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beccastareyesSo, I picked this one up from anke who was getting rid of some books. The Eyre Affair takes place in an alternate late 20th century England where, among other things, people are obsessed with classics of literature and art. Most people have an opinion on things like who authored Shakespeare's plays, and it's enough that people can break into fist fights or political movements. The main character's hometown has a long-running community production of Richard III structured more like the showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show than any play I've seen. It's actually a bit like... well, a lot of Japanese action series where everyone knows a certain card game, or incorporates martial arts into their normal job, or has a job involving cute and trainable pet monsters.
There's also things like low-grade magic: the main character, Thursday's, father used to work for a secret government agency that took care of time problems and is now on the run trying to fix history (which he swears is broken) or just do useful things. Thursday also runs into a vampire/werewolf hunter, nicknamed Spike, though half of what he does seems to be reminding people to take their meds during 'that time of the month'. So it's more than just 'our world plus books'.
The plot is a book-based one: an arch-criminal has stolen a machine that lets people enter books and experience the setting first hand -- and their actions can alter the text. So, for instance, if I were to enter The Eyre Affair and butt into one of Thursday's conversations with her 'its complicated' ex-boyfriend, suddenly my copy would have the scene interrupted by a nosy American with opinions on Shakespeare. And, if I did something more drastic -- say, go into a shooting spree and kill half the characters -- then my book would probably suddenly end around then in a very unsatisfying way.
Now, Our Villain, having this machine, discovers that if he can get an original manuscript of a book, any changes he makes will affect all existing copies. So, for instance, when he drags a minor character from a Dickens work out of his book and kills him, suddenly every copy of that book lacks the paragraph describing that character, since he 'disappeared' before his brief appearance on the page. Of course, no one notices but some lit professors, which forces Our Villain to up the ante: if he doesn't get his demands met, he's going to destroy English literature by killing actual major characters. And, yes, that's where Jane Eyre comes in. (There's also some sequel baiting in that Thursday discovers some people -- including herself -- can enter books naturally: in fact, a Japanese woman makes a living taking other fans into Jane Eyre for tours.)
The plot was entertaining enough and I liked Thursday as a character, but the subplot between her and It's Complicated Ex bothered me. See, they got involved while both of them were serving in the military, but a fiasco of a battle ended up with Thursday as a hero, and ICX saying that Thursday's brother, also serving, basically fucked up and contributed to the fiasco, which Thursday took personally. As part of the plot, Thursday returns home and ICX is involved with another woman but is kind of feeling Thursday out for 'I still carry a torch for you, what about you?'. Thursday doesn't figure all this out and forgive him until after she tells him no and he plans on marrying the other woman -- mostly for stability and having kids. So, of course, Thursday's friends disrupt the wedding (by taking a page (and a character) from Jane Eyre and saying that the other woman was already married -- a lie, but that would give ICX a chance to break it off and get with Thursday.
This rubbed me the wrong way, mostly because it treated the other woman as a convenient plot roadblock. We get one scene with here in which the author tries to convince us she's not a nice woman, but it still bothers me in a way that, say, the Shrek or Princess Bride wedding-interruption scenes don't -- probably because at those points, the wedding being interrupted is to a villain who means harm to his spouse. (The Spaceballs one also doesn't bother me, but Spaceballs is also a farce.)
I guess it felt poorly done to force Thursday to deal with things and make a decision, and to show some parallels with Jane Eyre, who also meets a very nice guy, but turns him down to go check on the guy she fell for earlier (who had a crazy wife in the attic) and try to work the whole 'bigamy' thing out. But it didn't work for me (and maybe Bertha Mason wouldn't work for me if I read Jane Eyre; or if I had read it before The Eyre Affair as it turns out the events surrounding her death were instrumental to Thursday being able to stop the villain.
anke who was getting rid of some books. The Eyre Affair takes place in an alternate late 20th century England where, among other things, people are obsessed with classics of literature and art. Most people have an opinion on things like who authored Shakespeare's plays, and it's enough that people can break into fist fights or political movements. The main character's hometown has a long-running community production of Richard III structured more like the showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show than any play I've seen. It's actually a bit like... well, a lot of Japanese action series where everyone knows a certain card game, or incorporates martial arts into their normal job, or has a job involving cute and trainable pet monsters. There's also things like low-grade magic: the main character, Thursday's, father used to work for a secret government agency that took care of time problems and is now on the run trying to fix history (which he swears is broken) or just do useful things. Thursday also runs into a vampire/werewolf hunter, nicknamed Spike, though half of what he does seems to be reminding people to take their meds during 'that time of the month'. So it's more than just 'our world plus books'.
The plot is a book-based one: an arch-criminal has stolen a machine that lets people enter books and experience the setting first hand -- and their actions can alter the text. So, for instance, if I were to enter The Eyre Affair and butt into one of Thursday's conversations with her 'its complicated' ex-boyfriend, suddenly my copy would have the scene interrupted by a nosy American with opinions on Shakespeare. And, if I did something more drastic -- say, go into a shooting spree and kill half the characters -- then my book would probably suddenly end around then in a very unsatisfying way.
Now, Our Villain, having this machine, discovers that if he can get an original manuscript of a book, any changes he makes will affect all existing copies. So, for instance, when he drags a minor character from a Dickens work out of his book and kills him, suddenly every copy of that book lacks the paragraph describing that character, since he 'disappeared' before his brief appearance on the page. Of course, no one notices but some lit professors, which forces Our Villain to up the ante: if he doesn't get his demands met, he's going to destroy English literature by killing actual major characters. And, yes, that's where Jane Eyre comes in. (There's also some sequel baiting in that Thursday discovers some people -- including herself -- can enter books naturally: in fact, a Japanese woman makes a living taking other fans into Jane Eyre for tours.)
The plot was entertaining enough and I liked Thursday as a character, but the subplot between her and It's Complicated Ex bothered me. See, they got involved while both of them were serving in the military, but a fiasco of a battle ended up with Thursday as a hero, and ICX saying that Thursday's brother, also serving, basically fucked up and contributed to the fiasco, which Thursday took personally. As part of the plot, Thursday returns home and ICX is involved with another woman but is kind of feeling Thursday out for 'I still carry a torch for you, what about you?'. Thursday doesn't figure all this out and forgive him until after she tells him no and he plans on marrying the other woman -- mostly for stability and having kids. So, of course, Thursday's friends disrupt the wedding (by taking a page (and a character) from Jane Eyre and saying that the other woman was already married -- a lie, but that would give ICX a chance to break it off and get with Thursday.
This rubbed me the wrong way, mostly because it treated the other woman as a convenient plot roadblock. We get one scene with here in which the author tries to convince us she's not a nice woman, but it still bothers me in a way that, say, the Shrek or Princess Bride wedding-interruption scenes don't -- probably because at those points, the wedding being interrupted is to a villain who means harm to his spouse. (The Spaceballs one also doesn't bother me, but Spaceballs is also a farce.)
I guess it felt poorly done to force Thursday to deal with things and make a decision, and to show some parallels with Jane Eyre, who also meets a very nice guy, but turns him down to go check on the guy she fell for earlier (who had a crazy wife in the attic) and try to work the whole 'bigamy' thing out. But it didn't work for me (and maybe Bertha Mason wouldn't work for me if I read Jane Eyre; or if I had read it before The Eyre Affair as it turns out the events surrounding her death were instrumental to Thursday being able to stop the villain.
