CRIME ON MY MIND

Say it isn't so!

The Fifty Shades of ka-ching has struck again! In an early morning CBC radio interview today, a book columnist from Toronto was discussing the erotification (did I make this word up?) of the classics. Imagine! Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice now presented with eroticism leaping from its pages. I can think of nothing sadder.

Surely there are enough hot historical romances, many x-rated, on the shelves at the moment. Why resort to re-writing the classics? Money, that's why. They're in the public domain; E.L. James of Fifty Shades fame is accumulating royalties as fast as Rowling; and, everyone wants a piece of that pie. In other words, no...nothing is sacred anymore.

One fact that was pointed out, however, was with e-books, trends are exploited much faster. In traditional publishing, anyone writing to take advantage of a trend might find that trend has changed by the time the novel is published.

Not these days. With e-books, riding the trend is just a short formatting away. Is this good or bad? Will we hit the point of over-saturation with each trend? Will we run out of trends at this rate?

Do we care?

I do. If you can't be creative enough to write your own novel then better stick to your day job. Just leave the classics alone!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012
www.erikachase.com

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Never mess with a classic!

A story in the Citizen earlier this week focused on the musical West Side Story and how its themes still resonate today. To illustrate, apparently a revival which played in Los Angeles last year had many in the audience in an uproar and left the director wondering what had gone wrong. He’d had no idea the updated libretto, with many of the songs now sung in Spanish, would cause so much distress to those attending.

But it didn’t and the lesson learned is never mess with a classic. Those attending wanted the same old, good old, wonderful old Broadway musical that had entertained audiences for decades.

I’d be of one mind with that audience. We can take comfort in what we’ve come to rely on be it music or books. Think about an update of Poe’s Murders on the Rue Morgue, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier , or Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Not going to happen.

That doesn’t mean that Sherlock Holmes won’t be spun out in many more pastiches. Or that there won’t be a succession of actors in the role of Miss Marple, each giving a slightly or largely different interpretation which then impacts the story.

And there is no copyright on themes or plots, so what’s new might not be totally so.

However, works by Poe are not going to be rewritten, nor are works by Christie, du Maurier or Hammett. And it’s a good thing. These authors have inspired successive new generations of mystery writers simply by remaining what they are. The classics.

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime
www.erikachase.com