Today’s headline on our hitlist: Classical Literature to get Erotic Makeovers.
Personally, I think this is an outrage. I have nothing against Erotic Literature: each to their own. What I do have a problem with is a publisher deciding she (or he) has the right to effectively steal the works of dead authors and rewrite them to include sexual scenes when obviously the book is not supposed to contain such scenes. And those authors are no longer around to defend themselves or their precious work.
The example that got me most riled was a passage from the ‘re-writing’ of Jane Eyre;
‘My master captured my wrists and secured them behind my back, imprisoning me and preventing my movements’
‘How I yearned for his mastery’
Anyone who has read Jane Eyre will see what I mean: Jane fights fiercely against the patriachal society, wanting to be Rochester’s equal and refusing to even marry him, despite their passionate love for each other, until he considers her as such. But now she is ‘yearn[ing] for his mastery’!? It is ridiculous! They could at least read the book before attempting to defile it!
Meanwhile the tragic star-crossed love story explored in Wuthering Heights is spiced up by bondage sessions between the star-crossed lovers. You know, they can’t be together because of status and family, but they have time for a quickie out of wedlock in the backroom. Also, Sherlock Holmes is rolling in the sheets with Dr Watson! Now I love a good homosexual romance, but I don’t think a “Meanwhile whilst Holmes’ brain worked on the case, I worked on him” counts as a ‘good romance’, do you?
If you ask me all this ‘Eve Sinclair’ wants to do is put her name alongside that of the famous authors of history in order to gain fame and money from their works. It doesn’t matter if she ruins the book’s original message, destroys the author’s integrity or turns the characters into kinky porn stars, as long as she gets recognised. Meanwhile honest hard working writers try to make their way into the dragons den that is the writing industry by writing their own original work. Oh sorry, is that a little too old fashioned now?
Well… that’ll be the end of my rant before I get too carried away…
Signing off furiously,
roselaurel.
p.s This is that start of what may be a series of ‘Headline Assassinations’ that will not contain a poem. Hope you enjoy, please don’t hesitate to leave your opinion at the bottom of the page where it says ‘comments’ – I would love to hear it!
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