I think I actually remember the Cracked article! Yes, I do. Trust me, they didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the 5 (or 10, or 100) NC-17 fanfics that are most baffling, bizarre, and… what’s another adjective that begins with B? Anakin/Padme-- eh. I don’t think that’s baffling as much as it is boring.
I am and have always been Draco/Ginny-- there’s some great slash out there, but I really can’t write it. I can honestly say that I’ve been writing D/G NC-17 fanfic longer than anyone else on the planet. (Is that a good thing? Well, we’ll let the psychiatrists decide…) And yes, the juiciest of them can be found here:The NC-17 Fanfics That Inspired Death Train & Sex and The Single Devil
So clearly, I have an evil-ly ulterior motive for being happy about the way-paving on the part of FS. I’m just sad that an NC-17 fanfic that bad was the first one to get real distribution.
No, you’re taking it a wee bit personally. It’s just a book. Some people like it, some people don’t. She read the books, came away with a different perspective, and wrote a snarky review. That’s it. It’s not a “cheap shot”. It’s a book. It doesn’t have feelings.
It’s the MST3K treatment.
I haven’t read the books, although the descriptions have made me cringe. (Not because of it being porn, but because it just sounds like a shitty book).
(I did, however, read the entire Twilight series. If only it were possible to unread a book)
Oh, I totally admit that I take the very existence of FS personally. No question about it. But there are some good reasons. I’ve been writing NC-17 fanfic for ten years. Again, it really means something negative to me for something this bad to get such wide acclaim. Even though I do think I understand something about why it happened( apart from the step by step story, in great detail, of exactly how the Twilight fandom made it happen.)
I honestly think there are some parallels that could be drawn to the blaxploitation films of the 1970’s. Almost all of these were pretty bad, although there were some good ones (*Watermelon Man, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Sweet Sweetback’s *etc.) Terrible messages (all civil rights made some kind of condemnatory statement at the time, and even most groups like the Black Panthers didn’t like them for various reasons), terrible lighting, editing, directing, acting, etc. But they were the first time that portrayals of African-American people that were NOT servants, maids, and at best entertainers had really come to the big screen and become well known. (There were those indie films such as The Learning Tree, Gordon Parks’ work, early silent director Oscar Micheaux, and so forth.) But those didn’t become big mainstream hits, and the blaxploitation films did. So a lot of those films were made, because they could be made so cheaply and people would pay to see them.
Similarly, the success of FS seems to have suddenly proclaimed the news that some women like to read really, really explicit material. It’s not as if this kind of NC-17 material has never existed for women before. But for whatever reason, it has not been a huge success. No matter how badly FS is written and no matter how terrible the messages are, it is written for women by a woman. So no matter how bad it is, some women are buying it. The difference is that I know just how much better than first crossover success could have been (I’d have really liked to see Sugarbear’s *Smoking In the Head Boy’s Room *get published and go mainstream!) So yes, it is much more than just being snarky for me.
Well … actually … I didn’t like Fifty Shades of Grey as a read. Not because it was badly written, it struck me as well written in many respects. I didn’t like it because it was a romance, and I generally don’t like romances. Too much characterization and plot development, not enough sex. (I was pleased, however, that the kinky sex was quite kinky, I had feared that the kink would be watered-down stuff … you know, blindfolds and lame hands in front ties that fall off with the least pressure … the old 9 1/2 Weeks treatment. Also, the characters really loved and enjoyed their kinky sex, and James did a great job of portraying that, something she did not get much credit for, among other things).
Plus, I write kinky fiction, reading other people’s kinky fiction is a busman’s holiday kind of thing, I don’t read a lot of it. I prefer good science fiction and fantasy for recreational reading.
I read the book, not recreationally, but because I realized it was an IMPORTANT book, part of several important breaking cultural phenomena, the most important of which was the more widespread acceptance of BDSM sexual fantasies among women (‘mommies") but also the rise of fanfic as an acceptable form of writing, and hopefully, the demise of traditional big publishers in favor of self-publishers and small publishers that actually serve their authors and readers’ interests. (it’s hilarious the way the big publishers are now trolling the Twilight fanfic community for “the next 50 Shades of Grey”).
I also think much of the criticism is incredibly superficial, concentrating on minor stylistic errors (“Oh my!” and dancing inner goddesses) which bothered me not at all when I read Fifty Shades. Or they criticized Fifty Shades for having a male protagonist and a relationship which were not poster children for good BDSM practices. (HELLOOOOOOO! It’s a work of FICTION! It’s supposed to be DRAMATIC! If Ana and Christian’s characters and relationships had been role models for BDSM, NO ONE would have read the books because they would have been TOO FRICKING DULL!!!)
Also, the critics have left out some VERY GOOD ASPECTS of Fifty Shades of Gray that are not present in most romances. The topic of contraception comes up early in Christian and Ana’s relationship, plans are made and carried out, it’s not ignored or neglected as in so many romances. There is also much emphasis on communication and trust in the relationship. Christian almost always is very careful to get Ana’s explicit, enthusiastic permission for whatever high-jinks he is up to. Something that NEVER happens in your average bodice ripper (which is OK, they’re FICTION) but it’s nice to see it happen in Fifty Shades. The WHOLE STORY is about the way Christian and Ana build a real, trusting relationship instead of the superficial paid sub/dom contractual relationship that Christian initially offers Ana.
(Ana NEVER signs the contract in the book, you have NO IDEA how many times I’ve read posts by writers who inadvertently revealed themselves to be lazy, lying idiots because they say at some point that Ana signed the contract. It’s a KEY point and they missed it … probably because they never read the book. Of course some admit straight up that they never read the book when they write articles dissing it, and that’s all kinds of sad. Do your homework, people.) I’m not criticizing you here, Guinistasia, as your posts do not purport to be criticisms of the book.
And the thing is, my anger really is about all the stupid, stupid criticisms of the book I have read online, not in this thread. I set up news agents to bring me articles about Fifty Shades of Grey and related topics early in 2012 (like, February or so) and I would estimate I have read well over 200 articles a month (conservative estimate, probably more like 500 a month in late spring and summer when the media finally caught on to the phenomenon) on the topic of Fifty Shades of Grey, and the vast majority are incredibly stupid and superficial. I realize that that’s largely because big aggregator sites like HuffPo, Gather and the Examiner hire whatever stupid-ass word monkeys they can get to write for them for the glorious sum of … NOTHING … and the ones who DO pay, pay so little it wouldn’t keep a budgie in sunflower seeds so they get intellectual mouth-breathers writing for them, too … but still, it’s MADDENING to see so many thousands of displays of stupidity and butt ignorance displayed as if it were intelligent, insightful commentary, completely missing the key points about Fifty Shades time after time after time.
It’s exactly like being a progressive and watching Fox News, only Fox News is everywhere and nobody knows it’s Fox News. Whenever I find intelligent, insightful analysis of Fifty Shades I post it to my blog immediately because, at last, a pony under all that horse manure!
I’m not angry about the posts in this thread that regurgitate the glurge I’ve read online about Fifty Shades, I’m disappointed. I thought Dopers were smarter than those cheap-ass work monkeys who write for the big aggregators and traditional publishers.
Evil Captor, I really appreciate that you have at least thought about these issues, and thought about them carefully. (Publishers trolling Twilight fanfic-- HILARIOUS! Good luck, that’s all I can say.) And I love that all of this has at least brought attention to fanfic writing. (Maybe they’ll start looking through D/G work and actually find the good stuff.) But OTOH, a lot of people have indeed given substantive critiques. I think that what might be bothering some is that these do not seem to be acknowledged.
I hope that you do choose to post the POV represented by long-time fanfic authors who have been writing GOOD NC-17 for lo, these many years. Not necessarily me, not at all-- Mynuet, Eustacia Vye, Recension, Sugarbear, Lyndsie, and Aquinah are a few that come to mind right away. That would really put this phenomenon into a context that I think is valuable, rather than just finding bad reviews and ranting about them. And please understand that I’ve done pretty much the same thing when it comes to other creative works. It’s fun to do, and it feels satisfying. But it is not the whole picture.