Visual Analysis on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

On the illustrations of pages 131 and 291:

In Lady Catherine’s dojo, to the wall on the right, the scroll reads as 合氣道, which in Japanese Kanji means aikido. Throughout the novel, neither Lady Catherine nor her ninjas practice “the way of combining life energy” in its basic style, so this poster might merely be included to add a Japanese feel to the dojo. On the other hand, this might hint at Lady Catherine’s character. While she “had paid to have [the dojo] carried from Kyoto, brick by brick, on the backs of peasants” (129), this might show her cultural blindness. These characters on the wall looked artistic to her, and she kept it to preserve the original manner of the dojo and to impress guests.

To the left wall, the near-illegible characters read as 武术堂 (Wushu tang), or martial arts hall in Chinese. This heavily stylized calligraphy does accurately portray what a grand dojo should feel like. The dojo reads as 道場 in Kanji, but occasionally the Japanese use Chinese Hanzi terms when they are being particularly formal and traditional. This would certainly appeal to Lady Catherine, since she has a stiff personality. In Japanese, the shorthand 弋 can also be read as the ceremonial radical “piling”, and when combined with the character for “person”, 弋人 becomes an archer. The choice of 武术堂 over the standard reading of dojo highlights the militaristic aspect of Lady Catherine’s dojo.

Another highlight of the grand dojo is Elizabeth, drawn as deflecting throwing stars as three ninjas advance upon her, with Lady Catherine coldly observing behind them. This moment in the plot actually has Elizabeth fighting the ninjas one at a time, but the illustration implies that this is seen from Elizabeth’s point of view. The “camera” is directly behind and a bit above her, so it technically sees the same view she has, if she was not blindfolded at the time. Because she is blindfolded, Elizabeth gets the feeling that she was facing three ninjas at the same time since Lady Catherine summoned them in quick succession. This impression was then taken impressed onto the camera’s lenses.

“Elizabeth vision” is also the reason why the ninjas and Lady Catherine appear to look pupil-less. In the moment of battle, she sees them as monsters, attempting to take her life. This novel typically portrays the zombies without pupils and humans with normal eyes, and this scene follows the trend.

The paper lantern at the top of the image does little to add to the scene, asides from illuminating the room. Since she is blindfolded, Elizabeth does not need the light, so the lantern probably only serves to add to the dojo’s traditionalist ways and give let the reader know that the dojo has a ceiling. However, the lantern does give off shadows as seen in Elizabeth’s left palm, but there are no shadows at the ninjas’ feet. This further provides evidence that they are not considered as humans to Elizabeth and thus their lives hold little significance to the story.

Lady Catherine’s dojo shows no decorum besides the two scrolls on the wall, and it appears sparse compared to the Bennett’s family dojo on page 291. There is a fan with characters that cannot be discerned at all hanging on the wall adjacent to the one with the 家音大 poster. Even if the words were readable, if the message’s medium was a paper fan it is much less formal than one on a scroll. In a sense, the Bennett’s family dojo is less dignified than Lady Catherine’s grand dojo.

The Bennett’s family dojo shows a partially cut off 家音大 (Jia yin da). This Hanzi is purely nonsensical, with the characters for family, sound, and large jumbled together. After heavy interpretation it could be read as “may the Bennett family’s greatness be heard far and wide”, but literally 家音大 has no proper meaning. Furthermore, such sayings are considered boastful and improper when displayed, even if it was inside the family dojo. This could reflect the inferior calligraphy guidance the Bennett sisters were given when they were trained under a Shaolin martial arts master.

The paper windows also imply how small and homely the Bennett’s dojo is, since it uses sunlight instead of lanterns. Perhaps this is because Elizabeth and Lady Catherine fought near the windows of the dojo, and when Elizabeth fought the ninjas it was past dinnertime so there was no sunlight. Still, paper windows are quite decorative in a dojo since they are fragile. The walls of Lady Catherine’s dojo are likely wooden or made out of paper too, but walls are much sturdier and simpler to repair. In traditional Chinese furnishing, the entire frame of the paper window is preferably replaced when even a single “tile” is broken, so the Bennett family likely prefers their dojo pretty compared to Lady Catherine’s sparse tastes.

This scene also shows inaccuracies to the story, since Lady Catherine originally sees “a pair of broken, lifeless ninjas” (290) while the illustration shows three. It’s an amusing thought that these three might even be the same ones Elizabeth defeated on page 131, and this scene is a direct continuation of it if the middle half of the story was cut. Furthermore, the sword that Lady Catherine holds is a poorly made katana, as its blade is too straight. When she comments that it is “as fine a Katana as I ever saw in Kyoto” (290), this supports the notion that Lady Catherine is not knowledgeable in the Japanese way of fighting as she claims to be.

“Elizabeth vision” is here too because her face is not shown, but the camera has now moved to her right a couple of meters. This is done so the viewer can see the dagger that trapped her hand, the dead ninjas, and what her family dojo looks like. If the camera stayed behind Elizabeth, a towering Lady Catherine would be the focus of the illustration instead. In a sense, this is Elizabeth’s delusion of what could have happened if she was still vulnerable by the time Lady Catherine unsheathed the katana.

Lady Catherine is illustrated on both pages as culturally blind, which adds irony to her character. As stated earlier, she does not practice aikido or recognize a proper katana from a tachi and a tanto. This may be overlooked since there are multiple variation of aikido, and Lady Catherine has poor eyesight. What’s unforgivable is that in her grand dojo displays Hanzi instead of purely Kanji. I have justified it earlier as being more traditional, but then it contrasts Lady Catherine’s view that the Japanese way of fighting is superior to the Chinese way, since the former deeply respects the latter through written language. Of course, she could be entirely unaware of her contradiction if her character is interpreted as an eccentric, rich, old lady who has an obsession for foreign things, declaring such as Japanese and other’s as Chinese.

Symphonic Rock Bluebeard

Sound Horizon gives Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard a twist in “The Blue Earl’s Castle”, an eight-minute retelling in a symphonic rock form. It heavily expands on Bluebeard’s character, making him more than a rich widower who locked up the corpses of his other wives in a forbidden room.

“The Blue Earl’s Castle” is sung mainly from one the previous wives’ postmortem point of view. The first one cheated on her husband in the forbidden room, believing that he did not love her with such cold, distant eyes. The lyrics imply that all of the following wives died because of a broken vow, either by being unfaithful or by entering that room. This provides Bluebeard a basis for killing them, compared to the original story where he was only a serial killer without a motive. To tie the wives’ tale to the present, there is a verse where they wish for revenge, wanting their husband to join them in the afterlife. In fact, the reason why the current wife opened the forbidden room was because the ghosts tempted her, knowing that her brothers would kill Bluebeard and save her.

Despite making the wives not as innocent as they seemed in the original tale, the song stays faithful to the deranged nature of the titular character. Sound Horizon even adds to his terrifying demeanor by having an electric guitar play wild chords during the spoken verses. When hearing the screams of terror from the wife, the crack of a whip, and the mad laughter from Bluebeard, the song feels as if the listener is at the scene, eavesdropping on the unfolding murder from behind a door. While Perrault’s story also has dialogue between Bluebeard and his latest wife, reading “he said…” and “she wept…” gives the viewer a sense of distance from the situation.

Besides adding to Bluebeard’s background, the song closely follows the events of the fairy tale, which is impressive. The song is in Japanese, actually titled as 青き伯爵の城 and romanized as “Aoki Hakushaku no Shiro”, and Perrault’s tale was in French. There isn’t anything noticeably lost in translation, except that the wife did not have a sister Anne to ask thrice about her brothers, and instead calls for help from them directly. This makes me appreciate the effort Sound Horizon put into research before composing an arrangement. Overall, “The Blue Earl’s Castle” is not a parody nor a modern version of Bluebeard, but a musical adaptation that provides depth to Bluebeard’s past and immersion to the scenes.

An online version of Perrault’s Bluebeard.

“The Blue Earl’s Castle” with English translations.

Blood Belongs Inside

Someone challenged me and I made this as a result.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people, events, etc. is purely coincidental. I am not fond of the idea that I might be killing real people.

This is not a mystery, so Knox, Dine, and Chandler do not necessarily apply.

Yuuno’s eventless afternoon was interrupted by a phone call from a dear childhood friend, Shion. Shion moved out of the country after their graduation, but they kept in touch with email and occasional calls. Yuuno paced around the living room, going over their conversation aloud. Yuuno’s eccentric like that, always reasoning aloud to an invisible audience; Shion found it endearing. “So she’s suddenly back in the country, and has nowhere to stay. I was the first one who came to her mind, and I couldn’t be more willing to share this humble abode with her. Even if it’s for one night and she’ll likely be in Palau the next day. What I have to do now is make dinner for two that’s not mac and cheese or instant noodles.” After consulting a cookbook, Yuuno decided that pasta was the safest to prepare.

Some time later, a taxi dropped off Shion and she bounded up the recently-rained steps of the porch, carrying a small handbag. She started to hug Yunno but stopped when she noticed the mess. “Yuuno! It’s good to see you… even if you’re covered in sauce, which smells delicious by the way. Were you planning to be my meal?” Yuuno closed the door after Shion stepped in, trying to recall witty comebacks for her teasing. “I was in a rush to welcome you, so I forgot to take off the apron. And sorry, but I’d rather eat you than be eaten.” Dinner came and went, with Shion energetically talking about her adventures about following some legend of Igor, while Yuuno listened and wondered if the pasta was actually that tasty or if Shion was just really hungry.

“Hey, how about we have those slumber parties, just like the old times? When we huddled together on the bed, sharing scary stories and stuff.” Yuuno was surprised, and barely masked it with a smooth reply. “Sure, why not. Feel free to light up candles and brew some tea. I haven’t moved them, so you can find it in the usual spots. I’ve got to take a shower.” The apron did its best to protect Yuuno, but bits of onion and tomato sauce still got into the poor newbie chef’s long hair. Once safely surrounded by the sound of falling water, Yuuno muttered, “What’s she up to? What have I gotten into?” Of course, this led to a longer shower than planned.

“Gah! I’ve mused too long!” Yuuno hastily dressed and dashed to the bedroom, which was locked. Thinking that Shion did so out of spite, Yuuno softly knocked and apologized. There was no answer. “Perhaps she fell asleep already?” Yuuno reached for the master key but remembered that it was back in the bathroom by the old set of clothes. “Well, I suppose this place needs a little remodling anyway,” and promptly broke down the door with several strong kicks at key weak points. Something snapped, like a chain breaking under force, and Yuuno looked around warily.

Shion was lying on the floor with a knife in her back, near the spine. Blood slowly leaked out from the wound. The sight was truly haunting, since only a few candles were providing light. Yuuno carefully checked her temperature and found that she was still warm, like the tea that was placed on the desk. In one of her hands was an unlit candle with the letters “IGOR” scrawled on it. The window and door was locked, and the chain lock installed was broken, half of it on the door and the other on the frame. Yuuno dialed the emergency number and sighed, “Igor, your closed room will give me a headache to explain to the authorities.”

You may ask Yuuno 9 questions to answer or actions to take in order to clarify things. An example of a question is “Is Shion dead?” Yuuno replies, “She will be, if the ambulance doesn’t arrive soon enough… that is correlated with your theory-making. Fail, and she dies. Oh, and you will be charged by the police as the primary suspect for her murder.” An example of an action is “Check the room for secret or hidden passages.” Yuuno refuses. “I know my home like the inside of my eyelid, and I know no such thing exists.” Questions and actions can achieve the same reaction. Once you use up your chances, you must provide a theory.

Credits go to Der Blaue Wolf, since he thought of the key behind this closed room. If you want a real mystery, read http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8163201/1/

There are several mysteries in this story, such as Yuuno’s eating habits, the nature of Yuuno and Shion’s relationship, the quality of Yuuno’s pasta, the legend of Igor, Yuuno’s knowledge of structural weaknesses, Shion’s closed room not-quite murder, and Yuuno’s gender.