Oh dear lord

[erastes]

Bandwagons…

Is there nothing they won’t do to Pride and Prejudice?  Are people SO incapable of writing their own plots and characters?  Look, I know I wrote fanfic for years, and I know I DO have a project in the future which involves a “relook” at one of Bill’s plays, but I won’t be involving vampires and zombies and god knows what else.

Who is willing to bet that there will be werewolf Darcy before the end of 2010? Maybe I should clamber on that bandwagon….

ARGH!!!! Five more?  Thank you, chinae !!

Comments

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

There may be a werewolf Darcy, but you could be the first to have a *gay* werewolf Darcy...or perhaps a were-Gay Darcy? Who marries Elizabeth, but lurks in the shadows, waiting to jump on unsuspecting men in tight trousers during the full moon?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Now - you see I wouldn't mind writing that, it would be a lot of fun, but I WOULDN'T want to do it with someone else's characters, I'd like to do my own - I just find it creepy that all of these people are. Hypocritcal I know as I am planning a reworking of a play, but....

[angrboda]

Surely Austen is spinning in her grave (if there's enough left of her by now to spin)

[madrigalist.livejournal.com]

You did see the zombie one, didn't you? I encounter this all the time with Phantom of the Opera, yet many of those are self-published. Very few expansions of Leroux's book are with traditional houses, unlike P&P (and most deal with Webber's movie and Gerry Butler in tight pants...)

Folks make Erik into a vampire all the time in print and in fanfic online. I suspect it is just easier to take and extreme twist then to ardently sit down and take the years it takes to research a continuation. I would rather respect the original author's vision then go to extremes...

Sweated blood for three years on The Madrigals until I landed the contract.

I have a sudden craving for cranberry juice now. (I should blog on this...)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes - it was this - after the zombie one - that made me see red. It just seems so crass. Definitely werewolves next. bleugh.

[chinae.livejournal.com]

There is actually five more in the works

http://austenprose.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/mr-darcy-vampyre-by-amanda-grange-preview/

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Oh for fucksake... ::eye roll::

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

They could just read this on FFnet and save themselves the money:

Blood Cravings

(This is not a recommendation. This is a comment that vampire Darcy is pure fanfic.)

[sandrafowke.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah I saw that one Pride and Predudice and Zombies. Hmm I'm thinking a cat people Darcy, a werewolf Bingley and a vampire Wickham lol

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I love re-tellings, and work in them a lot as a fantasy writer. But something about these Austen sequels/retellings just ticks me off. I think it's because none of them really sound like they even need to be set in Pride and Prejudice, or that they don't seem to be doing anything particularly interesting with the source text.

And vampyres and Austen? Ugh. It's like mixing two of my least favorite things ever into a cocktail of dumb. (Admittedly not an Austen fan, and one of the only women I've ever met who isn't).

[rwday.livejournal.com]

I assume you've seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Oprah actually recommended this one, which makes me question her taste even more than I already did.

I have no issue with those books that pick up minor characters from classics, like Wide Sargasso Sea did with the first Mrs. Rochester, or which provide new twists and angles, or with sequels, even when I think they're awful (Scarlett), but this sort of thing, IMO, is just capitalizing on Austen's popularity to cash in. If you want to write a Regency era novel with zombies or vampires, why not come up with your own characters and plot?

[spindriftdancer.livejournal.com]

(I have to sort of slightly diminutively admit that I liked the zombie one... I thought it was amusing. Especially the ninjas.) But, really, people should get a new idea. This rehashing of everything old is a complete cop-out for imagination-less no-talents. Quite frankly.

[storm-grant.livejournal.com]

A bit tangential, but... I just loved Christopher Moore's "Fool" a retelling of King Lear from the court jester's POV. I listened to the audiobook, but I think I must have hard copy, too.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

What would be fun crackfic would be if there are three of those *in the same book*. And of course shenanigans and rude comments on fangs ensue. Oh wait, I guess we have to have the zomie one too, don't we?
(Had to report due to typos. Arggh!)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I would be, if I were her!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Argh!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Ick! *avoids *

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it will be along in no time at all!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I think that's exactly how I feel about it, I have been struggling with my annoyance because I have this reworking of something famous in my head and I know many people will say "but you said..." but I've had a look at a lot of these books and as you say, it's nothing more or less than AU fanfic, not a "re-envisioning" at all.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's why I was rolling my eyes about this e.g. 1. Zombies 2. Vampires and what's next, werewolves? I didn't make myself clear, I suppose. I couldn't agree more - a Regency with zombies is all very well if that's your bag, but I think what does annoy me is that they don't have the courage of their own convictions to create their own characters - and / or (probably OR) that they know that they'll have an automatic buy from people who are addicted to P&P

I mean for God's sake - we have the nerve to create gay regencies with original characters, I suppose I'm just annoyed they couldn't do the same, and annoyed that these books get the press attention too.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

A retelling - yes - that's a different thing - but this is nothing more or less than "what can I do to sell my book, oh I'll use the same idea that six people have already done."