August 4, 2012

The Perversion of Classic Novels (Warning: This post deals with adult themes.)

When i first heard about "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," I thought it was a cheap gimmick but pretty harmless. Many people have told me that the book and others along the same lines have gotten their sons interested in classics that typically appeal to girls. I support this. Books like this can create conversation between brothers and sisters. That's great. A book like this might even inspire younger readers to read the real thing some day.

I am typically for anything that gets people reading, but there's a new "treatment"  classics are getting that make them,well, not classics. Classics are timeless. The themes they explore are enduring and the struggles are as real today as they were the day they were written. These new adaptions are not. Our favorite classics such as "Jane Eyre", "Pride and Prejudice", "Nothanger Abbey", and even "Sherlock Holmes" have been colored a la "50 Shades of Grey."


Thoroughly modern readers will be appalled at my backwardness and prudishness. Far from it. Maybe I read too deeply into things but I think a glance or the holding of a hand can betray 1,000 feelings in a way that a graphic scene cannot. I may be in the minority but I find the the subtle attraction and tension in "Pride and Prejudice" to be alluring. I have an imagination, I don't need help connecting the dots. 

What happened in our culture to get to the point where we need everything spelled out? Remember in older movies where murder, death and sex happened off-screen and the plots weren't affected by it? Why does everything try to shock us now? I'm never so shocked at what I see as I am that the directors thought that I wouldn't notice that the story wasn't good because they added a bunch of explosions and nudity. A good story does well on its own. It doesn't need gimmicky fillers. Classics don't need fillers, they are already great stories. A good story, like a classy lady is as much about what you don't see as what you do see.

Naked people and violence are nothing new. It's shocking that this is the new "love." Aren't we inundated with enough graphic messages? Aren't our daughters oversexed enough? Since when does lust equal love and why are we teaching this message?

For more on the subject:

-News Busters
-New Versions, Still Classics?
-Oh Mr. Darcy!


What are your thoughts?

10 comments:

  1. Well said Stephanie! I totally agree with you and you are not alone in thinking this way. Glad you said something!

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  2. I agree. Subtlety is a lost art...

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  3. All I can say is, I concur. Those books sadden me as well.

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  4. I couldn't agree more. Bravo, Steph. Bron and I just watched an older BBC version of Wuthering Heights (2009). It would've been perfect if they hadn't needed to "connect the dots."

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    1. I really like that one because it has a very Gothic feel, but those parts weren't in the book.

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  5. I couln't agree more. It's pathetic. Watching my 7 and 8 year old granddaughters watch a program on the Disney channel which wasn't much better

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    1. I'm honestly hoping people get bored of this stuff.

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