Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

[Ed Anger]

What will be the next stupid craze? Terminator 5: War and Peace?

Hmmmm. The battle of Auerstädt with Smurfs. Davout's III corps vs Papa Smurf's village.

[Savonarola]

Actually I think there's a book coming out where Austen is Vampire with writer's block.

When I was young and foolish I occasionally watched the "Highlander" TV show.  There was one very bad episode where George Gordon, Lord Byron was an immortal who had gotten into alternative rock and was now drugging people and killing them.  There was a lot of flashbacks and in the end Duncan beheads him.  This led to a competition between my brother and I to see who could come up with the worst possible idea for a Highlander show.

My idea:  There's an immortal bull who has contracted mad cow disease.  This bull had been a friend of Duncan's and had guarded his herd on the trail when Duncan had been a cowboy; so Duncan is faced with a moral dilemma of whether or not to kill his old friend.  In the end he decides he must and faces the bull in a bullfight; killing and beheading the bull in the ring.

My brother's:  Hitler and Stalin are both immortal; have put aside their differences and are now running a bagel stand in Buenos Aires.  The Mossad kidnaps Hitler and Duncan and Stalin try to get him back, but Hitler and Stalin both end up getting beheaded and we learn that we should all get along.

I never thought I'd see a worse idea than those, but Jane Austen as an immortal with writer's block sounds like it might be a start.  She could be trapped by an evil immortal; Duncan saves her from the other immortal and they share an all too brief, but happy tryst.  They must part at the end of the episode as an issue from Duncan's past forces him to move on, but Jane's writer's block is cured.

[Camerus]

Sounds unoriginal and tedious.  Pass.

[Syt]

What will be the next stupid craze? Terminator 5: War and Peace?

I think the idea works best when you take one genre (in this case a romantic 19th century novel) and contrast it with something pretty much the polar opposite (gory zombie fiction).

I'd imagine it'd be difficult with War and Peace, because it already has action/war and romance/peace.

You'd also want a piece of work that you can keep largely unchanged but can add stuff onto it - I'm rather curious to see how Pride and Prejudice will work with the original story and the "added stuff" in between (also gives me an excuse to read P&P). I'd say it's a bit similar to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead in a way that it keeps the original intact and fills in the blank spots of two secondary (or tertiary, even) characters to create something different.

However, using "small" characters and expand on them in their off screen time (RaGaD) is probably a lot easier than creating a whole new side plot and integrate it seamlessly into a narration (P&P&Z). If I were a professor of literature it'd be something I'd task students with in creative writing courses.

[jimmy olsen]

Austin overrun with Zombies! 

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/Road_signs_warn_of_zombies

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Actually I think there's a book coming out where Austen is Vampire with writer's block.

When I was young and foolish I occasionally watched the "Highlander" TV show.  There was one very bad episode where George Gordon, Lord Byron was an immortal who had gotten into alternative rock and was now drugging people and killing them.  There was a lot of flashbacks and in the end Duncan beheads him.  This led to a competition between my brother and I to see who could come up with the worst possible idea for a Highlander show.

My idea:  There's an immortal bull who has contracted mad cow disease.  This bull had been a friend of Duncan's and had guarded his herd on the trail when Duncan had been a cowboy; so Duncan is faced with a moral dilemma of whether or not to kill his old friend.  In the end he decides he must and faces the bull in a bullfight; killing and beheading the bull in the ring.

My brother's:  Hitler and Stalin are both immortal; have put aside their differences and are now running a bagel stand in Buenos Aires.  The Mossad kidnaps Hitler and Duncan and Stalin try to get him back, but Hitler and Stalin both end up getting beheaded and we learn that we should all get along.

I never thought I'd see a worse idea than those, but Jane Austen as an immortal with writer's block sounds like it might be a start.  She could be trapped by an evil immortal; Duncan saves her from the other immortal and they share an all too brief, but happy tryst.  They must part at the end of the episode as an issue from Duncan's past forces him to move on, but Jane's writer's block is cured.

Add Anne Frank, zombies and furries in there and you've got a winner

[FunkMonk]

Also

The Forsyte Saga: Matrix Reloaded

[Razgovory]

What will be the next stupid craze? Terminator 5: War and Peace?

I think the idea works best when you take one genre (in this case a romantic 19th century novel) and contrast it with something pretty much the polar opposite (gory zombie fiction).

Actually they aren't that different.

[Savonarola]

Add Anne Frank, zombies and furries in there and you've got a winner

I don't think 90's televeison was ready for furries though...

[Savonarola]

I think the idea works best when you take one genre (in this case a romantic 19th century novel) and contrast it with something pretty much the polar opposite (gory zombie fiction).

Actually they aren't that different.
[/quote]

Good point Jane Austen has all the qualities of the start to a good slasher movie: large manors in the deserted countryside, young people in love going off to the countryside for picnics.  All you need is a homicidal maniac to slice up Emma and Mr. Knightly when they're on a walk, or Mansfield Park having the doorway to hell in the basement.

[lustindarkness]

Add Anne Frank, zombies and furries in there and you've got a winner

I don't think 90's televeison was ready for furries though...

They are ready now,

[Savonarola]

Add Anne Frank, zombies and furries in there and you've got a winner

I don't think 90's televeison was ready for furries though...

They are ready now,

If only RockyHorror was here then you would learn how wrong you are.

[Razgovory]

Good point Jane Austen has all the qualities of the start to a good slasher movie: large manors in the deserted countryside, young people in love going off to the countryside for picnics.  All you need is a homicidal maniac to slice up Emma and Mr. Knightly when they're on a walk, or Mansfield Park having the doorway to hell in the basement.

I believe Jane Austin wrote a pseudo-Gothic novel herself.  Though the modern concept of the zombie hadn't occured to most people yet, it likely would have been popular.  The fears that a zombie movie alludes to,( mobs, disease, the lower classes) were very familiar with the people of her time.

[Savonarola]

I believe Jane Austin wrote a pseudo-Gothic novel herself.  Though the modern concept of the zombie hadn't occured to most people yet, it likely would have been popular.  The fears that a zombie movie alludes to,( mobs, disease, the lower classes) were very familiar with the people of her time.

She parodies the Gothic novel in Northanger Abbey.  Much women's literature in the 18th century was gothic and the gothic had an impact on later nineteenth century literature, most notably the Bronte sisters.

[jimmy olsen]

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20267705,00.html

I've managed to find about a page and a half of text through my scouring of the net, and I've liked what I've seen. Not brilliant, but quite amusing.

I especially liked the opening paragraph.

IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.