Today's Topic...I was perusing the publishers' remainders table at my local bookstore today (still looking for that damn book, damnit!) and guess what I found?! No, not Jane Austen! I found myself reminded of why the girly flowery/chick lit/blah genre bothers me. Admittedly, I was on the lookout for a particular volume of vapid trash--or at least not expecting much from the pile. Occasionally there is a gem in the front of store sales area, but not too frequently. In this case, I found a number of published versions of Jane Austen fan fiction. Oh, how little I think of these books. Jane Austen is dead, and yet she is not allowed to sleep in peace because people are constantly writing poor parodies of her work! Madness inducing, that is. What is so hard about writing your own characters and putting them in the regency setting? Many people have--why shouldn't a few more? So, after being slightly miffed about that, I moved along and saw a few more things. I bought something by Alexander McCall Smith, and almost bought a biography of Flaubert but I've only read Madame Bovary thus far so I don't know if a biography is necessary. However! I went into another aisle and found something interesting--interesting in theory and also interesting to some informal research my oldest friend and I are doing for a project.
The book is...
Vapid trash? Presumably! And isn't she taking someone else's set up and making it her own? Hell, yes. But she puts her own twist on Boccaccio's idea and only uses the format! So, I bought the book at a reduced rate (Would I pay regular price for such a thing? Definitely not), and it is available for perusal if desired.
Isn't it such a decisive day for me? Definitely don't like published Jane Austen fan fiction, definitely want realtors to stop touring the house, and am definitely taking the dog out before it rains.
Everyone could use a biography of Flaubert. I bet he was an interesting man!
ReplyDeleteI guess fan fiction sells? Doesn't Ms. Austen have an estate who can keep tabs on this sort of thing? That's what estates are for - that, and riding the eternal coattails and continuing to financially leech off of someone who has been dead for decades... or in this case, centuries.
Very excited about the spa Decameron, I am! Let's see if the concept is as cool as ... as... is it a secret? It might be a secret! Well then, let's see how cool this spa Decameron is!