Monday, August 08, 2005

Literary Mashups

I'm on a mashup kick right now - totally into the music mashups that great DJs can create from two or more pop songs. Example: Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious" + Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" = "Bootystition" (one of my faves). I love not only the innovative combinations of songs that I would never think to mix (who knew "Calling Out" could mix with "Sunday Bloody Sunday?") but also the inventive way the titles are combined - "My Milkshake is a Slave for You" is one of the best mashup titles EVER. And now I see that book-lovers are jumping on the bandwagon: the I Love Books message board has a fun thread going on combing the book titles of whatever you're currently reading to form one new, hybrid, novel. Samples:

"Little House of the Spirits" - Laura and her family build their own cabin and learn life lessons against a backdrop of revolution in Chile. There are psychic chickens.

"War and Remembrance of Things Past" - Too sensitive to face combat, neurasthenic lies up in WWII military hospital. After dipping a donut in a mug of coffee, he recalls, in excruciating detail, every moment of his upbringing and basic training. Novel tops 100,000 pages.

"Gone with the Wind in the Willows" - Thrills, romance, voles.


Feel free to add your own in comments.