The Racquette

Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: A&E

Mr. Darcy is a zombie, Ophelia is on Facebook, and Romeo and Juliet love Disney's High School Musical. As old becomes new, classic literature has become re-vamped by other authors.

This style of parody can be argued to be something that as been mimicked for decades, a notable recreation being the musical West Side Story, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 1950's New York City. Many people find this to be the cycle of the creative process, perhaps showing that it's all been done before.

While many people might find the twisted titles to be a little obnoxious, some find the books to be cleverly quixotic: "As long as they produce an original piece, and are able to keep what was great about the original, then I think they're okay," remarked junior professional writing major Jason Koumourdas.

While the changed content of the books are subject to debate by many, it wouldn't hurt to check out the new "classics" of the 21 Century. Titles such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies boast taglines such as: "The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem," in an attempt to seduce the curious reader.

Through the timeless novel was written by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith shows how modern day myths can be translated to regency England. The story follows Elizabeth Bennet, who is a warrior ahead of her time. Can Mr. Darcy be the man to finally beat her? In a world where noblemen turn into zombies, there can only be one to win the most handsome zombie in the land.

As an Austen reader, you may be a little surprised about such a change in the original text. It's a little like Jane Austen being attacked by the zombies from the Dawn of the Dead movies. Zombie madness just in time for tea, a rousing read.

If you are in fact not interested in the lives of "zombie Darcy," then perhaps you would like to follow him on Facebook? If so, the book for you is Ophelia Joined the Group of Maidens Who Don't Float, in the Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook series by Sarah Schmelling. Would you "friend request your favorite literary persona? This is basically Sparknotes translated to Facebook apps. As a student, this may be helpful when you are too lazy to read the book. Even the biggest literature fan will laugh at the things beloved characters do, such as the update "Rhett Butler doesn't give a damn."

Or as a reader, you could move on to Twitter, and read about the next biggest networking site shown in Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less, by Alexander Aciman, Emmett Rensin. Through this quirky classic twist, literature has become quite "twitty." While this book is not as well known as the previously mentioned, it shows how classic novels can be condensed into 150 characters or less. Over all, this has received positive reviews on many sites.

Either way, Literature will be tweaked and changed to fit a society's norms as long as literature exists. Maybe the fact that Mr. Darcy can be a zombie makes the story even more timeless. Maybe Juliet singing from a fire escape reminds us all of the lovesick little girl we all have been. Or maybe we feel better about having a Facebook if Hamlet is our buddy.

Whatever the reason is, classics will always come back. The best part of re-vamped classics is how they fit into anything the author wants. The sky is definitely the limit.

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