I have a major guilty pleasure for Late Victorian science fiction (or scientific romance as they called it) and so I of course loved it. That felt like a given though.
Favourite line: "If he be Mr. Hyde," he had thought, "I shall be Mr. Seek."
What I want to talk about though is how pop culture almost creates a whole other - almost universally preferred - version of stuff like this. It was the same as when I read Frankenstein this summer: both were entirely different from what I expected because of how I'd come across them before.
For one thing, Mr. Hyde is always talked about like this Hulk-figure, big and brutish who smash but no talk English. But in the book he wasn't. I mean, he was a troglodyte (best word ever, ftr) as they put it, but he was also a dwarf and highly articulate. As for Frankenstein's monster, instead of grunting and moaning from the bolts in his neck, he also ended up being exceptionally articulate - enough to narrate his entire life story at the end in a classically dignified Victorian way.
So *adjusts hipster glasses*, how do these stories get patchworked from our false preconceived notions with overdramatized misrepresentations?
The movies of course :)
...well, and TV. And graphic novels. And probably other books making hyperbolic references to them too.
Not that that's bad - I think it's awesome how these characters evolve and have cropped up all across the media globe to make all their separate universes. It makes it that much more fun for writers to dip into the collective cauldron of characters while crafting their own stories.
_NRFPT_03.jpg)
Anyway, to throw it out there, what books have you read that have been nothing like you thought because of pop culture?
No comments:
Post a Comment