
If China attacks, will Taiwanese be willing to fight? Analysts of certain types obsess over questions like this, especially military analysts and those with an ax to grind as to whether Taiwan is worth defending, or should be cut loose to appease Beijing. Fellow columnist Michael Turton in “Notes from Central Taiwan: Willing to fight for the homeland” (Nov. 6, page 12) provides a superb analysis of this topic, how it is used and manipulated to political ends and what the underlying data shows. The problem is that most analysis is centered around polling data, which as Turton observes, “many of these
Divadlo feels like your warm neighborhood slice of home — even if you’ve only ever spent a few days in Prague, like myself. A projector is screening retro animations by Czech director Karel Zeman, the shelves are lined with books and vinyl, and the owner will sit with you to share stories over a glass of pear brandy. The food is also fantastic, not just a new cultural experience but filled with nostalgia, recipes from home and laden with soul-warming carbs, perfect as the weather turns chilly. A Prague native, Kaio Picha has been in Taipei for 13 years and
Since Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair on Oct. 18, she has become a polarizing figure. Her supporters see her as a firebrand critic of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while others, including some in her own party, have charged that she is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) preferred candidate and that her election was possibly supported by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPP) unit for political warfare and international influence, the “united front.” Indeed, Xi quickly congratulated Cheng upon her election. The 55-year-old former lawmaker and ex-talk show host, who was sworn in on Nov.
RSS