98
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
motto. The endpapers feature elaborate decorative floral patterns. Taking the
slipcover off, which has a grainy mock-parchment or mock-vellum structure,
the reader can touch a brownish morocco leathery vintage used-look cover
style. Add to this mock-nineteenth-century bookbinding travesty the Star
Wars logo with a visible “registered trademark” sign. As proudly announced
on Amazon and the Quirk Books website blurb, all of the three Star Wars
trilogy rewritings in Shakespearean style are now available in a “bibliophilic”
boxed set, which comes in a slipcase and includes “an 8-by-34-inch fullcolor poster illustrating the complete cast and company of this glorious
production.” 36 The Bertocci paperback, though less elaborate and clearly less
invested in gesturing towards the book binding process of bygone bibliophilic
heydays, also has the signature iconography of Hamlet transformed into
the vestiges of the Dude (clad into bowling outfit and sunglasses; cartwheel
scruff, doublet and hose intact) and likewise offers some heraldic scrollwork:
the media protocol here signals antiquity, respectability, importance, etc.
The Deluxe Heirloom Edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies flaunts
elaborate typography, red headbands, decoratively printed, mock-antique
endpapers, gilded letterings, a ribbon page marker, and a relief structure.
It also features the inevitable – in this case zombified – James Andrews
portrait of Austen in an oval frame, suggesting a Georgian miniature (Figure
4.1). Just as the grumpy look of the pencil and watercolor portrait by Jane
Austen’s sister Cassandra – the only “authenticated” portrait – was prettified
by Andrews, the zombified Austen (or, implicitly, Elizabeth Bennet) portrait
exposes the bloodshot eyes, neck bones, jawbones, and drops of blood on
the empire dress, but gets rid of the frilly cap and exhibits traces of thinner
contemporary Lizzie and Austen impersonators such as Anne Hathaway,
Jennifer Ehle, or Keira Knightley.
The edition also includes an afterword by Allen Grove, Professor of English
at Alfred University, New York. Grove “justifies” the mashup in a feeble
argument that links Seth Grahame-Smith’s remix with the Gothic horror
parodies and pastiches of Austen’s romantic contemporaries. 37 We can
conclude that mashers, though firmly embedded in popular culture, revel
in pastiche bibliophilia. They either parody literary culture and/or suggest
a half-hidden desire to be taken seriously by book lovers, literati, and even
36 “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Trilogy: The Royal Imperial Boxed Set,” product
page on QuirkBooks.com, accessed November 22, 2016, www.quirkbooks.com/book/
william-shakespeares-star-wars-trilogy.
37 Allen Grove, afterword to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition,
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books, 2009).
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
motto. The endpapers feature elaborate decorative floral patterns. Taking the
slipcover off, which has a grainy mock-parchment or mock-vellum structure,
the reader can touch a brownish morocco leathery vintage used-look cover
style. Add to this mock-nineteenth-century bookbinding travesty the Star
Wars logo with a visible “registered trademark” sign. As proudly announced
on Amazon and the Quirk Books website blurb, all of the three Star Wars
trilogy rewritings in Shakespearean style are now available in a “bibliophilic”
boxed set, which comes in a slipcase and includes “an 8-by-34-inch fullcolor poster illustrating the complete cast and company of this glorious
production.” 36 The Bertocci paperback, though less elaborate and clearly less
invested in gesturing towards the book binding process of bygone bibliophilic
heydays, also has the signature iconography of Hamlet transformed into
the vestiges of the Dude (clad into bowling outfit and sunglasses; cartwheel
scruff, doublet and hose intact) and likewise offers some heraldic scrollwork:
the media protocol here signals antiquity, respectability, importance, etc.
The Deluxe Heirloom Edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies flaunts
elaborate typography, red headbands, decoratively printed, mock-antique
endpapers, gilded letterings, a ribbon page marker, and a relief structure.
It also features the inevitable – in this case zombified – James Andrews
portrait of Austen in an oval frame, suggesting a Georgian miniature (Figure
4.1). Just as the grumpy look of the pencil and watercolor portrait by Jane
Austen’s sister Cassandra – the only “authenticated” portrait – was prettified
by Andrews, the zombified Austen (or, implicitly, Elizabeth Bennet) portrait
exposes the bloodshot eyes, neck bones, jawbones, and drops of blood on
the empire dress, but gets rid of the frilly cap and exhibits traces of thinner
contemporary Lizzie and Austen impersonators such as Anne Hathaway,
Jennifer Ehle, or Keira Knightley.
The edition also includes an afterword by Allen Grove, Professor of English
at Alfred University, New York. Grove “justifies” the mashup in a feeble
argument that links Seth Grahame-Smith’s remix with the Gothic horror
parodies and pastiches of Austen’s romantic contemporaries. 37 We can
conclude that mashers, though firmly embedded in popular culture, revel
in pastiche bibliophilia. They either parody literary culture and/or suggest
a half-hidden desire to be taken seriously by book lovers, literati, and even
36 “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Trilogy: The Royal Imperial Boxed Set,” product
page on QuirkBooks.com, accessed November 22, 2016, www.quirkbooks.com/book/
william-shakespeares-star-wars-trilogy.
37 Allen Grove, afterword to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition,
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books, 2009).