Post by Eni on Mar 20, 2011 22:25:16 GMT
Yeah, I love all the weird puns and literary jokes.
Am on page 40 now. Just thought of two things I'd explain to anyone who hasn't read Jane Eyre or doesn't know the Shakespeare controversy.
Firstly, I know I said you don't have to have read Jane Eyre to read this and you don't but... XP there are some jokes that you won't get having not read it. If you don't mind having the end of Jane Eyre spoiled for you (and I won't spoil in that much, that is, I won't say all the details, just basically whether it's happy or sad), this will explain a lot of the Jane Eyre related jokes in the book.
The other thing that you might not know is the controversy surrounding William Shakespeare. There are people who believe it was impossible for Shakespeare to write all the plays he supposedly did, that there were too many, and that they were too clever to have been written by someone like him from such a poor background. They insist that they must have been the works of someone else simply using the man as a front, or the name as a pen name. They suggest instead that the plays are written by Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlow, some people even suggest that they were written by Elizabeth I or James I. Most people have dismissed these claims as ludicrous and simply snobbery, thinking it had to be someone who was from an upper class background and went to university who wrote these plays. Jasper Fforde is parodying these people even further in his work by characterising them like Jehovah's Witnesses.
Am on page 40 now. Just thought of two things I'd explain to anyone who hasn't read Jane Eyre or doesn't know the Shakespeare controversy.
Firstly, I know I said you don't have to have read Jane Eyre to read this and you don't but... XP there are some jokes that you won't get having not read it. If you don't mind having the end of Jane Eyre spoiled for you (and I won't spoil in that much, that is, I won't say all the details, just basically whether it's happy or sad), this will explain a lot of the Jane Eyre related jokes in the book.
Basically there is a lot of debate over the end of Jane Eyre, in which she goes back to Mr Rochester, the story's love interest, and all the problems they had have been fixed (mainly by fire). Lots of people say this is really unrealistic, that it's just a happy ending tacked onto the book. Anyway, in Jasper Fforde's universe, the book doesn't have this. She doesn't return and it's a sad ending, yet in his universe lots of people think this is a rubbish ending and she should have gone back to him ...basically just showing that no matter what you do you can't please everyone.
The other thing that you might not know is the controversy surrounding William Shakespeare. There are people who believe it was impossible for Shakespeare to write all the plays he supposedly did, that there were too many, and that they were too clever to have been written by someone like him from such a poor background. They insist that they must have been the works of someone else simply using the man as a front, or the name as a pen name. They suggest instead that the plays are written by Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlow, some people even suggest that they were written by Elizabeth I or James I. Most people have dismissed these claims as ludicrous and simply snobbery, thinking it had to be someone who was from an upper class background and went to university who wrote these plays. Jasper Fforde is parodying these people even further in his work by characterising them like Jehovah's Witnesses.