Interview with Ben Winters, Author of Android Karenina and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Inquiring readers: Ben H. Winters bravely left a comment on my in-depth analysis of his new steam punk mashup, Android Karenina. I was verklempt. Imagine, a famous author visiting my humble blog! I am still waiting, but in the meantime, Ben was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Hi Ben: Thank you for agreeing to participate in this Q&A. I must say that you made a fan out of me when you left that gracious comment on my blog.

Even though I was unable to complete more than one paragraph in the first Chapter of Android Karenina, I thought that you managed to capture an amazing amount of angst and subtext in the opening lines. Did you want readers to learn anything from your book?

Well, yes and no. First and foremost, it’s a work of popular entertainment, so the goal is for readers to have a good time -- to laugh, to be drawn in by the characters and pulled along by the story.

At the same time, there is some food for thought to be had here, if a reader is up for it. For example, Tolstoy’s original is full of anxiety about how technologies like the steam engine and the telegraph are transforming society. By vastly accelerating the pace of that technological change, and deepening the violence that surrounds it, I’ve juiced that anxiety, and (potentially) asked the reader to consider how rapid technological innovation is changing our contemporary society.

You should try reading it again. The second paragraph is amazing.

Yes, er, *cough.* What did you do before you began to write mashups?

Punk rock bass player, record-store clerk, ice cream scooper, transcriptionist, essayist, movie concession stand guy, small businessman, journalist, playwright, lyricist/librettist, cat-sitter. Although I was such a bad cat-sitter that I ended up in small claims court. Long story.

Quirk Books covers are fantastic, as are the pen and ink drawings inside their books. Do you have any say over the artists?

Zero, but I’m totally smitten with their work. Both Doogie Horner, who designs the books, and Eugene Smith, who does the illustrations, are total geniuses. As a rule, authors are disappointed with the art of their books -- I am the enthusiastic exception to that rule.

Did you develop those incredibly inventive reader's discussion guide questions or did it take a village?

No, that’s me (and thanks!). With both Sea Monsters and Android, the “discussion guide” was the last thing I wrote, and it was so much fun. Also quite liberating to write in my own voice, after a few hundred pages of trying to channel someone else.

When Android Karenina makes the Oprah book club, how do you think you will handle all that fame and mulah?

My plan will be to tell Oprah some outrageous lie, like I was raised by a family of crack-addicted wombats or whatever, so that I can later go back on the show and beg her forgiveness, thereby doubling my national television exposure.

Now, let's turn to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. How DARE you transform Colonel Brandon's handsome visage into a Regency version of calamari sushi? *Stamps foot*

I have to say, the vast majority of Jane Austen fans have been enthusiastic about Sea Monsters -- but if there’s one thing that causes you folks to get your complicated 18th-century undergarments in a bunch, it’s Brandon’s face.

For the record, it was Austen who made the poor guy rheumatic and awkward and so terribly, terribly old (“on the wrong side of five-and-thirty”) All so Marianne can learn an important lesson about true love; all I did was put a fine point on that lesson. A fine, writhing, squishy, tentacled point.

Well, Ben, I must admit that was a pretty lame answer, but nevertheless I think you have charmed a host of Jane Austen fans. Thanks for being such a good sport. May you be able to purchase many Class I and Class II robots with the sales of your mashups.

Thank you! I think people like me write books like this for the same reason you take the time and energy to write a blog like yours: Because we take joy in literature.

Yes, we do have that joy in common! One last question. Do you have any interest in dating my niece? She makes Cameron Diaz look ordinary.

Sounds great. Let me just run it by my wife.

More on the topic:

• Order Android Karenina at this Quirk Books link
• Jane Austen's World review of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• Ben's humble abode (and cute kid)

Author Ben Winters on Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Well, at least he is having fun with the concept.

Seen on the Blogosphere

Jane Austen Films: If you've wondered which Jane Austen movie adaptations you've seen and missed, here's a nice synopsis of recent films compiled by The Telegraph.

Little Dorrit: These candid images of Claire Foy and Matthew MacFadyen taken on the set of Little Dorrit are posted on her fan site.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters has been published and is garnering such erudite comments as "it's a hoot." This review from the Journal Star sums the book up nicely. Ben H. Winters, the book's author, wrote "This Scene Could Really Use a Man-eating Jelly Fish: How I wrote Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" for Slate.com. Look for our reviews of this Oceanic adaptation of Jane's beloved work to come out soon.

Jane Can Take It: The Guardian Theatre blog comes up with this conclusion in a piece entitled: "Pornography and prejudice: Jane Austen's dirty talk is a sweet affair": "As Jonathan Jones wrote last week, classic literature can take whatever we throw at it. He was referring to Oscar Wilde's work, but the same goes for Jane Austen, who has had more thrown at her than most. She may never have envisaged a starring role in a play alongside a pair of snogging naked men, but I can't help thinking that she would have had a good chuckle about it all: the good humour, wit and wisdom of her books suggest that she wouldn't have taken any of this too seriously."

Has Quirk Classics Gone Too Far? Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

The follow-up to Quirk Books' best seller, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' is ... Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. The book expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As the story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon.



Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This creative portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest-and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love! (Irreference)

Ben H. Winters, the coauthor of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (Jane Austen is the primary author) is a writer based in Brooklyn. The book will be in stores on 9/15/09. For more information, visit this link: www.quirkclassics.com. Video written and directed by Ransom Riggs, and stars Martin Roe and Michelle Page. Grand Central Press will soon publish Seth Grahame-Smith's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."


So, gentle reader, please give us your opinions. Has Quirk Classics gone too far? Or is this all a lark and just in fun? Here are our opinions:

Austenprose: Reflections Upon the Death of Jane Austen and Civility

Jane Austen's World: Jane Austen's Legacy: Precious Bits of Ivory Turned Into Monsters