Confessions of a Social Media Junkie

While the first rule of Fight Club may be to not talk about Fight Club…I can’t resist.

There is a video making the rounds on the Internet called Jane Austen’s Fight Club. Mashable.com reports the video is racking up more than 37,000 views on YouTube. I know I’ve saved it to my YouTube favorites.

I’m a huge Jane Austen fan. I’ve read all her novels, even the less-than-fantastic Northanger Abbey. I love the kind of mashups people are doing with Austen’s works, first with the zombies and sea monsters, and now with Fight Club. Because this kind of thing is funny. Take prim and propper Victorian England and throw in some preposterous scenarios like zombies or Victorian-era young ladies kicking butt and it works.

The central characters in Austen’s novels are for the most part, strong women facing unpleasant circumstances forced upon them by society because of their gender and economic status. So making the Bennett girls zombie fighters or in the case of the above video, just plain old fighters, is an homage to their strength. In a funny, totally ridiculous way.

And that’s why videos like this go viral and Austen’s books, mashed up with zombies and sea monsters, sell like crazy. Because Austen fans love Jane Austen and will celebrate her heroines any way they can. Plus who doesn’t like a good round of fistacuffs now and then?

As Marilyn33 says in the comments below the video:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, a young man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an uppercut? to the jaw & a kick to the kneecap, followed by the removal of his wallet and running like hell.

ps: Everyone knows a movie is coming out for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, right? With Natalie Portman starring as Elizabeth? Awesome.