PPZ used

I want to buy a used copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Here's why.

I've been thinking about the book that many are calling a "literary mash-up" and why it makes me angry. I didn't like how my anger suggested that I was a defensive Austen purist (whatever that might mean), since I believe that good scholars should be open-minded and curious.

This evening I figured out what was actually bothering me about the phenomenon:

The new author is making 100% of the money off a work where he contributes 10% of the text.

Fuck that.

Considering how much trouble Austen had finding a publisher (an early version of Pride and Prejudice was rejected; she had to buy back her manuscript of Northanger Abbey for £10 when the publisher who had bought the rights decided not to publish it), it kind of sucks to see someone else capitalizing (in both senses of the word) on her popularity. I think that it does take skill to mash two or more things together in an interesting way (see: The Grey Album; Girl Talk), but in the examples I list, there is much more manipulation, reworking, and fragmentation. Perhaps I am adhering to a stricter definition of the mash-up than most, but I can't help feel that PPZ's experiments in mixing multiple forms is as exploitative as it is creative.

But if I buy my copy used, then my money does not go to the publisher or the author at all, but the bookstore. And if I buy it at a used book store in town (i.e., not online), then at least I would be supporting a local business.

And if anyone out there wants to sell me their used copy, let me know.