There Needs to Be Some Sort of Assault Weapon for Plotbunnies

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm not even through Act II of Slay No More, etc. and I get another great idea...

I was discussing with my mother, who is something of a nascent Buffy fan, the difficulties inherent in bringing Buffy characters into Shakespearean text. The least of these, honestly, is the language. 16th Century England, 21st Century California - they may be as far apart as you could get as iterations of the same language go, but they're both pretty foreign to what one would call "Standard English" so honestly, not so much a problem.

No, the problem I was bemoaning was the difficulty of writing Buffy into these plays. The first impulse, of course, is to make her the female romantic lead. Which works until you realize that it makes her subservient to the will of men, demure, and kind of flaky - three things which Buffy Anne Summers is most assuredly not. While qkellie has it somewhat easy because she cast Buffy as Katherine in Taming of the Shrew, I've had to struggle with making dear Buffy into Hero, because Hero is really, seriously weak. Which was okay for ol' Willy, but Joss would have none of that.

So I'm discussing this problem with Mom, and she brings up her deep, eternal love for all things Jane Austen. Briefly, we try to suss out whether Buffy would be a good fit for, say, Sense and Sensibility, but to no avail. Austen's works are too bound by the rules of propriety. It's a concept that would need far too much work for a trifling fanfic.

Then, I wondered about other authors who have female characters who, if not exactly strong, are stronger than Shakespeares. The Bronte sisters came to mind, and a devil of an idea came to me.

Jane Eyre. With an all-Buffy, twisted ship cast. Buffy as Jane. Giles as Rochester. Drusilla as Bertha. Wesley (or possibly Ethan) as St. John.

Obviously, the characters would have to be paired back a bit, the novel condensed to something manageable... But damn. Potential city.

Also, Wuthering Heights with Spike (or William!) as Heathcliff.

Anyway. Crazy thoughts.

I have the first few pages (index, playwrights, plays) up, however mostly non-functioning, for Buffy and the Bard: All the World's A Hellmouth - http://bard.flamingturtleneck.net.

Comments

[qkellie.livejournal.com]

Oh, BRILLIANT ideas there, sir! Now, the one thing about Sense & Sensibility that I COULD argue would be appropriate, though, is looking at the Buffy/Faith dichotomy. Faith is very much the younger sister, while Buffy is very much the elder (sorry, their names escape me at the moment, it's been a long time since I've read this). A few other things come to mind there: Faith's character would have a flirtation with a rakish sort of man that falls through, and I'm having trouble picturing who that might be, but for her final suitor, the older man, only Angel really fits the bill. As for Buffy's character, her mate would by necessity be either Riley or Xander, the dependable sort.

Of course, Emma is perhaps more ripe for the pickings, but I think Clueless sort of ruined that for setting it in modern times, not to mention that I've already read an Emma-influenced Buffy fic that was pretty dreadful.

What about pillaging something TOTALLY strange, like a Greek tragedy? A serious-minded version of Oedipus with Connor and Cordy that isn't super squicky? 'Twould be a challenge at the very least.

Also, the web site looks fab thus far. :D

[veggiebelle.livejournal.com]

The weekend was busy, so I still need to catch up on all the new installments, but Jane Eyre would be a great one to Buffy-cize - a little shippy, but fascinating.

Also, loving the website.