One of my resolutions this year is to make a lot more money. But how? In fact, I’ve noticed recently, it’s very simple: all you have to do is take a popular character with enormous worldwide brand recognition (e.g., King Arthur, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes) and shamelessly reinvent him for the youth demographic.
So, for example, you dress up Dracula in Abercrombie & Fitch, emphasise the sublimated but not consummated sex angle, throw in a werewolf to complete the platonic love triangle, and suddenly you’re Stephenie Meyer selling trillions to pubescents. Or you turn Great Expectations’ Pip from a dreary cipher into a smouldering, pouty-lipped, Professor-Brian-Cox-style hunk of Boy Band gorgeousness, complete with Mr-Darcy-style sexy-sexy water scene, and suddenly you’ve made the most talked-about drama on Christmas TV. As the meerkats say, simples.
I ought to feel curmudgeonly and cross about this prostitution of our great works of literature, but strangely I don’t, for reasons all parents of teenagers or near-teenagers will understand.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in