When I first chose Fifty Shades of Grey for our book club I received some grief from my fellow members because we heard that the writing was less than average. But I am the type of person who just has to read what is so popular because I have to know what the hype is about and be able to judge for myself before I put the book down. So popular that when I was in Vegas for my honeymoon, you could literally walk around the pool and see like every other woman who was reading, holding Shades of Grey. Sex stores have themed their shops to Shades of Grey even down to packaging products to match the cover of the book. My husband and I ventured into one of these shops also while in Vegas and we were questioning the employees about this. They said business has never been better- especially in the fetish department. He said he can't even keep anal beads in stock! And now that I have read the series, I can say, quite accurately that the writing is juvenile. I think I have the write to assess this having my masters degree in Creative Writing. E.L.James would have never made it into my program. Not even close.
Just starting with the following phrases she repeated a ridiculously amount of times within the trilogy:
- my inner goddess
- he cocked his head
- I bit my lip
- tenacity
- my subconscious
- oh my!
- hugging myself (WTF is this by the way- she really hugged herself? Who does that?)
- Christian constantly says "you're always ready" over and over and over. I think quite possibly every time they do IT.
I was so sick of these phrases. Jesus! Didn't anyone ever tell her to crack open a thesaurus? Also, I don't get how people think this book is so "risque". Has no one ever read erotica before? This is fluff. There are no crude words or even curses really. Nothing was shocking- but maybe that says more about me than it does about the book! Yet, I can't say I altogether did not enjoy the books. In fact, the second and third book I read straight through in one day. So something was driving me to read it. I do think as the series went on it got a bit more interesting. When the reader started to learn a bit more about Christian's background and more subplots started to evolve it was definitely more driven. The first book dragged a bit and I think that is because it was basically only about Christian and Ana. When the story is more interesting it makes it easier to not obsess over the ridiculous amount of times Christian "cocks his head".
I also mostly did not like Ana's character. I am tired of the heroin's who are so clueless about how beautiful they are. It's one thing if the character doesn't have confidence or doesn't care about outward appearances much but I don't buy the complete unaware thing. But after a while it almost seems like an act of being coy- How many times did Ana say "Why me?" much like Bella in Twilight. Hmmmm is that a coincidence?
As I was trying to gather questions for book club, I started reading into more about Fifty Shades and discovered that it was initially written as fan fiction in the world of Twilight. Well- now it all makes sense. Fifty Shades of Grey practically IS Twilight!!!! When I read Twilight, I thought Stephanie Meyer's writing was cliche and mundane but her writing is fantastic compares to E.L.James. But if you have read both series, let's just take a look at a few of the identical characters and events in these two novels. Please post comments if you disagree or if you find even more similarities.
- Bella vs. Ana: First their names: Three syllables non American names- Isabella vs. Anastasia but goes by two syllables Bella- Ana- Beginning and ending with a vowel. They are ridiculously unaware of their beauty. Stand up to/Not afraid of Christian/Edward. Both "innocent", awkward/clumsy, etc.
- Edward vs. Christian: Both Adopted. Both have a dark secret they must control in order to be with Bella/Ana.
- Jacob vs. Jose: Both in love with Ana- also great looking. Come on they are even both Spanish! AND both of their fathers are BFF with Ana/Bella's dad. The ONLY difference I see here is that Ana never acts interested in Jose, while Bella does act interested in Jacob.
- Charlie vs. Ray: Identical- the way Ana/Bella feels about him, needs to take care of him etc. He is single, basically still loves Ana/Bella's mother. The way Christian/Edward and his family has to protect Charlie/Ray.
- Renee vs. Carla: Identical- Flighty, goes through boyfriends/husbands like crazy, seem very distant toward Ana/Bella, more like a friend than mother, etc.
- Edward's Family vs. Christian's Family: Both have adopted children, Influential, affluent family, Parents are rich doctors!
- Edward vs. Christian's ability to rush to her side at any given moment: I mean- Christian "tracks" her with technology while Edward tracks her with his vampire abilities but how else is it different? It's not.
- Bella vs. Ana's pregnancy: Ok so there's no vampire baby basically killing her. But still. Similar.
The list just goes on and on and on. Fifty Shades is basically an adult, non-sci fi version of Twilight. I get the whole fan fiction thing and think it's awesome to write within another writer's world. In fact, as a writer, that could probably be the biggest compliment. But, when has it gone to far? When does it become Plagiarism? If I were Stephanie Meyer, I'd be angry that someone else basically took all my ideas and my characters and is making a fortune off of it! Then again, she has her own fortune so maybe she just doesn't care. Maybe this gives her publicity. But it's not like E.L. James acknowledges that it was taken from Twilight. Do most people reading Fifty Shades of Grey know the connection to Twilight? Did you? Do you foresee a lawsuit between the two authors? Have you heard that E.L.James plans on releasing a 4th novel? Yet, another comparison to Twilight?
On another note, there are also many moral questions surrounding this book which I am not going to get into. I'll leave this for my friend Sonya to rip apart in her soon to be blog. But I will just one question her and I have discussed: Is it okay for women to read this book and think it's ok or even good to have a relationship with such a controlling man- hoping he will change? Not the BDSM but the way he exerts control over her in all other ways. Speaking of Sonya- she found this great link- a spoof with Gilbert Gottfried reading from Fifty Shades of Grey. It's hysterical!!!!! http://www.jest.com/video/174214/gilbert-gottfried-reads-fifty-shades-of-grey
Please leave your comments and feel free to disagree with me also! I love a good literary battle! :)
I'm going to go cock my head and satisfy my inner goddess with such tenacity that I have to bite my lip to keep my subconscious from screaming out because let's face it- I'm always ready. Oh my! I'll have to hug myself for that one. Laters!
Check out my Yoga blog Yoga by Tosia: Your one stop site to improving your body and mind! at www.yogabytosia.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment