Jane Austen

Beginnings

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Last night, between hacking my lungs out and listening to my neighbors’ cheesy-awesome 1980’s tunes, I started writing Per Ardua ad Astra (bit of a mouthful, by no means is this the final title).

Beginning a story is difficult for me. I have no problem writing internal scenes, even endings, but the whole first-impression thing…I feel that if I can’t strike the right tone with the opening line, the rest of the book will suffer. Look at some of famous opening lines:

“Marley was dead to begin with.” A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.” The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

“Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.” Inferno by Dante Alighieri.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling.

These opening lines capture the essence of the stories to follow. As for me, my opening line is pseudo-epic and quite frankly, reeks. It doesn’t fit with the vibe that I hope to achieve. Oh well. That’s what rewrites are for!

And I’m not going to rewrite a scene until I’m completely done. Unless I come up with a better beginning.

Burn baby, burn.

General Geekiness

Why this time?

Well, as you may recall, I’ve never finished reading Pride and Prejudice. Until zombies came into the mix. Then I read it in two days.

Ah, the zed-word. I haven’t enjoyed a zombie romp this much since Shaun of the Dead.

If you aren’t familiar with the idea, a few months ago a guy named Seth Grahame-Smith decided to expand Jane Austen’s classic to include scenes of zombie mayhem. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as the book is aptly titled, “transforms a masterpiece of real world literature into something you’d actually want to read” (so claims the back of the book).

The book is good, silly fun. Somewhere around the introduction of ninjas it goes from silly to purely ridiculous. Even I, a lover of the silly and taking a joke one step too far, thought this was over the top. Seriously, Grahame-Smith. Choose ninjas OR zombies. Not both. And if you’re going to have people running around chopping off heads with Katana swords, at least have someone mutter “There can be only one.” That would’ve made me laugh even harder.

I also felt that having the zombie plague be around for over fifty years removes some of the urgency that is the zombie apocalypse. I think that the springing up of the undead would have paralleled even more humorously with the budding, blooming relationships between the various characters.

P&P&Z was still quite funny; my favorite part is the reader discussion questions at the end of the book.

While I enjoyed it, I’m a bit dismayed at the other Supernatural Works of Jane Austen. There’s Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, as well as Mr Darcy, Vampyre. I’m sure more will follow. Note that I have not read these, only that I’ve heard of them (and in the case of Mr Darcy, Vampyre picked it up and couldn’t find a blurb about it, so I promptly set it down). While I enjoyed P&P&Z, it should stand alone. When others try to capture the original magic, most often it just falls flat.

Enjoy one last bit of zombie/classic mash-up awesomeness.

Why I Belong in Literary Hell

General Geekiness

Heh, I’m so rotting in literary hell for this. Which level, I’m not quite sure.

Movies I Prefer to the Books They’re Based On:

Atonement. Loved the movie. I thought it was beautifully shot, lovely costumes, great soundtrack, good acting. In the book? Well, I was bored stiff. I didn’t care for McEwan’s writing style; it was too flowery and overly descriptive for my liking.

The Princess Bride. The movie is so classic, it just wins. And in the book, the author’s butting in is annoying.

The Princess Diaries. The book doesn’t have Julie Andrews.

Bridget Jones’s Diary. Colin Firth + Hugh Grant + wimp fight> book entertainment value. I enjoyed the book. Wimp fight on screen is just awesome.

And the ultimate reason why I belong in literary hell…

Pride and Prejudice. Either the BBC one or the 2005 one. Try as I may, I just can’t stomach Jane Austen. I like her story lines. I like her characters. I dislike her writing style. I realize that she lived/wrote during the Regency so her style isn’t exactly modern. But there are PLENTY of books I enjoy from before or just after that time period.