Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Theory

Time is like embroidery - on the face of it, it looks reasonable, rational and well-ordered. But underneath, it is a seemingly disorganized mass of erratic stitches; threads that seem to have no correlation to the pattern above, and yet each stitch is placed in such a way so it will appear harmoniously above.

How can our lives within the insubstantial "seen" transcend that fabric while we are still here and corporeal? Maybe it's not time travel, or The Matrix, but another state of transcendence... Perhaps this is how ghosts have become part of our mythology - how can they be envisioned when we do not return to this "seen" after death? Perhaps the linen is worn thin in places (since entropy is inescapable) and we are able to see the incomprehensible mass of stitches underneath.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

My Review of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"

Finished Pride & Prejudice & Zombies last night. It had some genuinely funny moments (the Readers Guide at the end which was a parody of those Book Club "questions for the readers" was laugh out loud funny), but I didn't care for:

1. constant descriptions of gore,
2. inconsistencies between Japanese and Chinese culture, like a reference to Darcy's housekeeper being in a kimono, but with bound feet - stupid mistake to make!
3. copious illustrations, which were done in the style I call "Generic Old-Timey", which in this case meant that the women's clothes were not even remotely Regency.
4. the poor execution. They had a really amazing chance to do a subtle concept, but decided to go a bit more slapsticky and departed JUST enough from the traditional narrative to make it seem a bit cheap. The writer gave the Bennet girls warrior abilities (to fight zombies, they were trained by a Shaolin master!), and therefore, the difficulties of their situation as helpless and unskilled women, and therefore dependent on marriage for a future, is stripped from the narrative so it loses something...

BUT, I would definitely go to see a movie version! I think it would would be much better served by a film adaptation. And the writer's decision to give British society such a genteel approach to the zombies (calling them "unmentionables" and "the sorry stricken") has moments of genius. But it was inconsistently blended, and so I found myself reading in a very disjointed way - I was continually being jerked out of the story. But it certainly gives one food for thought! Because it's almost a deconstruction of the original story, it sparks the imagination with "what if"s, in an Alternate Universe sort of way.

I wanted it to be better. But it has stuck with me, which I suppose is something!