Dawn of the Literary Mashup

Put on your thinking caps, dear readers. SRSBZNZ is going to be srsly intellectual today, because we're talking about the phenomenon known as the "literary mashup" (LM). This isn't the first time we've done a post on this topic: a little while ago, we published a brief review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We still haven't finished the book, and for various reasons, we probably never will. But before we delve into those reasons, it might be useful to discuss what a "literary mashup" actually is.

Essentially, the LM mixes your favorite works of literature with sci-fi/fantasy tropes. A cursory search on Amazon suggests that zombies are the trope du jour, with vampires getting an honorary mention:

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
• Jane Bites Back.
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim.
• The Undead World of Oz: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Complete With Zombies and Monsters.
• Mr. Darcy, Vampire
  

We could go on, but we think it's clear from the list that the LM is a growing genre. But what does that mean for the world of literature? According to one literary blogger, the LM is a good thing, because it proves that culture has become a democratic enterprise. Anyone can now reinterpret books that were once the purview of snobby scholars working within the ivory tower of the university. Other bloggers have suggested that LMs will encourage audiences to read the original work of literature that the book is based on.

Well. Those are pretty hefty things to attribute to a novel about zombies. We at SRSBZNZ obviously love zombies (figuratively speaking, of course.) And we love literature. But like sex and alcohol, sometimes two enjoyable things just shouldn't mix.

To us, LMs are gimmicky. Writers and publishers seem to be adding blood, brains, and monsters to Jane Austen simply because it's "cool" to update literature in this way. Although classics need to be constantly reinterpreted in order to survive, the gratuitous addition of violence and horror underestimates the intelligence of readers. It suggests that without gore and pop culture references, we won't expose ourselves to literature voluntarily, because our generation is lazy, and we possess the attention span of a gnat (EDIT: we at SRSBZNZ admit that we're easily distracted. But not when it comes to literature.)

Another point: why can't we promote the merits of literature on its own terms? Why do we need to add monsters to Mark Twain's text in order to convince people that Huck Finn is actually a good story? It's akin to HarperCollins slapping a Twilight-esque cover on classics like Wuthering Heights and declaring the novel "Bella's Favorite." Barf.

LMs do have their good points. It takes a certain amount of ingenuity and wit to rework the opening line of Pride and Prejudice into this: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains will be in want of more brains.” And LMs do have snazzy titles. But whether or not a literary mashup can stand as an interesting novel in its own right is debatable.

Having said all this, we at SRSBZNZ will probably continue to read LMs in the hope of finding The One. After all, people continue to mix sex and alcohol all the time, and sometimes - if the stars are aligned - it can be really awesome.

Only on Heroes

Over the weekend we caught up on our Heroes - in preparation for the finale tonight - and we noticed some interesting singularities about the show. In order to wrap our minds around the CRAZY, we compiled a list. It's called "Only on Heroes."

Only on Heroes would someone say, "People think dreaming the future is a gift, but it's not."

Only on Heroes would it be that easy for Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder to escape from a mental hospital when the alarm has been going off for like ten minutes already.

Only on Heroes would a dream cure Hiro Nakamura's brain tumor. 

Only on Heroes would Sylar STILL NOT BE DEAD YET.

Only on Heroes would everybody in "the family" still believe that Samuel is the good guy.

This show is so predictable.

Kickin' it Back to the Late 90s

Some of our friends recently became fans of "DEEDEE! GET OUT OF MY LABORRRATORY!" on Facebook, and although we're pretty choosy about our fan pages, we did feel compelled to check this one out. We didn't realize it at the time, but Dexter's Laboratory was a pretty great science fiction show when we were youngsters. We love mad scientists because they come up with the most outrageous schemes, typically with hilarious results that make us both pity and ridicule the schemers. We also love prodigious children, because, well, they're just so cute. What better idea than combining them both: a prodigious, mad-scientist child ... who only wants some ice cream. Without further ado, we present: Dexter's Battle With the Ice Cream Man.

Friday Celebration Post!

It's Friday. THANK GOD. And because we're sure that everybody is in a catatonic state from having survived another week, we've decided that the only way to alleviate your pain is to bombard you with lulzy visuals. So without further ado, we present various macros featuring a confused Darth Vader, Karl Urban during his Xena days, and other depictions of silliness.

Wednesday is For the Ladies: Idiocy is SRSBZNZ

Since this blog calls itself "The Twentysomething Girl's Guide to Sci-Fi and Fantasy," we thought we might start using our Wednesday posts to write things that connect twentysomething-year-old girls with, well, sci-fi and fantasy. This week, we would like to discuss Stupid Behavior By Young Women and its role in the sci-fi and fantasy genre (not to mention the countless other genres - including our local news - that employ this strategy to scare the pants off us on a nightly basis).

We know the scene all too well: young girl, driving by herself at night on a deserted road, stops for some reason or other, and is kidnapped, raped, murdered, you name it. We know that you, dear readers, are too intelligent to do this, because WHO GETS OUT OF THEIR CAR AT NIGHT ON A DESERTED ROAD AND LEAVES THE KEYS IN THE IGNITION (why, yes, we are thinking of a specific televised scene right now, how did you know?), but we just want to remind you of the dangers. Sci-fi shows loooove to use this sort of unwise behavior as an excuse for you to get shot by a crazy-advanced alien gun, because sci-fi writers are all boys, and you know how boys love their guns (both of the literal and the figurative sort). See also: murder shows wherein you get shot and die, local news wherein you get shot and die, Heroes wherein Sylar cuts your head open and steals your ability, or any of the above and carjacking. Trust us, you do NOT want to be stranded on a deserted road with no phone and no car. So please, ladies. Don't stop the car. Call 911 as you drive to the nearest public place, and let the police know where you will be.

This has been your public service announcement for the day.

Why Geeky Girls Make Better Lovers

It's a tough world for geeky girls, especially when it comes to finding love. Apparently, enthusiasm for shows like Battlestar Galactica are pretty lame tools of seduction (who knew?) Nevertheless, we have hope that some boys out there will understand the true value of a geeky girl. This post initially began as a pep talk to our female readers, but somewhere along the way, it turned into a letter addressed to any and all men who happen to be reading our blog. Boys, we know each of you have personal preferences regarding girls. But have you ever considered the reasons why geeky girls might make better lovers? If not, then sally forth, dear reader.

Reason #1: We're not afraid of role playing.

Yeah, we went there. Maybe you've harbored a secret desire to sleep with Princess Leia since you were 10. Don't worry: you can tell us. We're used to dressing up as our favorite character at anime or sci-fi conventions (see above), so we're going to be more open to the idea of gallivanting about the bedroom in a costume than most women. Think about it.

Reason #2: We possess the knowledge and ability to save your ass during the zombie apocalypse.

On the surface, being a geeky girl has few social advantages. But what happens when the entire fabric of society breaks down, because people start turning into zombies? That's when you'll be glad to have us around. We don't like to brag, but geeky girls are pretty well-versed in zombie movies and books. Consequently, if you're faced with a moaning horde of incoming death, we'll know (theoretically) how to handle ourselves - step 1: acquire a blunt instrument capable of bashing in heads. Plus, as Mr. Darcy found out in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, girls who boast an impressive number of zombie kills are pretty hot. So when the zombie apocalypse hits, you won't have to worry about protecting us, though we appreciate the effort. Give us a frying pan, and we'll kill the zombie for you and then make you breakfast.

Reason #3: You don't need to take us to see romantic comedies.

Don't want to see that new Kristen Bell movie, because the romantic leads have the charisma and chemistry of Wonder Bread? Well, neither do we. In fact, if you want to ogle at giant robots crashing into each other or angels wielding machine guns, we are completely down with that. We'd even prefer it (not least because sci-fi movies - with the exception of Transformers - typically boast a really hot, bad-ass leading man.)

Reason #4: We're smart.

Everyone knows that intelligent women are sexy. Geeky girls happen to be a subsection of that category. Most geeky girls tend to be avid readers, and many of us apply those skills of literary analysis to movies as well. So if you need a woman who is imaginative, curious about the world, and has the ability to bring the snark about Avatar to a tepid dinner conversation, a geeky girl is your best bet.

Reason #5: We love technology too.

We like to obsess about newfangled gadgetry as much as the next boy. In fact, Best Buy and Future Shop are like playgrounds to us. Now why can't boys view H&M in the same way?

Reason #6: Did we mention the role-playing?

Caprica What?!

... No, really. We spent about half of this two-hour premiere asking ourselves what was going on. Pilots are always like that, though, so fear not, clever readers! We'll be watching this week, too. (Okay, so we're a little late on the review. Blame it on the fact that we have a life. Also, we don't get paid for this. Show us the money and we'll talk about timely reviews.)

Okay, so first of all, props to whomever hired Ann Number One from Arrested Development to play main character Zoe Graystone. Props taken from whomever named her "Graystone," because we will always think, "By the power of Greyskull!" whenever we see her or her parents.

Now, you might be wondering about the premise of this show. Zoe, she of the Power of Greyskull, is all computer genius-y and involved in some kind of weird avatar world where everybody is TOTALLY FREAKIN' CRAZY and people are, like, shooting each other and sacrificing virgins, and engaging in all sorts of despicable behavior. But Zoe and her friends are trying to undermine that avatar world (we think?) because they believe in some sort of monotheistic - and, apparently, to everyone else on Caprica, crazy - religion. But then Zoe goes and gets herself blown up.

You may think the show ends there, but no! Because the two hours are not up yet, we discover that Zoe's avatar survived. Because she is a computer genius and created an avatar that couldn't die, we don't know, whatever. The point of all this is to get to the part about her dad. Her dad finds out about this surviving avatar, and because he's all computer genius-y, tries to make it into a Real Boy, like Pinocchio, except it's actually a girl. Duh. What, did you think this show was about wooden puppets?

Anyways, Zoe's dad makes friends with this guy from our mom's favorite show, Da Vinci's Inquest, which is some kind of Canadian answer to Law and Order, except with more of a serial plotline. So this dude, who is from a planet called Tauron, where apparently everyone eats dirt (no they don't), has just lost his wife and daughter. Zoe's dad is all like, I WILL BRING YOUR DAUGHTER BACK TO LIFE IN THE AVATAR WORLD! and then he does, but the daughter is like, um, no thank you, this is weird, because my REAL self is dead. So we're not really sure how this Tauron dude is going to continue to fit in the plot, but he got so much screen time during the pilot that we know he's important.

Finally, because we're sure you're ready for this recap to just end already - we know we are - the icing on the cake: Zoe's dad has created this robot that looks just like Megatron, only smaller, and he tries to transfer Zoe's avatar into it, but it doesn't work ... except it DOES!!!!!! The episode ends with Zoe's voice speaking out of the tiny - well, tiny by comparison, anyway - Megatron, asking her friend for help.

Um, hi. We love any pilot episode that ends with a girl-robot asking someone for help. Because it's ridiculous. And since you don't know us too well, internetz, we love ridiculous.

Our one complaint about this show is that their favorite swear word is apparently "frak." In case you're not an avid 30 Rock watcher like us, that's their favorite fake swear word. When someone calls someone else a "frakkin' dirt eater," we cannot hold it together. It sounds ridiculous - but not the good kind of ridiculous, the kind where you're like, really? You couldn't come up with a better swear word? Really. What the frak were you thinking?!

 

Images from Oh Mars, Share of Voice,  and Geek Sugar