Friday Flip-Out: 50 Shades of WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
I want to preface this with 2 points. (1) I am not trying to hate on E.L. James- she had an idea, she went with it and it worked . . . quite likely much better than she'd ever thought it would, good on her. (2) I don't say things to pick fights, set people off, or otherwise 'troll'. I simply say what's on my mind- everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this is mine. I will not begrudge a fan their love of the 50 Shades trilogy, in return, I expect not to have fans begrudge me my dislike of it. Simply put, if you don't like what I have to say, then don't read it.
The best way to do this is to simply graft in here blurbs from an email exchange I've got going on with a writer friend, in which I laid out a lot of what it was that bothered me in my attempt to read 50 Shades of Grey. Now let me just say- some of this comes across as angry, it's 'cause I was venting mid-reading-attempt. I couldn't make it past about chapter 7. If you're going to tell me "Oh, well, if you'd finish it, you'd see," or telling me how the book is your favorite and it is 'ZOMG amazing' or whatever, then I'm going to tell you try to have a little self-awareness- just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's 'good'. I can admit that there are plenty of things, movies, books, etc, that are terrible that I love to bits, but I can say, "I know this is gods awful, but I still adore it." I will drop everything and sit down to watch To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything whenever it's on TV. It's never gonna win an award, and in what universe could Wesley Snipes pass for a female? (which is the essence of a true Drag Queen [trust me, I used to hang out with the Queens on Christopher Street, NYC- they looked better than most of the biologically female women out there] they're not just men in women's clothing, those are Transvestites, there is a diff.). But I digress.
And there may be typos- a good portion of this was typed from my iPhone. I will be going back over it and fixing those when I have the time, but at the moment, I do not.
Then she does it again. When they're waiting for their coffee and 'weak tea' (and wtf, the way it sounded from how quickly she took out the bag didn't make it 'weak tea', but lightly-tea-flavored-water) and she thinks something, and she refers to it as an unbidden thought, which would normally be fine, but then it's followed immediately by him interrupting her 'thoughts', AND him saying "Penny for your thoughts?" *headdesk* I had a paragraph, a full paragraph, in which the same phrasing for something was used twice and my editor said, 'can you change that up?' And even if I wasn't a writer, it would still bother me to my core to trip over sloppy wording like that.
And I think she (the writer, not the character, necessarily) has a hatred, or a very strong dislike for blondes, 'cause what was up with that Stepford shit at this dude's office? And it wouldn't have been so obvious if she hadn't harped on it every chance she got. And this 'I'm into books, British literature'. She tries so hard to convince us that this character (and her roommate, who declares a straightened-out situation as 'sorted') are American girls in their very early 20's, but when is the last time anyone fitting that description used the expression 'he doesn't suffer fools gladly? That has pretentious written all over it, not to mention just plain ol' misplaced. But, let's go back to the mention of British lit for a sec. SHE mentions she's into book. He asks what type. SHE says 'British Literature' and then ticks off a bunch of author's names. And then proceeds to tell the reader 'All this talk of the classics reminds me that I need to study. "All this talk"? That usually indicates a discussion, or at least a portion of it, has been about this topic. It was one, maybe two sentences from HER.
When she first gets back from the interview, her friend asks her one, maybe 2 questions, she declares something like 'the kate kavanagh inquisition'. >_> . . . . Really? Everything that happens is 'Oh, my', 'what's this all about?' . . .'Where's he going with this?' . . . . And he asks about her family and she thinks 'That's personal!'. Really? Maybe you have hangups about your family, but if you like someone and you want them to like you, isn't asking about one's family sort of par for the course? And for someone who one moment thinks it's personal, she certainly has no trouble spilling it all out the next. Regarding that, could this author have put a little more work into separating Ana's family from Bella's? Even if I hadn't known that this was originally a Twilight fanfiction, that would have tipped me off that something was up about it. That and, hello- Christian Grey still has the Edward Cullen hair all she did was change his eye color and give him a skin tone. The 'gray eyes' thing, . . . . we GET it. His fucking eyes are gray. Oh, what and his name is 'Grey'? What a funny fucking coincidence . . . especially when you consider that 'gray' eyes (not gray-green, not blue-gray) are one of the more difficult natural eye colors to stumble across? Seriously, I have blue-eyed people all over the place in my family (gray being a variation on blue) and my daughter is the first I've seen to have gray eyes, and even they're dark gray.
Ya know, this book almost made me change shit in the serial I have coming out on my publisher's site? Because the character's name (first name) is 'Grey'? Now, at first, up until about two weeks ago (before I got this atrocious book), it was spelled the usual way, 'Gray', but there's a couple of chapters where he and the main character Cadence are in a cemetery talking and examining some of the headstones and I had said 'grey stone', by accident. My editor said 'American English, it needs to be 'gray', so we can change the spelling of the color, or change your character's name'. Not thinking anything of it, I'd said, 'Let's change the character's name to Grey.' >_> Oh, and it's in present tense . But, ya know, the character has depth and is more reactive than 'I flush'.
I could not believe how many times she reacts that way. It's like to everything. And fine, she points out that she blushes easily, but then vary up the description, at least. She doesn't even try to do this, expect for maybe twice, and given how often she does it in the first handful of chapters alone, that's bad. And, how do you make such a fuss about being clumsy, and then, really, only have like 1 major spill? I mean, you work in a hardware store, if you're that clumsy, how are you not being rushed to the ER at least once a week?
On saturday, I had to stop reading 'cause it was making my SOUL hurt. I know I said it made my face hurt, but I was just very cranky out of seemingly nowhere, and I had to go to the store to buy tylenol because the writing made my head hurt."
(2) "I have to turn my eyes away from the words and give my head a little shake every time she says 'double crap' as it is. Holy Cow, Holy Moses... And it's always in response to shit that is not the shocking. Her friend made one statement declaring her a 'total babe' (cue eye roll) and she calls it a 'tirade'. And again with the 'oh, no, the Kate Kavanagh inquisition' (and she phrases it EXACTLY the same way as she had the first time- I mean, she could have copied and pasted the sentence) followed by .... Questions anyone would ask, and her feeling the need to say her friends name in every sentence, like there's someone else in the room and she might get confused, even though it's only the 2 of them present."
(3) "*headdesk, headdesk, headdesk* His eyes darken to 'obsidian'? Obsidian is black, it's not hematite, it's not fucking pyrite, that I could understand- they're very dark silver, but not black. .... If I saw someone whom I knew to normally have gray eyes and they suddenly looked 'obsidian' I'd be freaking the fuck out, 'cause that's not fucking naturally possible."
(4) "I'm at the part where she climbs into the helicopter. Omg, could James have done anymore to cram Christian Grey's wealth down the reader's throats? Is she not aware that half the people reading this tripe are feeling the effects of the current economic depression? Makes me even more angry that she, herself, has gotten rich off of writing this shit, 'cause people that have to scrape together their book budgets from what's 'left-over after necessities' make up a good bulk of the people who are, in effect, paying her.
Let's get back to Kate prepping her for her 'night with Christian'. Now, we see Kate being all over protective, and calling Ana an 'innocent' and all that . . . and all of the sudden she's like "oh, you've known him a week and met him 3 times, how 'bout I doll you up so you can jump into bed with him on your first 'official date'?" And what about the prepping in and of itself? 'My legs and underarms have been shaved to perfection" . . . WHO SAYS THAT? Okay, smooth, clean, heck, even 'silky perfection', I could have swallowed, because it would allude to the skin beneath the hair that must've been there being silky, fine. But she makes it sound like it's never occurred to her, on her own, as an average american girl, to shave these body parts. And . . . she's a brunette . . . you really mean to tell me she's never tweezed her eyebrows before? She has guys falling all over her, but she's had bushy brows all this time? No.
And then she says 'Kate assures me this is what men expect these days." . . . Wow. This makes her sound naive, kinda gross in the hygiene department (not suggesting one must shave their body hair to have good hygiene practices, because one does not equate the other, but it certainly does make one wonder how much attention Ana typically paid to self-care before that point, as she makes no overt mention beforehand of things she didn't do 'before' or things she might've avoided doing in regard to her personal routine), and way older then she's supposed to be. I mean, the only way to not know 'what men expect' on a date with a chick they clearly want to have sex with would have to mean she's never read a book that was age-appropriate, watched a prime time sitcom, or seen a romantic comedy. And if the case is that she did not practice this type of self-grooming before, what does it say about her that she's suddenly all for it for the sake of a man's interest?
To back track a bit further. She's known the man a week, met him 3 times and yet (4 if you count him 'accidentally' strolling into her place of work) and . . . she uses his toothbrush? EW. And while she's doing it, she talks about having Christian Grey in her mouth?! I have serious trouble believing this is the thought process of a virgin who's got zero experience over all. And, if she has no experience to speak of, the idea that this 'one guy' is so appealing that just by talking he's making her soak her panties is just . . . . sad and laughable at the same time.
Dammit, I just got over this headache, now it's starting up again just from ranting about this!"
And that was the end, this was the last point I made before I simply found that I couldn't get back to it. I really did try to stick it out.
I will note another thing that bothers me about the phenomena, in general, and that is the myth about how it got so popular. I read a mention a few weeks ago, stating that what made this so unbelievable was that 50 Shades relied on WORD OF MOUTH to get so big. <.< . . . Really? Really? 'Cause I distinctly remember watching the news and there was a mention of it- claiming it as 'The Sex Book', and basically telling women that it would be 'socially acceptable' for them to read this book in public because it was the going to be all over the place. And this was just before it was released. I believe that the publishing house had faith in this as a cash cow, but not faith in it to be something lasting. Why else would you release all 3 books at once, unless you didn't want to give readers wind-down time between volumes to think over what they read?
The best way to do this is to simply graft in here blurbs from an email exchange I've got going on with a writer friend, in which I laid out a lot of what it was that bothered me in my attempt to read 50 Shades of Grey. Now let me just say- some of this comes across as angry, it's 'cause I was venting mid-reading-attempt. I couldn't make it past about chapter 7. If you're going to tell me "Oh, well, if you'd finish it, you'd see," or telling me how the book is your favorite and it is 'ZOMG amazing' or whatever, then I'm going to tell you try to have a little self-awareness- just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's 'good'. I can admit that there are plenty of things, movies, books, etc, that are terrible that I love to bits, but I can say, "I know this is gods awful, but I still adore it." I will drop everything and sit down to watch To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything whenever it's on TV. It's never gonna win an award, and in what universe could Wesley Snipes pass for a female? (which is the essence of a true Drag Queen [trust me, I used to hang out with the Queens on Christopher Street, NYC- they looked better than most of the biologically female women out there] they're not just men in women's clothing, those are Transvestites, there is a diff.). But I digress.
And there may be typos- a good portion of this was typed from my iPhone. I will be going back over it and fixing those when I have the time, but at the moment, I do not.
On with the flip-out:
(1) "I think the most irritating thing to me has got to be the repetitive wording. I mean, this is a published, supposedly edited work, and yet, I'm tripping over things for which my editor would slap me. At first I thought, 'maybe it's just me being nitpicky', but then I had to look at the section again, and I thought, "can't be me, 'cause it just sounds horrible." It's in the second chapter, where she goes to the hardware store she works at, and she narrates that Mrs. Clayton is "pleased to see her." Mrs Clayton then says "I'm real pleased to see you." . . . . .Then she does it again. When they're waiting for their coffee and 'weak tea' (and wtf, the way it sounded from how quickly she took out the bag didn't make it 'weak tea', but lightly-tea-flavored-water) and she thinks something, and she refers to it as an unbidden thought, which would normally be fine, but then it's followed immediately by him interrupting her 'thoughts', AND him saying "Penny for your thoughts?" *headdesk* I had a paragraph, a full paragraph, in which the same phrasing for something was used twice and my editor said, 'can you change that up?' And even if I wasn't a writer, it would still bother me to my core to trip over sloppy wording like that.
And I think she (the writer, not the character, necessarily) has a hatred, or a very strong dislike for blondes, 'cause what was up with that Stepford shit at this dude's office? And it wouldn't have been so obvious if she hadn't harped on it every chance she got. And this 'I'm into books, British literature'. She tries so hard to convince us that this character (and her roommate, who declares a straightened-out situation as 'sorted') are American girls in their very early 20's, but when is the last time anyone fitting that description used the expression 'he doesn't suffer fools gladly? That has pretentious written all over it, not to mention just plain ol' misplaced. But, let's go back to the mention of British lit for a sec. SHE mentions she's into book. He asks what type. SHE says 'British Literature' and then ticks off a bunch of author's names. And then proceeds to tell the reader 'All this talk of the classics reminds me that I need to study. "All this talk"? That usually indicates a discussion, or at least a portion of it, has been about this topic. It was one, maybe two sentences from HER.
When she first gets back from the interview, her friend asks her one, maybe 2 questions, she declares something like 'the kate kavanagh inquisition'. >_> . . . . Really? Everything that happens is 'Oh, my', 'what's this all about?' . . .'Where's he going with this?' . . . . And he asks about her family and she thinks 'That's personal!'. Really? Maybe you have hangups about your family, but if you like someone and you want them to like you, isn't asking about one's family sort of par for the course? And for someone who one moment thinks it's personal, she certainly has no trouble spilling it all out the next. Regarding that, could this author have put a little more work into separating Ana's family from Bella's? Even if I hadn't known that this was originally a Twilight fanfiction, that would have tipped me off that something was up about it. That and, hello- Christian Grey still has the Edward Cullen hair all she did was change his eye color and give him a skin tone. The 'gray eyes' thing, . . . . we GET it. His fucking eyes are gray. Oh, what and his name is 'Grey'? What a funny fucking coincidence . . . especially when you consider that 'gray' eyes (not gray-green, not blue-gray) are one of the more difficult natural eye colors to stumble across? Seriously, I have blue-eyed people all over the place in my family (gray being a variation on blue) and my daughter is the first I've seen to have gray eyes, and even they're dark gray.
Ya know, this book almost made me change shit in the serial I have coming out on my publisher's site? Because the character's name (first name) is 'Grey'? Now, at first, up until about two weeks ago (before I got this atrocious book), it was spelled the usual way, 'Gray', but there's a couple of chapters where he and the main character Cadence are in a cemetery talking and examining some of the headstones and I had said 'grey stone', by accident. My editor said 'American English, it needs to be 'gray', so we can change the spelling of the color, or change your character's name'. Not thinking anything of it, I'd said, 'Let's change the character's name to Grey.' >_> Oh, and it's in present tense . But, ya know, the character has depth and is more reactive than 'I flush'.
I could not believe how many times she reacts that way. It's like to everything. And fine, she points out that she blushes easily, but then vary up the description, at least. She doesn't even try to do this, expect for maybe twice, and given how often she does it in the first handful of chapters alone, that's bad. And, how do you make such a fuss about being clumsy, and then, really, only have like 1 major spill? I mean, you work in a hardware store, if you're that clumsy, how are you not being rushed to the ER at least once a week?
On saturday, I had to stop reading 'cause it was making my SOUL hurt. I know I said it made my face hurt, but I was just very cranky out of seemingly nowhere, and I had to go to the store to buy tylenol because the writing made my head hurt."
(2) "I have to turn my eyes away from the words and give my head a little shake every time she says 'double crap' as it is. Holy Cow, Holy Moses... And it's always in response to shit that is not the shocking. Her friend made one statement declaring her a 'total babe' (cue eye roll) and she calls it a 'tirade'. And again with the 'oh, no, the Kate Kavanagh inquisition' (and she phrases it EXACTLY the same way as she had the first time- I mean, she could have copied and pasted the sentence) followed by .... Questions anyone would ask, and her feeling the need to say her friends name in every sentence, like there's someone else in the room and she might get confused, even though it's only the 2 of them present."
(3) "*headdesk, headdesk, headdesk* His eyes darken to 'obsidian'? Obsidian is black, it's not hematite, it's not fucking pyrite, that I could understand- they're very dark silver, but not black. .... If I saw someone whom I knew to normally have gray eyes and they suddenly looked 'obsidian' I'd be freaking the fuck out, 'cause that's not fucking naturally possible."
(4) "I'm at the part where she climbs into the helicopter. Omg, could James have done anymore to cram Christian Grey's wealth down the reader's throats? Is she not aware that half the people reading this tripe are feeling the effects of the current economic depression? Makes me even more angry that she, herself, has gotten rich off of writing this shit, 'cause people that have to scrape together their book budgets from what's 'left-over after necessities' make up a good bulk of the people who are, in effect, paying her.
Let's get back to Kate prepping her for her 'night with Christian'. Now, we see Kate being all over protective, and calling Ana an 'innocent' and all that . . . and all of the sudden she's like "oh, you've known him a week and met him 3 times, how 'bout I doll you up so you can jump into bed with him on your first 'official date'?" And what about the prepping in and of itself? 'My legs and underarms have been shaved to perfection" . . . WHO SAYS THAT? Okay, smooth, clean, heck, even 'silky perfection', I could have swallowed, because it would allude to the skin beneath the hair that must've been there being silky, fine. But she makes it sound like it's never occurred to her, on her own, as an average american girl, to shave these body parts. And . . . she's a brunette . . . you really mean to tell me she's never tweezed her eyebrows before? She has guys falling all over her, but she's had bushy brows all this time? No.
And then she says 'Kate assures me this is what men expect these days." . . . Wow. This makes her sound naive, kinda gross in the hygiene department (not suggesting one must shave their body hair to have good hygiene practices, because one does not equate the other, but it certainly does make one wonder how much attention Ana typically paid to self-care before that point, as she makes no overt mention beforehand of things she didn't do 'before' or things she might've avoided doing in regard to her personal routine), and way older then she's supposed to be. I mean, the only way to not know 'what men expect' on a date with a chick they clearly want to have sex with would have to mean she's never read a book that was age-appropriate, watched a prime time sitcom, or seen a romantic comedy. And if the case is that she did not practice this type of self-grooming before, what does it say about her that she's suddenly all for it for the sake of a man's interest?
To back track a bit further. She's known the man a week, met him 3 times and yet (4 if you count him 'accidentally' strolling into her place of work) and . . . she uses his toothbrush? EW. And while she's doing it, she talks about having Christian Grey in her mouth?! I have serious trouble believing this is the thought process of a virgin who's got zero experience over all. And, if she has no experience to speak of, the idea that this 'one guy' is so appealing that just by talking he's making her soak her panties is just . . . . sad and laughable at the same time.
Dammit, I just got over this headache, now it's starting up again just from ranting about this!"
And that was the end, this was the last point I made before I simply found that I couldn't get back to it. I really did try to stick it out.
I will note another thing that bothers me about the phenomena, in general, and that is the myth about how it got so popular. I read a mention a few weeks ago, stating that what made this so unbelievable was that 50 Shades relied on WORD OF MOUTH to get so big. <.< . . . Really? Really? 'Cause I distinctly remember watching the news and there was a mention of it- claiming it as 'The Sex Book', and basically telling women that it would be 'socially acceptable' for them to read this book in public because it was the going to be all over the place. And this was just before it was released. I believe that the publishing house had faith in this as a cash cow, but not faith in it to be something lasting. Why else would you release all 3 books at once, unless you didn't want to give readers wind-down time between volumes to think over what they read?
I seriously could not stop laughing and nodding my head at all the points you brought up. I have read all the books, and...it doesn't get better. In the third book she sotra starts to develop a little bit of plot and decent writing, but by the time she does this, it's over. The series piqued my curiosity when I heard that it had been banned from some libraries; I'm a sucker for banned books.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it didn't make it any easier to read, but once I pick something up, I HAVE to finish it. I found soooo many typos/grammatical errors/number of other issues that it made me wonder if it had been edited at all. Add to the fact that these people had sex WAY too much to be realistic (every 7 pages or so, it felt like) I found myself skipping over a lot of the scenes.
Gotta love it when a book brings out the "sex can fix anything" mentality *rolls eyes* The author's naivety is almost overwhelming.
Good for James and those people who actually DID enjoy it, but I can offer them way better reads.
Actually, that's what I hear from those that made it through all 3, but didn't fall in love with it. I didn't realize I had so many friends with this OCD XD.
DeleteAnd, yes, I feel that if you manage to make sex scenes boring, you're either not good at writing them, or you're using them WAY too much. I'm kind of relieved that I didn't read far enough to know if it's one, the other, or perhaps both.
Haha you're hilarious. I felt this way too. I actually read all three books, refused to purchase them for thirty bucks and downloaded all. I was so happy I hadn't wasted my money. I feel like these books are for housewives who would be scandalized by these things. I could definitely tell it was twilight-based and I was upset because there are so many authors on Dokuga, yourself included, that are way better writers. And i've read way raunchier things that were also tasteful. I really don't understand the hype. Ugh even the sex scenes get repetitive and how she describes Christian.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Yeah, one of the blurbs I chose not to post here I had said something to the effect of "it's this stuff that makes me ashamed to say I'm a fanfiction writer, and just when I stopped being embarrassed to say that to other adults."
DeleteI read the books when they were still fanfiction. They were okay reads as fanfiction, but I honestly don't get the hype surrounding the books as published novels, and for a lot of the same reasons you state here. Good for E.L. James for doing well, but I just do not get the books.
ReplyDeleteWith fanfiction, you recognize that you're not always going to get publication worthy reads, and accept it for what it is: a fan writing something for no reason other than to have fun with characters they like. That said, I've read many other pieces of fanfiction that are far superior to 50 Shades. Pieces that, if published, would absolutely deserve the hype that 50 Shades is now receiving. It boggles the mind that, out of every fanfiction floating around out there, 50 Shades was the one catapulted to "literary" stardom. Why?!
As frustrating as I find that fact, that's not even what bothered me most about the books. What really got to me was the lack of character progression throughout the series. Neither character evolved at all. Christian was as much a domineering, manipulative pain in the ass in the end as he was at the very beginning. Ana was the same petulant, self-doubting, hung up on his past woefully clueless twentysomething in book three. The conflict between them never fluctuated beyond "I'm so messed up and bad, please love me anyway" and "I'm so confused and vulnerable, but I want you anyway". I liked Twilight, and those books were pretty awful. Bella and Edward revisited the same conflict a lot, too. But 50 Shades took that irritating cyclical conflict, and made it truly never-ending.
You expect characters to evolve, thus allowing the conflicts between them to evolve and eventually reach some sort of resolution. 50 Shades never got to that point. It was the exact same conflict throughout, stuck behind surface changes (ie: the two getting married, and Ana getting pregnant) that ultimately went nowhere.
The entire point to the series seemed to be to put the characters in an unhealthy relationship, add a lot of sex, and see how long they could fight the same battle. And then they got popular in the Twilight fandom so E.L James said "Oh, let's publish and see how much I can make from this." Maybe that's harsh, I don't know, but I seriously fail to see the point of writing an entire trilogy of this.
That irritated the crap out of me when the stories were fanfiction, and it irritated me even more when they were published (which I didn't read because nothing didn't change beyond the things you mentioned). There is no way these two live happily ever after as we're supposed to believe. How could they when they clung so tightly to the same hang-ups that they never changed or grew or evolved or found a new dead horse to beat throughout THREE entire novels?! In reality, relationships like theirs end in a fiery explosion of devastating-only-to-you fuckery that your friends lack compassion for because they told you, fifteen thousand times, that it was going to end exactly like that, but you were too caught up by the sex to listen.
Grr!
This is what I've heard. I mean, I've been in the fanfiction community for 6 years, off-and-on, now, and I have read some absolutely stellar pieces of writing . . . on the same token, I've read drivel. And, of course, I've read pieces that weren't well written, but were incredibly fun to read, and it was a fun that was helped along by the author's acknowledgement of the story not being 'great', and their ability to not take themselves too seriously. The painful aspect of that is when you trip across someone who's clearly trying to take themselves seriously as a writer, and when you try to help them out by offering concrit, they respond by explaining how their writing is 'so awesome' and if you can't handle it's awesomeness, then well, that's just . . . because you're jealous of how truly awesome they are. >_> . . . Yes, we've all heard it from the literary divas.
DeleteIt does really bother me that 'this' is what the world is now seeing of the fanfiction subculture. And as far as misguided views of 'subcultures' go, I thus far have a difficult time not throwing up in my mouth every time a character on a TV show asserts that you can learn everything you need to know about feigning goth from Wikipedia (I'm a goth fanfic writer, I clearly cannot win). But that she could not only profit from this, but profit so greatly, is a slap in the face to those of us who toil away- even in the realm of 'fanfiction'. I write Alternate Universe fanfics. I do this for a reason, and it's a simple reason- to focus on the story. I use the names and physical descriptions of the canon characters as place-holders, if you will. The worst I can say about the story I'm most proud of in the fanfiction world is that it's riddled with typos/miswordings, but . . . that's about it. I mean, this is a piece that's received oodles of awards and nominations- it can be read by those not at all familiar with the canon universe the characters were borrowed from and still be easily followed as it's own story. But even that being said, I'm gearing up for a HUGE revision before I even think of pitching it for publishing.
It's actually a comfort to hear from others in the fanfiction community that have become authors and know that I'm not alone in how I feel- I'm not remotely alone, as it turns out. And yes, it makes me grind my teeth to think that 50 Shades has, as you put it, skyrocketed to literary stardom, partly because there's nothing 'literary stardom-worthy' in it, and partly because you have to wonder if those that 'don't get' fanfiction are looking at it and thinking that this is the best any fanfiction writer can be expected to produce >_<.
>_> Psst . . . Hey, Ayden . . . that being said, do you want to read the piece of my work that I was talking about? It's paranormal, contains mature content, and involves archeology :). If you're interested, and have time to read, I'd be more than happy to give you the link.
All good points you make, Gerilyn, but if it makes you feel better, James herself, admits it's not well written. As I told you on Facebook, I have a love/hate relationship with these books. While I completely agree the writing was mediocre at best for all the reasons you've stated, I will say that I did enjoy Christian Grey as a character. In my eyes, he was deliciously fucked up, and I like male characters like that as long as there is redemption in the end. Now, would I want my 21-year-old daughter dating him, no way in bloody hell. My biggest issue with James is she rode Meyers coattails all the way to the bank. Why Meyers didn't sue the shit out her, I've no idea. Now James' publisher will tell you that Fifty Shades of Grey is not, in fact, the same as the original fanfic, Master of the Universe. This link provides a statistical compare between Master of the Universe and 50 Shades. http://dearauthor.com/features/industry-news/master-of-the-universe-versus-fifty-shades-by-e-l-james-comparison/ The conclusion was that the two stories were 89% the same.
ReplyDeleteIf you've read Twilight—I suffered through it once—the similarities are readily apparent.
1. Meyers has said that she was inspired by Jane Austen's writing. James must of heard this because obviously Christian espouses the ideals of Mr. Darcy to be sure.
2. The secret vampire world is replaced by the BDSM world.
3. Similar characteristics exist between Bella/Edward and Ana/Christian. You've already touched on some of them.
4. Plot progression is very similar. His BDSM past intrudes on their happiness, Ana resists his marriage proposal, danger by his past ensures, unexpected pregnancy, baby is the savior.
5. The couples are all paired off in a similar incestual manner.
6. Bella is Edward's heroin; Ana is the same for Christian
7. Meyers wrote Twilight from Edwards pov, but after it was stolen, she abandon it. At the end of Fifty Shades Freed, James writes the meeting between Ana and Christian from Christian's pov.
I could go on further put I think I've made my point. What all this boils down to is that James owes her success to Meyers. What disturbs me more is that a legacy publisher has rewarded her for it. What message does that send? Why should we toll over our own original works when we can just ride the coattails of famous authors works and badly at that? Funny thing is now there are writers stealing the Fifty Shades storyline. One I've read was written to badly I couldn't finish. I'm sad to say it has 3-4 reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Sometimes I really have to throw up my hands and say WTF?
The publisher can 'say' it's not the same as the fanfic, but . . . it is. There really are far too many similarities, even beyond the physical traits of the main characters. I absolutely agree with everything you've said, Dawna. But . . . even with James, herself, admitting that it's not well written, I want to say to her "If you knew it wasn't 'well-written', that means you recognize that you could have done a better job, so what the hell were you thinking to not overhaul the writing and improve upon it before offering it to the whole world?" And I mean that sincerely--if 'this' is the thing you're showcasing to others as an example of what you're capable of, wouldn't you want to make sure that (even if it's not the best thing you'll ever produce over your entire life) it's at least the absolute best you can offer 'now'? Her publisher and whomever edited that mess of a work are just as responsible for apparently thinking that 'as-is' was 'good enough'. Because, honestly, I've read self-pubbed, self-edited, 2-star rated eBooks that had more storyline, that were more palatable, wording-wise, than 50 Shades.
DeleteContinued . . . .
DeleteI don't really harbor ill feelings toward James, as I stated, she had an idea, she rolled with it, it worked, and I don't think even she knew it would blow up as big as it did, but I do think it's ridiculous for people to be going on about how it was 'without any advertising', when we've all seen it discussed on the news, and the internet, since before most people were about to purchase it, generating a whole lot of curiosity, which is just as good as (if not better than) any other marketing strategy out there.
And yeah, one of my friends passed along to me a tweet about someone saying they secured a publishing deal on a work that is a 50 shades fanfic, and all I could think was 'a fanfic . . . of a fanfic? is this what we're coming to?' I mean, it's like who a lot of the girls on TV over the past couple of years have started to look alike. Seriously, wanting to cast someone that is 'racially ambiguous' so that 'everyone' can relate to them equally only goes so far, but it's with an understandable reasoning. Eventually, we are going to tire of seeing essentially the same face over and over just 'cause it's thought to 'represent all of us'. When it comes to telling the same story over and over again? I think we should have far less tolerance, we should be far less encouraging. Now, that's not to be taken out of context- clearly there are certain things that will be the same in every story of it's type. I mean, I can't begin to tell you how many historical romances I read growing up that involved the heroine of the tale being kidnapped by the hero/anti-hero and eventually love blossomed (like that was even healthy-the heroine would essentially be suffering Stockholm Syndrome, and the hero is thus falling for a facade she's adopted unawares to survive her ordeal).
She absolutely owes her success to Meyer (though, Meyer's success still boggles my mind, as I did suffer through Twilight, I couldn't make it through New Moon, though I did try), and to the Twilight fans, even more so, 'cause I really do think that when she brought her story out of the fanfic world, a lot of those that had read the work followed her- they're likely a lot of the folks responsible for the glowing reviews it's received, 'cause if you look . . . it's got quite a hefty amount of negative reviews, as well. And, to be totally honest, that whole 'someone stole my manuscript' thing', struck me as fishy-at-best. I'm not trying to be overly cynical, but the timing . . .it was like "The Twilight movie is coming out, and just now I've learned that this was leaked, and I know who it was because there were a couple of versions, and I know which version went where, and I'm so disheartened by this that I can't finish it, but I'll post what was written on my site for readers to enjoy." . . . Now, I'm not saying that it started out as a ploy, or scheme, but given that, yeah, the movie was just coming out, and the fact that, aside from 'The Host', she has't produced anything other than Twilight, it seems awfully convenient that this was the time that the work was leaked. I'd have to be lying if I said that I wasn't thinking along these lines when this news first broke. When it first was announced, I felt so bad for Meyer, hell, I wasn't a fan, and I still reposted her announcement on my deviantART page for my friends and fans that ARE fans of hers. But then, the longer I looked at the issue, the more I turned it over in my head, the more I was overcome with that twisting feeling in the pit of my stomach that something in the picture wasn't right. The closer you examined it, the more you realized that it could totally have been a publicity stunt to garner more attention for the series. Do I want to think that? No, I really don't, but the thought is there and I'm not going to say it's not.
Continued . . . .
DeleteBut, as far as this last part, I will say- don't let those reviews fool you. They are what the more hard-core readers on Amazon refer to as 'shill reviews', products of what they call the 'friends and family plan'-- just what it sounds like, authors recruiting loved ones to pad their ratings &/or reviews. Read something absolutely terrible 'cause you were coaxed into it by the 5 star rating and handful of reviews that were positively glowing? Then you were likely suckered into it by this very ploy. There is even a thing now that, though I didn't read it, I did get really upset just by the summary of the article, apparently authors are paying people to give their books favorable reviews. THESE are the things that make me throw up my hands and say WTF, 'cause if they're cornering the market with these sort of tactics while not caring to focus on making their own work good enough to receive such praise on its own merits, then what are those of us that are being honest, and care enough to put our best efforts out there, left with?
I have to wonder if James only acknowledged her work was mediocre because once it received the label "mommy porn", the expectations of great writing diminished. Right? Because we all know erotica isn't written well. Yes, I'm being facetious. I've read some erotica recently that was very well written and had excellent storylines. But lets face it, many of 50's fans don't have a clue how these books came to be and that the writing world, whether we like the story or not, are whispering about how she got there. With the Big 6 rewarding authors for writing stories not based on original ideas, we're not like to see this trend disappearing soon. One of my favorite books I've read this year was Gabriel's Inferno. I was shocked to know it too was a Twilight facfaction originally. But unlike 50, Sylvain Reynard's story is well written with an original story. But I will say that I starting to wonder if I should write a Fifty Shades fanfic story myself ;).
ReplyDeleteYou could, but you'd totally hate yourself in the morning XD.
DeleteAnd, a fanfiction can totally be a worthwhile read so long as it has a story that stands on its own- as in one that could very well exist if not for the original work it was based on. 50 Shades is so tightly tied to it's base that it wouldn't have been written if not for being a Twilight fanfiction. Like I said, some of us write Alternate Universe works, and they can be so divergent from the canon world the characters originate from, that the names and physical descriptions of said characters are really only place-holders so that the writer can focus on crafting the story.
I think she acknowledged that it was mediocre 'cause with that particular aspect continuously being pointed out, she had only two choices- acknowledge or deny. Perhaps she felt that by acknowledging it, she might make it more 'okay' for those that were on the fence about reading her work particularly because of its poor writing.
Have I ever mentioned that I love you? I am running late to work today because I absolutely had to stop and read this, and therefore comment. I made it through the first book, somehow. It took me three WEEKS to read it. I would make it through half a chapter and have to put it down. In my personal opinion, this book had nothing going for it, other than the fact that it was related to Twilight. It had NO plot, characters you couldn't not relate to because they were UNREALISTIC, a literary level of a fourteen year old, oh and did I mention no actual plot? If I were Meyers, I would be OFFENDED that this book was based off Twilight! (I dislike Twilight as well, but lets not get into that tirade)
ReplyDeleteAnother annoyance, just like Twilight, it teaches women that you should hold on to that abusive guy, because in the end he has a good heart! Just ignore the stalking, the abusive controlling, the mental cheapshots, or in Twilight's case the constant threat of being eaten (not in the good way).
As I mentioned, totally love you for writing this!
Oh, I have a note on FB in which I pick apart Twilight, too, lol (well, the sparkly-vamp aspect of it, anyways XD).
DeleteThe friend I was making the comments to regarding 50 enjoyed reading them so much that she was trying to talk me into trudging through the entire thing & posting my reactions as a live feed on goodreads as I went along. I don't think I have the mental fortitude to bounce back from such a taxing endeavor. It took me an entire weekend to make it through the first 2 chapters- and it wasn't because of things like rl interruptions. See, when I read Twilight, it was just before the 1st movie opened in theaters, and had no idea what to expect. I actually opened the book thinking I might end up loving it in spite of myself, but what happened was I got through it, closed it, and spent some time staring at the back cover and wondering what was causing everyone to lose their friggin' minds over this book.
And, I had to write this. HAD to. I had it sitting on my blog dashboard as a draft for about 2 weeks- my indecision was due to fear that I would be hunted down and killed by rabid fans- before I just thought, "I have every right to my opinion, why shouldn't I share it? And, I can't keep saying 'everyone's entitled to their opinion' but be afraid to share my own." Again, if people don't like what I have to say, they don't have to read it.