![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Despite the age of her works, the Austen fandom is thriving. Pride & Prejudice, is (pretty predictably) a fandom favorite, along w its angsty cousin Persuasion (we stan cinnamon roll Anne <3). Because of P&P's popularity both inside + outside of the fan community, a lottttttt of adaptations of it have been made. (Go to the bottom if u wanna see a list b/c she's real long.) Surprisingly (or maybe not), a lot of the published and/or commercially produced adaptations are disliked by the fandom.
Exhibit A: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
P&P&Z started out as a novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Most of the novel is just P&P word-for-word, with little bits about zombies (called "unmentionables") sprinkled in (plus also a couple of pretty minor plot changes, e.g. Wickham SPOILER is undead-ish but still a fuckboi). The movie is equal parts terrible and amazing. Mr. Collins (played by Matt Smith) is my fav character in the film, which is probably already a red flag. For hardcore fans of P&P, it's hard to appreciate the acting when all the major players are hella OOC. (Also Darcy sounds like he constantly needs a cough drop, so that's fun??) P&P&Z ranks high in badass gal power a la BtVS, but suffers from some pretty funky writing.* (You can view this mess for yourself here.)
Exhibit B: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife
Exhibit A: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
P&P&Z started out as a novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. Most of the novel is just P&P word-for-word, with little bits about zombies (called "unmentionables") sprinkled in (plus also a couple of pretty minor plot changes, e.g. Wickham SPOILER is undead-ish but still a fuckboi). The movie is equal parts terrible and amazing. Mr. Collins (played by Matt Smith) is my fav character in the film, which is probably already a red flag. For hardcore fans of P&P, it's hard to appreciate the acting when all the major players are hella OOC. (Also Darcy sounds like he constantly needs a cough drop, so that's fun??) P&P&Z ranks high in badass gal power a la BtVS, but suffers from some pretty funky writing.* (You can view this mess for yourself here.)
Exhibit B: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife
Oh god. I can actually feel my soul departing my body every time I remember this series exists?? Normally I feel kinda terrible trashing someone's hard work but here I'll make an exception. Linda Berdoll's adaptations are not a fav. The first book takes up where P&P leaves off, and essentially reads like someone trying to put as many SAT words in a single sentence as humanly possible. When the writing is decipherable, it's a lot of graphic sex scenes -- and I am so not a fan of eroticizing Austen works. The entire series profits off of the whole stereotype of women only liking Austen because they're like "ooOoOoOOh mr darcyyyy, he is sOO sexy!!!1!" There's a lot of problems with this. Austen's so often portrayed as chicklit, and although chicklit is far from worthless, P&P is so frequently devalued because of this association. (I'll legit GO OFF about this. I'd fight anyone for Jane.) There's a hilarious review of the first book (chapter by chapter) here.
Exhibit C: Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Oooh ok, so this is a tough one. The 1995 P&P miniseries with Colin Firth is generally thought to be the "best" adaptation, partially because it very closely follows the canon. The 2005 movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen gets a lot of flak because it values the ~aesthetic~ and romantic over loyalty to Austen's plot (which it follows pretty well, honestly). A lot of people (re: my mom) complain that Knightley's Lizzy is "too modern," but like..... the character of Elizabeth Bennet was pretty "modern" for Austen's time anyhow? (Also my mom didn't actually even read P&P... like Susan I don't think ur the greatest authority on the subject sorry not sorry.) Much of the backlash tends to come from fans of the 1995, who can't bear to think that another adaptation could come close to their fav.
ANYWAY, on to the topic I was supposed to talk about: intellectual property. I'd always thought that authors/creators who were vehemently against fan adaptations of their works were especially afraid of getting trashy fics or erotic content associated with their original works, especially if these adaptations were published and profited the other person. (It's like a group presentation where you do all the work, and all your teammates get As too even though they BS'ed thru the powerpoint slides you wrote for them.) Even so, the hypothetical "other person" did do work, and created something. The problem isn't just about who owns it and/or who gets the money; if the adaptation is truly "trash" in the original author's eyes, they might not even want it to exist.
According to this JASNA article, Austen made less than $11,000 from P&P (she sold the copyright for a fairly low amount, not anticipating the novel becoming a hit). Her lifetime earnings were around $67,000. Austen is hella dead, and her works are in the public domain. If it IS fair to profit off of her, it seems like it can't be fair that only SOME are allowed to. Pride and Prejudice (2005) grossed $121 million by riding the Austenmania wave. But fans still get reprimanded for taking scenes from the movie (or other adaptations) to create fanvids and other content. Austen no longer belongs to Austen, but it doesn't entirely belong to her fans either. Her work lives on, but at what cost?
(p.s. thank u for listening 2 my ted talk)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*There's this moment where the assembly hall is overrun by zombies, and the Bennet squad casually slices em all in a fun bloody montage. Meanwhile, Darcy (zombie-hunter extraordinaire) and sweet, sweet Bingley are standing awkwardly to the side, watching instead of fighting for reasons unknown. THEN Darcy's killer line comes: "Her [Lizzy's] face is rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes" *cue Lizzy slicing a zombie* "and I'm forced to acknowledge her figure as both light and pleasing." Y'all. He's monologging. Bingley turns to him with a why tf are you telling me this? "her arms are surprisingly muscular yet not so much as to be unfeminine." Darcy,,, PAL,,, I love Lizzy too but what? r u ok?
**Keep in mind these are only the most famous/major P&P adaptations -- prepare urself
Films:
- Pride & Prejudice (1940) w/ Laurence Olivier & Greer Garson
- Pride & Prejudice (2005) w/ Keira Knightley (the Love of my Life) & Matthew Macfadyen
- Bride & Prejudice; bollywood P&P + a Bop
- Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; (also a ""book"") charles bingley is cute & the bennet sibs r cute and the rest of the movie is tRASH
- Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy; modern day in Utah (imagine a crack vid but made movie-length)
- Austenland; movie is wayyyyyyyy better than the book??
Miniseries/TV:
- Pride & Prejudice (1995) w/ Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth <--- the most #iconic
- Orgulho e Paixão; super recent (2018?) adaptation/mashup of Austen novels in 20th century Brazil, not to mention older adaptations like Orgullo & Prejuicio (Spanish) & Orgoglio e pregiudizio (Italian)
- "Furst Impressions"; episode of Wishbone (a kid's show) where Darcy is a dog it's low key my fav
- Lizzie Bennet Diaries; youtube series
- Lost in Austen; the only thing i like from this is that caroline bingley is a lesbian
Novels:
- Bridget Jones' Diary + all the films that spawned from that
- Death Comes to Pemberley; murder mystery following end of P&P, also turned into a miniseries
- Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; only valuable b/c of the scene where (*spoiler*) lizzy boutta kill darcy
- Austenland; i mean,,, it's OK
- Eligible; i've never read but it's modern day and supposed 2 be good
- Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife; unfortunately spawned a whole series of novels (emphasis on "spawn")
Theatre/Musical:
- lots??? i don't know most
- Christmas at Pemberley; idk much but i heard it's fluffy
- Pride & Prejudice musical is in production!! :) can we get lin manuel-miranda on this pls
Exhibit C: Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Oooh ok, so this is a tough one. The 1995 P&P miniseries with Colin Firth is generally thought to be the "best" adaptation, partially because it very closely follows the canon. The 2005 movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen gets a lot of flak because it values the ~aesthetic~ and romantic over loyalty to Austen's plot (which it follows pretty well, honestly). A lot of people (re: my mom) complain that Knightley's Lizzy is "too modern," but like..... the character of Elizabeth Bennet was pretty "modern" for Austen's time anyhow? (Also my mom didn't actually even read P&P... like Susan I don't think ur the greatest authority on the subject sorry not sorry.) Much of the backlash tends to come from fans of the 1995, who can't bear to think that another adaptation could come close to their fav.
ANYWAY, on to the topic I was supposed to talk about: intellectual property. I'd always thought that authors/creators who were vehemently against fan adaptations of their works were especially afraid of getting trashy fics or erotic content associated with their original works, especially if these adaptations were published and profited the other person. (It's like a group presentation where you do all the work, and all your teammates get As too even though they BS'ed thru the powerpoint slides you wrote for them.) Even so, the hypothetical "other person" did do work, and created something. The problem isn't just about who owns it and/or who gets the money; if the adaptation is truly "trash" in the original author's eyes, they might not even want it to exist.
According to this JASNA article, Austen made less than $11,000 from P&P (she sold the copyright for a fairly low amount, not anticipating the novel becoming a hit). Her lifetime earnings were around $67,000. Austen is hella dead, and her works are in the public domain. If it IS fair to profit off of her, it seems like it can't be fair that only SOME are allowed to. Pride and Prejudice (2005) grossed $121 million by riding the Austenmania wave. But fans still get reprimanded for taking scenes from the movie (or other adaptations) to create fanvids and other content. Austen no longer belongs to Austen, but it doesn't entirely belong to her fans either. Her work lives on, but at what cost?
(p.s. thank u for listening 2 my ted talk)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*There's this moment where the assembly hall is overrun by zombies, and the Bennet squad casually slices em all in a fun bloody montage. Meanwhile, Darcy (zombie-hunter extraordinaire) and sweet, sweet Bingley are standing awkwardly to the side, watching instead of fighting for reasons unknown. THEN Darcy's killer line comes: "Her [Lizzy's] face is rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes" *cue Lizzy slicing a zombie* "and I'm forced to acknowledge her figure as both light and pleasing." Y'all. He's monologging. Bingley turns to him with a why tf are you telling me this? "her arms are surprisingly muscular yet not so much as to be unfeminine." Darcy,,, PAL,,, I love Lizzy too but what? r u ok?
**Keep in mind these are only the most famous/major P&P adaptations -- prepare urself
Films:
- Pride & Prejudice (1940) w/ Laurence Olivier & Greer Garson
- Pride & Prejudice (2005) w/ Keira Knightley (the Love of my Life) & Matthew Macfadyen
- Bride & Prejudice; bollywood P&P + a Bop
- Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; (also a ""book"") charles bingley is cute & the bennet sibs r cute and the rest of the movie is tRASH
- Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy; modern day in Utah (imagine a crack vid but made movie-length)
- Austenland; movie is wayyyyyyyy better than the book??
Miniseries/TV:
- Pride & Prejudice (1995) w/ Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth <--- the most #iconic
- Orgulho e Paixão; super recent (2018?) adaptation/mashup of Austen novels in 20th century Brazil, not to mention older adaptations like Orgullo & Prejuicio (Spanish) & Orgoglio e pregiudizio (Italian)
- "Furst Impressions"; episode of Wishbone (a kid's show) where Darcy is a dog it's low key my fav
- Lizzie Bennet Diaries; youtube series
- Lost in Austen; the only thing i like from this is that caroline bingley is a lesbian
Novels:
- Bridget Jones' Diary + all the films that spawned from that
- Death Comes to Pemberley; murder mystery following end of P&P, also turned into a miniseries
- Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; only valuable b/c of the scene where (*spoiler*) lizzy boutta kill darcy
- Austenland; i mean,,, it's OK
- Eligible; i've never read but it's modern day and supposed 2 be good
- Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife; unfortunately spawned a whole series of novels (emphasis on "spawn")
Theatre/Musical:
- lots??? i don't know most
- Christmas at Pemberley; idk much but i heard it's fluffy
- Pride & Prejudice musical is in production!! :) can we get lin manuel-miranda on this pls
