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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: ZWN’s Exclusive Interview with Seth Grahame-Smith

In an exclusive interview with Seth Grahame-Smith, Marcel-Jean “Dangermouse” Sarfati of Zombie Watch Network asked him some questions about both his book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the original Pride and Prejudice. He also threw a couple of extraneous questions at him to see if he could keep his cool (and he did).

ZWN: In PPZ the zombies are called unmentionables. Where does the name come from?
SG-S: The name actually comes from a TV show I worked on about underwear. I worked on a special for A&E about 10 years ago called Unmentionables which was about the history of underwear and the name was stuck and when I was looking for a euphemism to use for the zombies it seemed natural. That’s where it comes from.

ZWN: What do you think of people who aren’t fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but they are fans of this book? Do you think they are bandwagoners?

SG-S: No, I just think there are people who have a perception of what Jane Austen’s books are like and they feel like they’re going to be bored to tears. But you throw in some zombies and all of a sudden they’re ready to come to the table. I’ve met people today that said they’d never read Jane Austen, but they’ve read this and now they love Jane Austen. I think there’s people who were a little put off by the whole idea of reading a Jane Austen novel.

ZWN: You said you did some zombie prep, you watched a lot of movies?

SG-S: Yeah, I watched a lot. Well it wasn’t really necessary for this book, but I watched stuff I had floating around the house. I watched Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and I watched Night of the Living Dead (which is the best Zombie movie ever). That was my prep, but this stuff was already floating around in my head because I’ve been a fan of the genre forever.

ZWN: Elizabeth Bennett, fickle or just confused?

SG-S: I think Elizabeth Bennett is…she’s fickle. She’s not confused. In this book she’s just a bride of death. She doesn’t think that she can be a bride of death and a bride of man at the same time. Her priorities are sort of set, she’s a protector of England first and a woman second and so in this version she gets to cut loose.

ZWN: No chance of zombie goodness for Persuasion or Mansfield Park?

SG-S: No. I’m sure because of the success of this book you’re going to see a lot of this mash up stuff coming out. I’m sure other Jane Austen books are going to come out eventually. I wish all those people well, it’s just that because of the success of this book I have an opportunity to do something different.

ZWN: Who’s the hottest in Pride and Prejudice– Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty or Lydia?

SG-S: Well I think Jane is beautiful. Elizabeth is hot and Lydia is just crazy.

ZWN: In a non-homosexual way, Mr. Darcy—hot or not hot?

SG-S: For real hot! Sizzling hot! Smoking hot!

ZWN: Do zombies really make everything better?

SG-S: Not musicals, because they don’t really sing well.

ZWN: John Mc Cain—human or zombie?

SG-S: Formerly zombie, perhaps among the human once again.

ZWN: Do you consider yourself a zombie expert?

SG-S: No, definitely not.  A zombie fan, a zombie lover, a zombie sympathizer, but not an expert.

ZWN: If Z-Day were to happen, do you have a plan?

SG-S: Absolutely I have a plan, this is for real too. I guess I can give it away because zombies can’t really read and so they wouldn’t really figure this out. I am going to the outlets on the freeway on the way out to Palm Springs. The Cabazon or whatever they’re called. Just for remoteness and for shopping purposes.

ZWN: Brains— delicious or gross?

SG-S: Delicious, absolutely.

ZWN: Who do you think makes the greatest zombie slayer dead or alive?

SG-S: The greatest Zombie slayer dead or alive, well I’d have to say Elizabeth Bennett. Gotta say Elizabeth Bennett because now it’s a fair thing to say.

ZWN: What country has better zombies, the U.S. or England?

SG-S: It’s apples and oranges. U.S. has better funny zombies, UK has better scary zombies. It’s the rage zombies that are all the rage over there (no pun intended) and over here we do the slow stupid zombies better than anybody.

ZWN: You seem very political. Would you like to tell us about the Huffington Post or the Dept. of Homeland Apology?

SG-S: My posts speak for themselves. I guess I used to think of myself as a bleeding heart, but now I think of myself as a bleeding brain after the zombie novel. I’m a politically interested person, but I don’t like to think of myself as one party or another or one idea or another.

ZWN:  Why are you not on Wikipedia yet?

SG-S: That’s a great question, you’d think that now with a best-selling book somebody out there would write a Wikipedia entry, but I don’t know. I’m fond of writing my own, but that’s cheating, submitting your own Wikipedia is cheating. So I’m going to continue to wait.

ZWN: Jane Austen is buried in England. I was there 2 weeks ago at her tomb. I thought I heard some noise, like a rolling sound.  Any comments?

SG-S: The comment is I’m going to run for my life because if she’s coming for anybody right now, it’s definitely me.

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Tags: Jane Austen, janeites, pride and prejudice, pride and prejudice and zombies, seth grahame-smith