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• 1 media/PPZDeluxe_Cover_72dpi copy.jpg media/zombie.jpg 2017-11-16T07:27:52-08:00 Then There Were Zombies 35 image_header 2017-12-15T10:14:49-08:00      Just as there are attempts at remaining true to the original work, there are also reproductions which alter the true meanings. This is seen by the 2016 film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, originally a novel of the same name. Right from the beginning, it is clear that this movie edition will not be like the classic story. Incorporating zombies into this world distorts the authenticity of the piece because it essentially creates a new plot based off of the original. It is no longer the same especially when science fiction is introduced into a world of romance fiction. Not only is the "aura" disrupted but the "spirit" of the book is as well once the main character is changed. Elizabeth Bennet is still the honest and stubborn woman who keeps Mr. Darcy anxious, but this time her focus is not on finding a decent man. It is now on destroying the zombies who threaten the humans' existence. 
  
      One of the most prominent lines from the original book is, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife," but when it is showed in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies version, it is altered to "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of brains." By playing off the original eight words, the movie tried to keep that original concept but the uniqueness can no longer be retained once it is changed into something completely different. In the novel and the 2005 movie version, this line refers to marriage and the intricacies of courtship, while the zombie rendition is a another concept all together. 
  
      To the left is a glimpse at the very first page of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with a side by side comparison to the original. It is important to see the two texts next to each other because it highlights the differences. Although some of the wording is kept the same, there are inclusions that never existed before in the zombies rendition. This line, ""Woman, I am attending to my musket. Prattle on if you must, but leave me to the defense of my estate," is a clear example of this ability to alter the story but keeping the personality of Mr. Bennet in tact. 
  
      The quirks of the original novel are still present throughout. Mrs. Bennet is still attempting to get all of her daughters married off and Elizabeth is still adament to not marry. The present and still annoying Mr. Collins wants to marry Elizabeth and her personality is held true when she stubbornly refuses him again. One of the most important parts to the novel, is when Lizzie goes to see her ill-fallen sister Jane because it sets up the next chance encounter between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Of course in the zombie edition, Jane has to be fighting zombies and is suspected to possibly have been bitten by one; thus, giving Elizabeth the reason to travel to Mr. Bingley's estate. 
  
       Despite the story line following the same pattern, this movie distracts from the authenticity. Although the zombies are used as secondary characters, they find their way into being the center of attention; therefore, the story is distorted by drawing the focus away from Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. It seems as if the two main characters have become supporting players in a much larger story. The same ideas are there but the "aura" is missing leaving the viewers with a sense that this is an entirely different story resulting in a derivative of the original.
• 1 media/JA.jpg media/pp.jpg 2017-12-05T15:41:42-08:00 Pride and Prejudice 23 image_header 547260 2017-12-15T07:58:16-08:00         The novel, Pride and Prejudice, written in the late 1700's, focuses on the Bennet family and their quest to find gentleman suitors for their five daughters. A task that proves to be much more difficult than intended when the eldest, Elizabeth, refuses to settle down with just anybody. She is strong willed, ahead of her time, and an intelligent young woman that stands apart from the rest of female society by choosing her own path and having a voice. It is these qualities of Elizabeth Bennet that controlled the plot of the story, and these characteristics have to be retained in order for the reproductions to resemble anything close to the original work. To showcase how the authenticity of a text can be retained when reproduced into a film adaptation, the 2005 movie version of Pride and Prejudice will be analyzed. A movie with modern technology but with most, if not all, of the Elizabethan verbiage brings the true words of Jane Austen to a culture who has grown accustomed to slang language. This steadfast technique in keeping the proper English words as correct as possible, allows for the idea of the story to remain intact while keeping the connotations as well. 
         
          It is these little aspects of the film which are the constant reminders of the novel.  When lines such as this "Perhaps these offences might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest.." are kept the same, it helps for the "aura" and for the meanings to still ring true in the reproductions. However, just as there are word for word lines throughout the movie, there are also lines that have been altered for the modern audience to understand the meaning. For example, from the original novel the following line read as, "You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you," while the 2005 movie version states it as, "All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony." These two lines are very different but still have the same idea of expressing Mr. Darcy's feelings towards Elizabeth but the 2005 version is talking about the agony he has been, while the original makes no mention of pain. This is where the reproduction can affect the understandings of the piece because by changing one line, the drive behind Mr. Darcy's confession does not seem as passionately genuine anymore.
  
  
  
   

  "The shooting of a film, especially of a sound film, affords a spectacle unimaginable anywhere at any time before this."

  
  
  
        What the film does differently than the novel is that it invites us into a world, laid out in front of us, without having to use effort to imagine it in our minds. Not only does the movie stick to the turn of the 18th century with the proper wardrobe and obsession over achieving a proper marriage, it invokes the true sense of the "aura." Walter Benjamin explains the "aura" as "the symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art," and this is just what Jane Austen did with this novel. Pride and Prejudice has been remediated multiple times since the mid 1900's because of its universal appeal, clearly stating that it's meanings or connotations stretch past the limits of time. It is this special aspect that has to be kept in the reproductions or else they will lose the authenticity. If the authenticity is lost, then the history is questioned; therefore leading to the power or "authority" of the novel being dismantled.  Thus suggesting that “the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning.”