Media criticism of two pop culture hits
May. 12th, 2012 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAh...someone who was mildly critical of the Avengers flick, and amusingly upset Samuel L Jackson (who I honestly think was joking - seriously, Jackson starred in Snakes on a Plane, this man is no stranger to bad critical reviews.)
NY Times Critic AO Scott's review of the Avengers.
Here's the criticism:
....while “The Avengers” is hardly worth raging about, its failures are significant and dispiriting. The light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre. Mr. Whedon’s playful, democratic pop sensibility is no match for the glowering authoritarianism that now defines Hollywood’s comic-book universe. Some of the rebel spirit of Mr. Whedon’s early projects “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly” and “Serenity” creeps in around the edges but as detail and decoration rather than as the animating ethos.
Clearly the critic is a fan of Whedon, just not of the comic book The Avengers. (I'm somewhat the same way, was never much of an Avengers fan. I loved the X-men. But outside of the X-men, group superhero comics bored me. Feel the same way about the Justice League. And yes, it's due to the authoritan aspects of the genre, which Alan Moore famously critiqued in Watchmen. Watchmen is actually a critique of The Avengers and Justice League comics.)
I've read a few Avenger's comics (because they kept crossing over with the X-me) so I know the stories and team. This film is missing a few characters - Scarlett Witch (Magneto's Daughter),
The Wasp, and Antman.
Haven't seen it yet. Just getting this from the various reviews. Flist has been reviewing the Avengers for the past three weeks. I have to keep skipping posts, because I don't want to be spoiled, but I do want a general review.
In other news...I finished The 50 Shades trilogy and have read various reviews and comments on it. Some rather sexist and misogynistic. Someone from SNL stated that they couldn't deal with seeing the middle-aged lady across from them reading this book. Interesting, personally I find seeing a guy reading American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis across from me, far more disturbing, particularly when he's loving it and looks at me over the rim. (I've read the book and Ellis details the psycho's rape of women in an erotic manner that well, makes you mildly ill.) (Clearly they have no idea what is in the book (50 Shades not American Psycho) or that middle-aged ladies can read a lot worse on the internet, I'm sorry, does this come as a shock to you? Internet erotica (aka porn) is not just read or viewed by horny men. Also middle-aged ladies libidio is a bit more active than 20 something libidios..which possibly explains why middle-aged men prefer to date 20 somethings...they can't keep up with women their own age. LOL! See I can be sexist too.)
This is not to say the books are necessarily good or ground-breaking. The media reaction to them however...is bewildering and somewhat offensive, also proof, in case we needed any, that the media looks at sex the same way a 12 year old boy does - will it give me cooties? I'm also tempted to state the media is a tad on the sexist/misogynistic side of the proverbial fence.
The publishing industry's bewilderment over why they are doing well amuses me greatly. Because, yes, a book can sell millions without being gutted. What's good about the book isn't the sex or really the story for that matter. Nor how it is written - the writing is more or less standard pulp fair. But the how the writer plays with it. If you've read fanfic, and almost everyone reading this journal has, you've seen it before. Text messages in the book. Times and dates. About five to six pages in the back showing everything from the guys point of view at the very end of the last book. Detailed description of every part of the romance. Things editors usually cut out, are left intact. The writer is playing, and we don't often see that in published stories, unfortunately. That is a fault of the publishing industry not writers. And with any luck this book might make the publishing industry rethink their tactics - trust readers more, and stop trying to make everything fit an established formula.
The plot which has been reported in the major reviews doesn't factually fit what I read. Here's what I read: 21 year old Anastasia Steele gets roped into interviewing insanely successful multi-billionaire Christian Grey for a college magazine that her roommate edits. Her roommate, Kate Kavanagh got the interview with Grey and persuaded Grey to do it. But comes down with the flu on the day of the interview and persuades her roommate Ana to do it for her. Ana does, and it's lust at first sight. Christian is your typical tortured hero. He's the beast of this tale. It's not Taming the Shrew as many of the reviews have indicated, no, it's Taming the Beast. He wants to engage her as his newest submissive in a BDSM relationship. Being sexually inexperienced, she
resists. He never really gets her to commit to it. Instead she ends up pulling him away from that lifestyle, so although they do have BDSM sex - it's not that much. Ana is on the eve of her graduation. She's taking her final exams when she meets him. And graduates from college when they begin to get together. She moves to Seattle with her roommate, Kate, and gets a job at a publishing company...when she's dating him. So, I wouldn't describe her as a college student.
She also falls in love with him before they really have sex. So it's not a one-night stand thing.
This is more of a romantic fantasy novel with lots of sex than an erotica novel. Erotica novels don't tend to be romantic.
It's not as good as Nauti's Crave. But it is better than a lot of other Everybody's Human fanfics that I've read. If you like that sort of thing - it's fairly cheap on the kindle. You can grab a sample. That's what I did. But I don't really rec it. The first book was the best of the bunch.
The last book was sluggish and plodding at times, and not a lot happens. The second books falls somewhere between the two - better than the third, not as compelling as the first - which is often true in the romance genre. Once the two characters get together...you get bored. All the writer can do is break them up. Which she does at the end of book 1, very beginning of book 2, they get back together...and the rest of it is the battle of the genders - or taming the beast.
Romance novels are in a way - gender battles. Two genders fighting each other. Sex is the fight scene. Or Taming the Beast.
NY Times Critic AO Scott's review of the Avengers.
Here's the criticism:
....while “The Avengers” is hardly worth raging about, its failures are significant and dispiriting. The light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre. Mr. Whedon’s playful, democratic pop sensibility is no match for the glowering authoritarianism that now defines Hollywood’s comic-book universe. Some of the rebel spirit of Mr. Whedon’s early projects “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly” and “Serenity” creeps in around the edges but as detail and decoration rather than as the animating ethos.
Clearly the critic is a fan of Whedon, just not of the comic book The Avengers. (I'm somewhat the same way, was never much of an Avengers fan. I loved the X-men. But outside of the X-men, group superhero comics bored me. Feel the same way about the Justice League. And yes, it's due to the authoritan aspects of the genre, which Alan Moore famously critiqued in Watchmen. Watchmen is actually a critique of The Avengers and Justice League comics.)
I've read a few Avenger's comics (because they kept crossing over with the X-me) so I know the stories and team. This film is missing a few characters - Scarlett Witch (Magneto's Daughter),
The Wasp, and Antman.
Haven't seen it yet. Just getting this from the various reviews. Flist has been reviewing the Avengers for the past three weeks. I have to keep skipping posts, because I don't want to be spoiled, but I do want a general review.
In other news...I finished The 50 Shades trilogy and have read various reviews and comments on it. Some rather sexist and misogynistic. Someone from SNL stated that they couldn't deal with seeing the middle-aged lady across from them reading this book. Interesting, personally I find seeing a guy reading American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis across from me, far more disturbing, particularly when he's loving it and looks at me over the rim. (I've read the book and Ellis details the psycho's rape of women in an erotic manner that well, makes you mildly ill.) (Clearly they have no idea what is in the book (50 Shades not American Psycho) or that middle-aged ladies can read a lot worse on the internet, I'm sorry, does this come as a shock to you? Internet erotica (aka porn) is not just read or viewed by horny men. Also middle-aged ladies libidio is a bit more active than 20 something libidios..which possibly explains why middle-aged men prefer to date 20 somethings...they can't keep up with women their own age. LOL! See I can be sexist too.)
This is not to say the books are necessarily good or ground-breaking. The media reaction to them however...is bewildering and somewhat offensive, also proof, in case we needed any, that the media looks at sex the same way a 12 year old boy does - will it give me cooties? I'm also tempted to state the media is a tad on the sexist/misogynistic side of the proverbial fence.
The publishing industry's bewilderment over why they are doing well amuses me greatly. Because, yes, a book can sell millions without being gutted. What's good about the book isn't the sex or really the story for that matter. Nor how it is written - the writing is more or less standard pulp fair. But the how the writer plays with it. If you've read fanfic, and almost everyone reading this journal has, you've seen it before. Text messages in the book. Times and dates. About five to six pages in the back showing everything from the guys point of view at the very end of the last book. Detailed description of every part of the romance. Things editors usually cut out, are left intact. The writer is playing, and we don't often see that in published stories, unfortunately. That is a fault of the publishing industry not writers. And with any luck this book might make the publishing industry rethink their tactics - trust readers more, and stop trying to make everything fit an established formula.
The plot which has been reported in the major reviews doesn't factually fit what I read. Here's what I read: 21 year old Anastasia Steele gets roped into interviewing insanely successful multi-billionaire Christian Grey for a college magazine that her roommate edits. Her roommate, Kate Kavanagh got the interview with Grey and persuaded Grey to do it. But comes down with the flu on the day of the interview and persuades her roommate Ana to do it for her. Ana does, and it's lust at first sight. Christian is your typical tortured hero. He's the beast of this tale. It's not Taming the Shrew as many of the reviews have indicated, no, it's Taming the Beast. He wants to engage her as his newest submissive in a BDSM relationship. Being sexually inexperienced, she
resists. He never really gets her to commit to it. Instead she ends up pulling him away from that lifestyle, so although they do have BDSM sex - it's not that much. Ana is on the eve of her graduation. She's taking her final exams when she meets him. And graduates from college when they begin to get together. She moves to Seattle with her roommate, Kate, and gets a job at a publishing company...when she's dating him. So, I wouldn't describe her as a college student.
She also falls in love with him before they really have sex. So it's not a one-night stand thing.
This is more of a romantic fantasy novel with lots of sex than an erotica novel. Erotica novels don't tend to be romantic.
It's not as good as Nauti's Crave. But it is better than a lot of other Everybody's Human fanfics that I've read. If you like that sort of thing - it's fairly cheap on the kindle. You can grab a sample. That's what I did. But I don't really rec it. The first book was the best of the bunch.
The last book was sluggish and plodding at times, and not a lot happens. The second books falls somewhere between the two - better than the third, not as compelling as the first - which is often true in the romance genre. Once the two characters get together...you get bored. All the writer can do is break them up. Which she does at the end of book 1, very beginning of book 2, they get back together...and the rest of it is the battle of the genders - or taming the beast.
Romance novels are in a way - gender battles. Two genders fighting each other. Sex is the fight scene. Or Taming the Beast.
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Re: Fifty Shades...
Date: 2012-05-23 10:08 pm (UTC)The third book drug, don't highly recommend. Also nothing major revealed that isn't in the first two...except that Grey finally gets over himself and is no longer as obsessive by the end of it.
I did however think there were similarities between SoG and some BtVS fanfic and wonder if the author was "inspired" by that as well (particularly Crave.) I was wondering your thoughts?
Agreed it is very similar to the BTVS Everybody's Human fanfic that I've read. Including the text messages/emails/contracts - which you never see in published books but are in fanfics. (Actually I liked the text messages and emails and contracts - thought that was hilarious, but mostly because I got the inside joke.)
It reminded me a great deal of Nauti's Crave. In fact I did tell her at one point that she should just publish her erotica, and replace the names. Easy. Apparently she's considering doing that...and has a publisher that is looking into it. EL James writing style reminds me a great deal of Nauti's - lots of dialogue, not much description and a casual twenty-something tone.
To my knowledge James has never read BTVS or TrueBlood fanfic, I know she's very involved in the Twilight community. And...from what I've seen of the fanfic in various fandoms, it's not that different. 50 Shades is basically proof that the Twilight fanfic is no better or worse than the Everybody's Human BTVS fanfic. IT is however a great deal better than many similar "published" (non-fanfic) novels out there just like it, believe it or not. Which may explain why it is doing so well - it's meeting an itch that well nothing else is.
I haven't really read Twilight either - couldn't make it past the first 50 pages. So can't really tell you how similar they are. Nor have I seen the films. (Personally found Twilight to be unreadable, James is a better writer than Stephanie Meyer, granted so are a lot of people...)
I also thought that the sex that people are making such a big deal out of was pretty tame.
Agreed. Disappointingly so, actually. But go read some of the reviews of Sylvia Day's Bared to You which compare it to 50 Shades (Day's sex is even tamer), which state it's not as risque or over the top! (LOL!)
I've read two books - that aren't fanfic, also poorly written, which were far more out there, Bottom's Up and Dom of My Dreams - both of those had menage a trois (two guys, one girl) and anal sex.
The most risque bits in Shades are in 50 Shades Darker and 50 Shades Freed - which involve the silver balls, spanking, a curved vibrator,
handcuffs, and a small butt plug. He never really claims her ass.
While most BDSM books include a lot of anal sex. Heck, Rosemary Roger's contemporary romance novels did.
But keep in mind that most people haven't read this stuff. Story of O is foreign to them. Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series, Anais Nin, oh so many others. They never read the fanfic we have. They don't know it exists.
Really, read the Amazon reviews...highly entertaining.
Re: Fifty Shades...
Date: 2012-05-23 10:11 pm (UTC)I mean, if you have ever read Sarah Aless' BtVS Spike as the dom stuff, you would laugh hysterically at everyone so up in arms at FSoG
Okay, now I want to hunt down Sarah Aless' fanfic. I do remember reading other's though that were equally graphic - SaberShadowkitten was notorious, as was DeadSoul, Herself, Wisteria, and various others.
Nauti is actually pretty tame - but had a sense of humor. And I think that's what is selling 50 Shades - it is the difference between 50 and all its copycats or the other books out there that are vaguely similar.
James has a sense of humor. The book made me laugh in places. (Particularly the text messages and the heroine despairing over her insane lover.) Most of these books unfortunately don't have a sense of humor. That's what Nauti had and a lot of the other erotic fanfics didn't - a sense of humor.
They don't take themselves or their story that seriously. The others, sigh do.
I have to say, I did get tired of the "he is so beautiful and I am so not." Also, of the same phrases over and over (not "laters baby," because that was a running joke;) holy cow, etc. Do you think that had anything to do with the writer being English trying to write American characters?
Possibly. It didn't bother me all that much - oddly enough. I expected it too. But the whole "holy" bit seemed to just be an Ana thing. Part of her character. In much the same way - that laters baby was an Elliot thing. Note that no one else uses the holy cow, holy shit, holy crap, holy fuck phrases, and she rarely utters them aloud. Ana is 21, not broadly read, and well not exactly highly articulate. He makes fun of her vocabulary on more than one occasion. Christian meanwhile uses fuck alot. Repeated uses of specific phrases to show a character's idiosyncrasies are allowed. It puts you more fully inside that character's mindset - how they think. Ana would say holy crap. This is how Ana thinks. And I thought...having read some 21-19 year old fanfic and blogs...not to mention tweets...that yes, some of them appear to think like that. So I shrugged it off. (And it should be noted that before I started this - I read Sleeping Beauty - god that's horrible. And Story of O (talk about repetitive), and Bottom's Up (ugh), and many others that basically make 50 Shades look really well written in comparison. I mean have you tried to read Story of O and The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty? Or Twilight for that matter...)
The other repetitive phrases...I think are mainly due to James being an amateur writer or undisciplined. Or having a bad editor. Although, I'll give them credit for three things: almost no typos (that's rare in e-book erotica/romance, the dang things are filled with typos), the sentences actually make sense and are not long and rambling, and the dialogue moves at a nice clip and isn't overly repetitive, also it doesn't come out of nowhere and the characters don't sound alike.
(I've read some really bad books.)