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Ash
Joined: 11 Jul 2011
Posts: 160
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 Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:24 pm Post subject: Erotic Versions of Beloved Classics- Yay Or Nay? |
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I stumbled upon this article on facebook.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/oh-mr-darcy-pride-and-prejudice-among-classic-novels-to-receive-erotic-makeover-7946364.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=a2d071645e-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email[url]
I'm firmly in the Nay camp. Over time I'v come across innumerable stories inspired by these classics. I'v even read a few and enjoyed them but I think this is vastly different from racy sequels or rewrites using the same theme or even the same characters and setting.
Those novels are examples of authors using their own distinctive voice and imagination to write their own versions of a tale they loved, This however feels like rewriting literature as well as history.
Altering a classic just enough to accommodate sex scenes feels not only tawdry but foolish for in some cases it completely goes against the character or the over all feel of the book.
The line that this will introduce classics to a new generation is utter B.S, Classics are a genre themselves, By giving an erotic feel to it not intended by the original author they are mixing it up with another genre altogether and introducing this new generation to nothing but a botched mutated hybrid existing only because the evil publishing empire wanted to make more money 
I personally have nothing against erotica, I even admit to enjoying well written sex scenes in the books I read however I believe that classics should be left well and truly alone.
What do you guys think? |
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dick
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 2255
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| Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| I agree. I refuse to read them. |
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graceC
Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 440
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| Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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| I could barely tolerate the regular rewrites, and now there are racy versions too? Geez! Whatever happen to original work? |
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Linda in sw va
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 4708
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| Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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Well..I suppose it's better than the zombie versions, which my daughter likes to read along with the originals, haha.
Linda
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"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner |
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Elizabeth Rolls
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 1026
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Well..I suppose it's better than the zombie versions, which my daughter likes to read along with the originals, haha. |
You think. I have to admit I read Pride and Promiscuity, (parody sex scenes from Jane Austen), years ago with a very broad grin and some outright shrieks of laughter. Especially the scene from P&P involving Charlotte and Mr Collins. I thought the author had nailed it. So to speak.
This, however, just sounds like cashing in. I honestly can't see the point, let alone how they would make it work without cutting the originals to shreds.
I can't be bothered. If I enjoyed the original, then I enjoyed the original. I enjoy a good sex scene as much as anyone, and yeah, I write them, too. That doesn't mean I am incapable of enjoying a book without them.
I really don't like the idea of re-writing a book to somehow take account of modern sensibilities or tastes. Riffing on a favourite story, sure. No problem. But this doesn't feel like that. The excerpts don't even read well, let alone in the voices of the original authors. Yuck. No, thanks. Maybe there is a market, but I'm sure as hell not part of it.
Why, oh WHY, can't publishers resist the temptation to cash in on something like the Fifty Shades phenomenon? What this suggests is that the publisher thinks the only reason women are reading FOSOG is the sex scenes, and that therefore women will read any old sex scene in any old book, regardless of whether or not it is part of the story and character development. If it turns out there is a market, then I guess they're right.
Elizabeth |
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Amanda DeWees
Joined: 20 Apr 2012
Posts: 16
Location: Atlanta
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| Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Ash, I'm with you--this is a dreadful idea. And it's almost certainly going to destroy the story of the books they choose to meddle with. I saw that Jane Eyre is one of the novels mentioned; how are they going to add sex scenes to that, when Jane won't let Rochester get lovey-dovey with her even verbally during their engagement? And I pray they don't pick on Middlemarch--I would *not* want to see what Casaubon's like in bed. What a cheap, tacky money-grab on the part of these people. |
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MrsFairfax
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1065
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| Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:37 am Post subject: |
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I thought that's what Fan Fic was for.
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tuga
Joined: 09 Feb 2011
Posts: 64
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:49 am Post subject: |
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I guess it depends on how much affection I have for the book. Considering Pride and Prejudice, definitely NO. I absolutely love that book, I think after so many years reading fiction, this is the number 1 in my heart, I hated Colleen McCullough's version of that story, how could I see it in erotica? No, no.
****[/i] |
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bavarian
Joined: 16 Jul 2007
Posts: 160
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Just the thought is appalling! |
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6628
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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Years ago I read, "Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife" by Linda Berdoll and the next 2 books in that series. Although, not erotic they had a "warm" rating. Some sex scenes. I liked them for the most part. I just don't know if I'd be interested in very erotic version of classics, or at all, but I did enjoy the Berdoll books.
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride |
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erhea13
Joined: 01 Nov 2008
Posts: 114
Location: So Cal
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | Years ago I read, "Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife" by Linda Berdoll and the next 2 books in that series. Although, not erotic they had a "warm" rating. Some sex scenes. I liked them for the most part. I just don't know if I'd be interested in very erotic version of classics, or at all, but I did enjoy the Berdoll books. |
See, I read those too and enjoyed them (except for her treatment of Bingly and Jane - that pissed me off). But Berdoll picked up the story after they were married and explored them adjusting to married life, so the sex made sense. When I read the excerpt for P&P I cringed. There is no way Lizzy would have slept w/ Darcy during her first trip to Pemberly. They were still grappling with the truths of each others' personalities.
Frankly, the authors of these classics were brave and foreward thinking enough (and I am not a Bronte fan but I will give them credit here too) that if there was a reason for the characters to have sex, they would have. It would not have been explicit, but it would have been alluded to (and was in some cases, but did we really need read about Henry Crawford having sex with Maria to understand that they probably did?).
I agree with those saying that this has the feel of cashing in on the FSoG phenomenon without actually having to create something worth reading. If someone thinks that the classics need explicit sex, they should at least put forth the effort to rework them completely to have those scenes make sense . . . the article casts doubt on the willingness of these writers to actually put in some pure creative effort.
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"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal." - Jane Austen
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." - Jane Austen |
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erhea13
Joined: 01 Nov 2008
Posts: 114
Location: So Cal
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | Years ago I read, "Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife" by Linda Berdoll and the next 2 books in that series. Although, not erotic they had a "warm" rating. Some sex scenes. I liked them for the most part. I just don't know if I'd be interested in very erotic version of classics, or at all, but I did enjoy the Berdoll books. |
See, I read those too and enjoyed them (except for her treatment of Bingly and Jane - that pissed me off). But Berdoll picked up the story after they were married and explored them adjusting to married life, so the sex made sense. When I read the excerpt for P&P I cringed. There is no way Lizzy would have slept w/ Darcy during her first trip to Pemberly. They were still grappling with the truths of each others' personalities.
Frankly, the authors of these classics were brave and foreward thinking enough (and I am not a Bronte fan but I will give them credit here too) that if there was a reason for the characters to have sex, they would have. It would not have been explicit, but it would have been alluded to (and was in some cases, but did we really need read about Henry Crawford having sex with Maria to understand that they probably did?).
I agree with those saying that this has the feel of cashing in on the FSoG phenomenon without actually having to create something worth reading. If someone thinks that the classics need explicit sex, they should at least put forth the effort to rework them completely to have those scenes make sense . . . the article casts doubt on the willingness of these writers to actually put in some pure creative effort.
_________________
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal." - Jane Austen
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." - Jane Austen |
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erhea13
Joined: 01 Nov 2008
Posts: 114
Location: So Cal
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | Years ago I read, "Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife" by Linda Berdoll and the next 2 books in that series. Although, not erotic they had a "warm" rating. Some sex scenes. I liked them for the most part. I just don't know if I'd be interested in very erotic version of classics, or at all, but I did enjoy the Berdoll books. |
See, I read those too and enjoyed them (except for her treatment of Bingly and Jane - that pissed me off). But Berdoll picked up the story after they were married and explored them adjusting to married life, so the sex made sense. When I read the excerpt for P&P I cringed. There is no way Lizzy would have slept w/ Darcy during her first trip to Pemberly. They were still grappling with the truths of each others' personalities.
Frankly, the authors of these classics were brave and foreward thinking enough (and I am not a Bronte fan but I will give them credit here too) that if there was a reason for the characters to have sex, they would have. It would not have been explicit, but it would have been alluded to (and was in some cases, but did we really need read about Henry Crawford having sex with Maria to understand that they probably did?).
I agree with those saying that this has the feel of cashing in on the FSoG phenomenon without actually having to create something worth reading. If someone thinks that the classics need explicit sex, they should at least put forth the effort to rework them completely to have those scenes make sense . . . the article casts doubt on the willingness of these writers to actually put in some pure creative effort.
_________________
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal." - Jane Austen
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." - Jane Austen |
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erhea13
Joined: 01 Nov 2008
Posts: 114
Location: So Cal
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | Years ago I read, "Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife" by Linda Berdoll and the next 2 books in that series. Although, not erotic they had a "warm" rating. Some sex scenes. I liked them for the most part. I just don't know if I'd be interested in very erotic version of classics, or at all, but I did enjoy the Berdoll books. |
See, I read those too and enjoyed them (except for her treatment of Bingly and Jane - that pissed me off). But Berdoll picked up the story after they were married and explored them adjusting to married life, so the sex made sense. When I read the excerpt for P&P I cringed. There is no way Lizzy would have slept w/ Darcy during her first trip to Pemberly. They were still grappling with the truths of each others' personalities.
Frankly, the authors of these classics were brave and foreward thinking enough (and I am not a Bronte fan but I will give them credit here too) that if there was a reason for the characters to have sex, they would have. It would not have been explicit, but it would have been alluded to (and was in some cases, but did we really need read about Henry Crawford having sex with Maria to understand that they probably did?).
I agree with those saying that this has the feel of cashing in on the FSoG phenomenon without actually having to create something worth reading. If someone thinks that the classics need explicit sex, they should at least put forth the effort to rework them completely to have those scenes make sense . . . the article casts doubt on the willingness of these writers to actually put in some pure creative effort.
_________________
"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal." - Jane Austen
"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." - Jane Austen |
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6628
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| erhea13 wrote: |
See, I read those too and enjoyed them (except for her treatment of Bingly and Jane - that pissed me off). But Berdoll picked up the story after they were married and explored them adjusting to married life, so the sex made sense. When I read the excerpt for P&P I cringed. There is no way Lizzy would have slept w/ Darcy during her first trip to Pemberly. They were still grappling with the truths of each others' personalities.
. |
I can't remember what she did with Bingly and Jane. I read these so many years ago, but you are correct in saying that she picked up the story after they married. I really enjoyed the first book. Thought the sex wasn't erotic, but certainly hot enough.
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride |
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