Zombies

New York City- Forbidden Planet a comic store located on 13th and University presents various new forms of literature you might have missed. You may have passed by it on the way to a more “legitimate” store for books The Strand just a block away. But next time take some time to stop by. You may find out there’s more the stores have more literary commonalities than you first thought.

If in fact you do stop by and don’t notice the rise of zombies, you’re probably hiding from their bloodthirsty quest to take over classic literary works. These mash-up novels combining literary works that are under public domain with pop culture monsters took off with the publication of Seth Grahame-Smith and co-author Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The book, which takes the classic, Pride and Prejudice story line and blending it together with exactly what the title stated, zombies, created an entirely new genre labeled mash-ups. The works however aren't what many would likely know as mash-ups. Instead of the musical mash-ups which in many cases are simply taking vocals from one song and combining them with the beat or music of another isn't the goal for these works of fiction. These mash-up authors try to stay away from simply putting two opposites together just to make something that sounds new.

"What many readers fail to realize is the complexity of the work that goes into creating a mash-up novel," says Zac Evan's, 23, a staff member of Forbidden Planet a New York City based comic store. "It's really opening up a new realm in which very modern ideas feed on classics.” There is a shifting in the way books are both written as well consumed.

What you can expect from a novel such as Grahame-Smith's is close attention to the original works with close to 80% of the books writing being that of Jane Austen. The mash-up isn't throwing away the original text completely but rather using it as the foundation on which the author builds a new and accurate portrayal of the novel, but inserting zombies made profound a literary statement. Jane Austen’s original is thought of as an untouchable work literature, but Smith’s incorporation of zombies made us aware that we need something more to keep these books alive for the reader. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a classic work of fiction that has been taught and re-taught, read and reread until the book has become just what Grahame-Smith has put in. We are constantly trying to keep these books alive for readers but it in doing so only make them undead and not truly alive as they once were.

The book as of April 9th, 2009 rose to the third spot on the New York Times best-seller list and the readers can expect a sequel as well as multiple other adaptations fro other classics by various authors. These works became a popular read which opened the floodgates to even more books from this genre being created. As the book’s popularity increased we saw a shift in how we can approach classic works of fiction. These literary mash-ups are not the only a new form of writing. With new ways of writing continuously being brought to life we need to question how literature is going to be revitalized and moved into the modern world.

It may come as no surprise that in Japan another literary shift is taking place. This movement is not about altering classics but how the books actually written. What have emerged are books written through text messaging. These full-fledged novels called keitai composed by the furious thumbs of young teens, which eventually turn into full-length hard copy books. What's even more astonishing is the success they’ve generated.

In fact according to the LA Times the 15 year old author known as "Bunny," a popular author for the genre has sold 110,000 copies of her book Wolf Boy x Natural Girl, and generated a gross income of $611,000. In fact, according to London’s The Independent, five of last years top ten selling novels in Japan were originally cell phone generated. The popularity of this new genre at first was thought to be un-noteworthy, but the rise and prevalence of them as legitimate works of fiction has propelled the genre to just as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies recreate how we think about writing and the consumption of literature.

"In a new modern culture we are ingesting both fiction and nonfiction alike in very different ways and it seems to be a very natural progression for writing," said Nkosi Bandele a literary professor at the New School University in New York, who went on further to talk about the necessity of creating new forms of writing in order to keep the art moving forward. That these works should be taken seriously whether or not they were written using another texts words or on a cell phone, each form has its merits and values.

These books, which can be read via cell phone, are just the cusps of a changing way in which books are being consumed. Now with the recent development of Kindle, an electronic device much like an ipod storing books and other texts digitally, making works more easily accessible and fitting to the modern reader. With each new form comes a new way to both interpret and read works both modern and old. Literature is changing and readers are eating it up.