'Honest' Abe Lincoln vanquishes vampires in new parody novel
America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, is most famous for his tireless fight against slavery, achieving victory in the nation’s only civil war and his sudden assassination in a Washington, D.C. theater. In the latest parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, Lincoln’s “Honest Abe” image is shattered by the fictional revelation of his unknown fight against America’s true enemy: vampires.
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” opens with an anecdotal letter from the author to his readers of his own experience with vampires, during which he is given the lost diaries of Abraham Lincoln by a young vampire who frequents the shop at which he works. The following chapters of the book are details of the deceased president’s life and struggle with the secret underbelly vampire alliance of 19th-Century America.
The novel accurately follows Lincoln’s life as a child of a poor farmer father and educated mother as they move from Kentucky to Indiana. As the economy worsens, Lincoln’s father, Thomas, takes out a loan from old friends in order to maintain his farm. In a fictional twist, Thomas cannot pay the loan to his vampiric debtors, as young Abraham later discovers, so Nancy Hanks, Abraham’s mother, is poisoned and killed in lieu of payment. From that day forth, Lincoln swears to vanquish “every vampire in America.”
“Vampire Hunter” is broken into three sections: Lincoln’s childhood and first experiences with vampires, his life as a vampire hunter and his presidency.
The story accurately follows Lincoln’s real life as a lawyer in Illinois, romances with Ann Rutledge and Mary Todd and opposition to slavery, while fancifully attributing each event in his life to vampire influence. Grahame-Smith takes advantage of the many holes in Lincoln’s history, such as his supposed romance with Rutledge and mysteriously broken off marriage to Todd, to mold his unique story. In Grahame-Smith’s story, every death that deeply impacts Lincoln is the doing of a vampire, as Lincoln’s diary reveals. Even his well-known opposition to slavery is due to his repulsion toward vampires buying and selling innocent slaves for food.
“Vampire Hunter” is the seventh book by humor author Grahame-Smith, who also penned the famous parody “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” It has since spawned similar rewrites of Jane Austen’s other classic novels, “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” and “Mansfield Park and Mummies.”
These rewritten versions of classic literature are part of a recent new parody, or New Victorian, genre, similar to the increasingly popular steampunk movement.
According to Humanities and Human Sciences Assistant Professor Megan Ward, steampunk is a “contemporary way of looking at the 19th Century” that creates anachronisms by incorporating modern technology into history, such as a doctored photo of Abraham Lincoln with a machine gun. While “Vampire Hunter” is not technically steampunk, it follows the same popular style of blending modern trends – such as vampire stories – with historical fact.
Ward said this recent influx of historical reality mashed up with new age fantasy is a result of modern angst, which is causing people to “turn to the past” for entertainment. Likewise, Humanities and Human Sciences Professor P.K. Weston believes it is the result of a post-9/11 society.
“We’ve all learned our vulnerability – 9/11 taught us we are vulnerable. [In these stories], we are facing monsters and winning,” Weston said.
Weston also enjoyed the style of Grahame-Smith’s writing in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
“He did an excellent job with the voice and tone, mimicking the style,” she said. “Stylistically, to match ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ that’s no small feat.”
Grahame-Smith uses this same approach in “Vampire Hunter,” copying the voice of Lincoln to compose fictional journal entries. The passion and 19th Century diction with which he writes falsely convinces the reader of the authenticity of Lincoln’s long-lost diary. While most of the novel is composed of these journal entries, Grahame-Smith also offers his own commentary based on historical research. At times, “Vampire Hunter” reads like a scholarly journal, with annotated photographic “evidence” of vampire dealings during Lincoln’s life and presidency, which adds to the believability of an unbelievable story.
With real-life characters and historical accuracy, “Vampire Hunter” tells a tall tale of graphic fantasy during one of the most horrific times in American history. With the exception of excluding Lincoln’s Black Hawk war days, “Vampire Hunter” follows Lincoln’s known history with almost complete accuracy. “Vampire Hunter” is written as a dramatic fantasy tale, with ax-wielding and blood-spurting action sequences against the undead. However, the absurdity of the idea of Lincoln as a vampire hunter makes for a light and enjoyable read. While the foreshadowing is laid on too heavily, making the ending predictable from the first page, it has enough twists to keep the reader guessing how point A will transition to point B.
Both “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” will be released as major motion pictures this coming year, with Natalie Portman starring as Elizabeth Bennett and producing “Zombies,” and Tim Burton rumored to be directing “Vampire Hunter.”
*Published in 2010 Issue 8 of The Globe. Link currently unavailable.
No comments:
Post a Comment