Jane Needs Brains

"Perhaps the zombie attack on Austen’s novel is telling us that the novel is neither alive nor dead but undead. We are living in a time when what counts as “life” is in significant scientific dispute, and in the heyday of zombie computers and zombie banks, zombie this and zombie that. Why wouldn’t we also be living in a time of zombie literary forms?"

"But no sooner had she grabbed the handle of her weapon than a chorus of screams filled the assembly hall, immediately joined by the shattering of window panes.  Unmentionables poured in, their movements clumsy yet swift; their burial clothing in a range of untidiness.  Some wore gowns so tattered as to render them scandalous" (PG. 16)

        The critical review, "Zombie Renaissance" gives an interesting view on what the zombies do to the novel "Pride Prejudice and Zombies.  It states that the novel, at some point was dead, and somehow was revived by the action and gore thrown into the ordinary pages of this novel.  I would have to highly agree with this critical review.  I do not want to say Pride and Prejudice is dead, because to me, any novel that has made it this far in time still deserves some recognition, yet the heaviness of the novel along with the run on lines and seemingly unimportant conversations, make this a very tedious book.  Therefore, I believe that for a time, this book was in hibernation, a state where no one really truly enjoys the book (unless they're one of "those" people) or no one decides one day "hey, I should buy Pride and Prejudice to read" even though it is a must read.  When zombies took over the novel, I hesitate to say that the book is "alive" again, only because it is not the true book, word for word.  Therefore the idea that the book is "undead" is brilliant.  

        First off, Seth Grahame-Smith chooses zombies, something that we as a culture can truly relate with, but also something that ironically fits the book and its characters perfectly.  Austen put forth many characters that seemed to drone and move as society wished them too.  Others fed off societal norms such as Lady Catherine, one who continuously tried to throw her rank in others faces.  The fact that this resembles zombies in so many ways does not appear as a coincidence to me.  Others have asked, "why not vampires?  Or werewolves?" and the answer is simple, it wouldn't fit the book.  Werewolves would go amazingly in a book where there are groups of people that stick together, or packs.  Vampires could almost fit, but this book is about the underclass, not the upper.  By putting in Vampires, you overrule the feeling of the underclass that Austen originally intended.  But by putting zombies, mindless creatures that act on the need of one thing, brains, it creates a reflection of the society and its norms and makes us compare the humans and zombies with each other.