anghraine: vader extending his lightsaber; text: and now for the airing of grievances! (Default)
Anghraine ([personal profile] anghraine) wrote2019-10-27 02:11 pm

Tumblr crosspost (25 September 2019)

An anon asked:

What do you think of the genre of the “Pride and Prejudice variations” literary genre? Not the out-there ones like “P&P and Zombies,” but the realistic “what-if”/“for want of a nail” variations (e.g. “Darcy and Elizabeth are trapped together by a blizzard in a cottage,” or “Elizabeth never goes to Pemberley and doesn’t meet Darcy again until they’re middle aged”). So many have been published.

I said:

Hmm. Intellectually, I’m pretty indifferent.

I mean—of course, it’s out of copyright, and I do appreciate going back to the tradition of repurposing and rearranging stories. I don’t personally care for most that I’ve looked at, but I don’t personally care for most readings of Austen, so whatever.

I’m enough of a traditionalist, though, that my kneejerk reaction is “ack!” at the prospect of just up and publishing your AU fics (as many of them are). I’m not sure why it feels different than publishing canon-compliant fiction (which I have done myself), but it does.

It’s fine, though. Just not my thing.