Yes, I'm still bewildered by the EW article on Fifty Shades...and the hype surrounding it

So I'm reading The Fifty Shades of Grey, El James interview in this week's issue of marketing of big pop culture trends that you sort of wish you didn't know, were most likely better off not knowing about, otherwise known as Entertainment Weekly. I know, I know...it's a guilty pleasure, and I rarely read the articles anyhow - they don't exactly hire the best writers in the universe. Sort of sparse on the content. Mostly it's like reading a press release. It teases but tells you nothing. I really miss Premiere - now that was a good film and entertainment - that had articles on film making by people such as Ridely Scott and Quentin Tarantino and Nora Ephron. EW is sort of a poor pulpy version of Premiere and it really does pander to Hollywood.

At any rate - this is the description of Fifty Shades of Grey:
( description of the Fifty Shades novel )

This bit is actually interesting:

( from fanfic to best-seller - or how you too can turn your popular fanfic into an erotica best-seller and make millions )

Criticism according to the article:
* rough literary structure. The heroine thinks "oh my", "holy cow" or "holy crap" alot.
* the sex isn't considered really BSDM. The relationship is actually more abusive. (This actually the case with most romantic fiction or 'bodice rippers' of this specific trope. I've read enough to state this. ) "He tells her when to eat, he stalks her and goes into jealous rages every time she's talking to her male friends." [This interestingly enough is a major trope in romantic fiction. Joss Whedon actually played with it quite a bit in the Buffy series. That's why Buffy's boyfriends were all a bit controlling, manipulative, and jealous...Whedon was playing with the trope. He's not the only to play with it. Male writers tend to criticize this trope and mock it. But dudes? It's no different than the black widow trope you love to pieces in your noir pulp fantasy fiction. Hello? Wes and Lilah Morgan? Or how about Catwoman and Batman? The stalking, seductress female? John Cricton and the villianous female commander of Farscape? Both genders appear to have this in common - fantasizing about their mate (regardless of gender) being controlling, stalking, jealous, and dominant. They don't really "want" it. They just want to fantasize about it. Fantasy isn't reality. Fantasy is playing with things in your head. And in your head...what would be painful and hurtful in reality, is not.]

What strikes me as odd about the media response to Fifty Shades...is they act like this is new. It's not. This is a standard romance novel trope. There's a 1000 novels with this storyline and plot on Amazon. Seriously, it's not hard to find.

EW does to give it credit list a number of historically controversial erotic novels, many better written and more interesting than this one, some even won awards:

* Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Passion - by John Cleland (1749) - it was banned until 1966 when the US Supreme Court ruled that because it had some redeeming social value, it could not be deemed obscene.

*Lady Chatterly's Love by DH Lawrence (1928)

* Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934) - It's 1938 US government ban wasn't lifted until 1961.

* Story of O by Pauline Reage (1954) - won literary prize in France but is still slammed by feminists for being a story about rape and savage submission.

*The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander with Robin Moore and Yvonne Dunleavy

* Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (1973) (my parents had this one...it was boring, lots of time ruminating about what it would be like to have sex with a stranger and whether she should or not). She got lambasted because she received a $5,000 NEA grant to write it.

* Forever by Judy Bloom (1975) - oh I remember this one. It and Slaughterhouse Five were the books we were sneaking peeks at in grade school. I actually read a spicier book in the 7th grade by a French writer about a Parisian student who has an affair with an older man.
Can't remember the name of it.

* Damage by Josephine Hart (1991) - that's the one that spawned the movie with Jeremy Irons and Johanne Whalley.

*The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber (2002)

* How to Make Love Like a Pron Star by Jenna Jameson (2004).

Apparently we've gone down hill...to Fifty Shades. Sad but true.

(no subject)

1. Haven't accomplished much today...by Sat, I just want to sort of do nothing. Did laundry last night - just the work clothes at the mat. Also bought some food. And today read flist. Rainy, cold, groggy day.

2. Just did the SC and Vamp Diaries marathon - I was behind two episodes. Will state totally understand why SC lost half its audience and Vamp Diaries is doing better. SC just is too teen agnsty for its own good. And it does not help that the most interesting characters we rarely see, the parents. The elders. The focus being almost solely on the kids along with pov is a big mistake. That said? Kevin Williamson does romance better than Whedon does. Will give him that. Also in Vamp Diaries this week, Williamson and Plec actually do a shout-out to Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that equals Whedon's periodic shout-outs to Dawson's Creek. "What, did you get attacked by Buffy the Vampire?" LOL!

Outside of that, don't have a great deal to say. Except I liked Sage and Abby and wish they'd stop kicking to the curb and/or killing great older female supporting characters. Guys, not all the lead female characters on the show need to be under the age of 25. If you can have male characters who are older...and no, Rebecca does not count.

3. Am considering if time permits, seeing Mirror Mirror next weekend, because it looks like a lot of fun. I need fun.

Fannish Five - Movies that I know about and are anticipating?

* The Hunger Games - it was as good as advertised and better than expected. (keep in mind my last foray into the multiplex was Harry Potter. So... And it is worth noting that in NYC not only are movies $12 and above, but any movie that is not action oriented and fast paced is impossible to watch in a movie theater without being annoyed by chatter or text messaging by patrons with short attention spans who think they are watching it in their own living room. So I rent those flicks via netflix and don't bother trying to see them in the Theater. Hugo, Beginners, and The Magical Imperium of Doctor Parsnuius are on my TV stand from netflix at the moment.)
* Mirror Mirror (because it looks like fun)
* Snow White and The Huntsman - great special effects
* Dark Knight Rises - so sue me, I'm a die-hard Chris Nolan and Christian Bale fan. Also, Catwoman.
* The Hobbit (which I almost forgot about and remains my favorite fantasy novel of all time. I actually played the Great Goblin in a play version for a summer youth theater camp when I was 12. During this camp, I meet one of the artists that does Doonesbury (no Trudeau doesn't do everything himself, he has some other artists who help). We each got a hand drawn Doonesbury cartoon at the end of the camp - don't know where I put it. I think I lost mine. The guy who did the cartoon was a Great Goblin with me. He was doing the camp with his son.)

Oddly, more intrigued by Cabin in the Woods than the Avengers. For numerous reasons, amongst them? I believe Whedon works better on a smaller scale and is more comfortable in the horror genre that he knows like the back of his own hand and is highly critical and passionate about than superhero genre, which is basically Marvel dictacting everything anyhow - since hello, franchise. It doesn't matter who directs this. The other reason? The trailer is horrible. It looks like a Michael Bay Tranformers film, and been there, done that. That's not to say, I'll see Cabin in the Woods in the movie theater, but I might rent it, because the concept intrigues me - apparently Whedon and Drew Goddard do a sly satirical subversive take on the torture porn and zombie genre.