Mashups

Posted: April 6, 2012 by zombieprofessor in Literary criticism
Tags: ,

The Wall Street Journal looks at mashups going mainstream with a feature article focusing on Seth Grahame-Smith, best known for “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer.”

Mr. Grahame-Smith wasn’t the first writer to put a bizarre spin on a classic tale (arguably, Shakespeare was a skilled practitioner of genre remixing). But he’s become the mash-up movement’s modern avatar. His irreverent literary reboot landed at precisely the right cultural moment. In recent years, digital remixing and sampling—once viewed as derivative at best and illegal at worst—has grown widespread in music, film, television and fine art. Mash-ups are no longer just kitschy parodies. Literary writers like Colson Whitehead and Michael Chabon have experimented with horror and science-fiction themes. A zombie-infused Regency romance doesn’t sound so ludicrous in today’s mash-up rich environment.

I’ve written before about mashups. The public acceptance of genre-bending is refreshing, and the critics clearly lack imagination. That’s why we know the time is right for Zombielanche, a climate change/zombie mashup feature film.

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