Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Ninjas

A gentleman's English country house.

Life is change, and those who excel in life are often those who adapt to change most successfully. Just as politicians learn to adapt their strongly held views to the currents flowing through our twenty-four hour news cycle, so publishers learn to adjust their offerings to meet readers' changing tastes. Film seems to lag behind however, as studio heads bend over their calculators, performing risk assessments before investing the $100 million or more deemed necessary to compel young viewers into the cinema. 

Such has proven the case with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an enormously popular novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Although he published the novel in 2009, and today's youth seem obsessed with zombies (and the people who hunt them), it was his next novel, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, that was first made into a movie in 2012. But fans of Jane Austin and Zombies don't have much longer to wait, as Entertainment Weekly reports that Writer-director Burr Steers has begun filming Grahame-Smith's first literary venture. 

A stranger calls to tea.

As proof that Steers has zeroed in on what fans want in their next big screen Jane Austen adventure, consider this snippet from Lindsey Bahr's First Look article in the November 7, 2014 issue of Entertainment Weekly. 

"In the original story, Elizabeth [Bennett] is a fighter and beyond her contemporaries in her ambitions and her ideas of women, "Steers says. "She's a badass warrior. She's a ninja."

Elizabeth Bennett,
Badass Ninja

Such a view may take a little getting used to for those of us old folks who grew up with Jane Austen's original story, and the more faithful adaptations of Jane Austen's works. But why shouldn't classic novels be updated for today's audiences? It's not as if Hollywood usually adapts books without making substantial changes to their big screen cousins, is it? So why can't Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Mary, and Kitty be sword- and knife-wielding martial artists? Now, if they can film the movie in the Japanese language, and add voice dubbing totally out of sync with the actors' lip movements, the new movie will sit comfortably alongside the martial arts movies I grew up watching on my 13" B&W tube TV. 

And if all that's not enough, actor Matt Smith will play the role of Mr Collins, the clergyman who seeks Elizabeth's hand because his patroness, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, thinks he ought to get married. You all know Matt Smith, right? Our "Timey Wimey" incarnation of Doctor Who? Oh, so much to look forward to!

BTW, I've updated the page My Ten Most Popular Posts. If you haven't checked it out lately, you'll find some new titles on the list. While readers still read old posts like "Pocket Dalek Knitting Pattern," "The Famous Woodworker of Kilburn," and "Norman Clegg's TV House," you'll find some new titles there, including one on a manga adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Why should readers be so interested in a manga adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, you ask? Well, Manga is the Japanese version of graphic novels, and Japan is not only one of the homes of sword- and knife-wielding martial artists. It's also where Ninjas come from.

"Could I beg another glass of your delicious sake, Miss Bennett?"

"Of course, Mr. Darcy. And may I offer you more fugu sashimi?"

"I would be delighted, Miss Bennett."

Dragon Dave

No longer in My Top Ten, but still popular
Pocket Dalek Knitting Pattern          
The Famous Woodworker of Kilburn        
Norman Clegg's TV House        

Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite Game

In The Blotting Book by E. F. Benson, one of the characters, a lawyer who manages another character’s estate, visits his club one evening.  While others there engage in various types of exercise, or play games, he prefers to sit back and relax.  I was intrigued by the mention of Bagatelle, so I did a little research.  I’m not sure if E. F. Benson played Bagatelle, but his fellow English author Charles Dickens was fond of the game, and so was a certain American statesman you might have heard of.  His name was Abraham Lincoln.

Perhaps I’m going out on a limb with my title, but a newspaper cartoon from 1864 depicts the American Presidential race that year in terms of a game of Bagatelle.  As Lincoln leans over the table, preparing to make his shot, he assures his running mate, Andrew Johnson, that he’ll do his best on The Union Board.  “I can do no more,” he asserts.  Johnson encourages him, “Hurrah for our side, go ahead Old Abe!  Oh ain’t he bully on the Bagatelle!”  Other important national characters are there, including Democratic nominee George McClellan, who sits atop a crumbling Chicago “Peace” platform that Lincoln has just nudged with his foot.  His running mate George H. Pendleton retorts, "O see here.  We can’t stand this!  Old Abe's getting in all the pots on the board.”  Others, such as Representative Vallandigham and Union general Ulysses S. Grant, also comment on the game.  Of course, the artist uses the game as a paradigm for commenting on the ongoing Civil War, and how that will impact the presidential election.

We all know how the Civil War turned out.  President Lincoln won reelection thanks largely to the soldiers’ vote, in a year when both major political parties were divided over whether the Union should continue the war, or allow the South to withdraw.  What I hadn’t known was that Lincoln was an aficionado of Bagatelle, or even what the game was.

In “Curbing My Addiction,” I discussed my worries that my love for physical books was getting out of hand, and so I was reading an e-book on my computer for the first time.  One of the pluses, I found, was the ability to instantly research any term I didn’t recognize.  Unlike some other terms however, Bagatelle wasn’t that easy to research.  This was due to the fact that how one played the game varied by region, and also the rules of play evolved with time.  Some variants of the game better resemble pinball or pachinko, and some articles suggest that the game is related to miniature golf.  Finally, I found a nine-minute video that explained a version called Victorian Bagatelle, and this helped me understand a lot of the dialogue in the Abraham Lincoln comic. 

Perhaps it wasn’t important to learn about Bagatelle, as few people play it anymore.  (It seems that a few clubs in England still do).  But it was interesting to learn about this game that many seem to have forgotten, and enhances my understanding of the era in which Benson’s novel is set.  I would never have put down a physical book to look up Bagatelle, but because I was reading it on the computer, and could easily jump to the Internet and look the term up, I embarked on a journey that left me with a better understanding of Abraham Lincoln, American history, and life in England in the early twentieth century. 

I’ll be attending the World Fantasy Convention in England later this year.  Interestingly, the convention is being held in Brighton, where The Blotting Book is set.  I don’t know about you, but I think it’d be a hoot to play a game of Bagatelle there with another fan of E. F. Benson.  Even if, unlike Old Abe, I can’t get in all the pots on the board.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Curbing My Addiction

Related Internet Links

Abraham Lincoln Comic

A short description of Bagatelle

Video: How to Play Bagatelle