Comments | mshades: 2009 Reading List - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

mshades

2009 Reading List - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Jun 11, 2009 13:58

Book Twenty-nine

( Read more... )

2009 reading list, jane austen, zombies, seth grahame-smith

Comments 3

shadefell June 11 2009, 14:05:51 UTC

"Pride and Prejudice" is a great book and a classic because it's fucking hilarious. Ok, maybe not hilarious, but Austen makes biting social commentary AND skewers genre conventions. Her book "northanger abbey" is basically a parody of Gothic Romances ( ... )

mshades June 11 2009, 15:19:14 UTC

Thanks for the rundown - at some point, I figured that the original might be tolerable if I approached it as satire, but I still found myself dozing off during the less-zombified sections of the book. I don't think I would be able to get through the original without losing interest.... Plus, I have no patience for romance. Which should really come as no aurprise.... *smile*

shadefell June 11 2009, 15:32:48 UTC

Most of the "romance" is people acting kind of like morons. Austen is aware that they're acting like morons about stuff, and pokes gentle fun at them, but yeah. It is romance heavy because that's the genre and that's what women were expected to write.

I have a lot of (mostly male) friends who are always surprised that I read and enjoy Austen because I am NOT a fan of romance, and they are used to people reading Austen because SIIIIIIGH SWOOOOOOON SOOOOO ROMANTIC. So I'm a little defensive of what is actually quality literature that opens a nice historical window on a specific time and place and society and social class.