(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Oh come on...they sent two covers of Entertainment Weekly out this week.  The new stand cover was "Katniss Forever",
while the Subscriber Cover was "Fifty Shades of Grey", which EW proceeds to pat themselves on the back for ...because they are promoting a "book"???? And while yes, I get, that women need spicy fantasy....(I  actually got a better fic going on in my head at the moment. )  I just don't understand. Of all the books published this year, including the marvelous The Fault in Our Stars, why is this one or Twilight...which are basically pulp novels written for an audience with a third grade reading level. Fault in Our Stars - a YA novel and The Hunger Games also a YA novel, as well as The Night Circus another YA...have better vocabulary and sentence structure. This? This gets the front cover? And I'm sorry who is talking about it? I never heard of it until EW brought it up.  Yes, shocking, but life exists outside of the marketing and entertainment industry.

[And oh god, I hope I haven't offended any Twilight or Shades fans.  People I watch daytime soaps and have read more bad books than I can count, trust me, I'm not judging you.  I'm judging the frigging media and Entertainment Weekly for over-promoting bargain basement pulp, which is and should remain little more than a secret guilty pleasure. It would be like putting General Hospital on the cover.  Or Passions.  I mean Come on. (although I think they actually did that too...once upon a time. Entertainment magazines aren't exactly known for the highbrow taste...)]

What's going on with LJ? Took me forever to figure out how to log in. Also couldn't post an icon. Very weird.

Better today. But woman at work who has ceiliac disease and is eating glutens constantly is confusing me.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Lately I've seen big slick ads for 'Fifty Shades of Gray' all over cable TV, and I've been wondering about this... I mean I've always heard about good books first online, never ever because of expensive ad campaigns on television.... I wonder if a studio has already bought the book and figures that promoting the book will end up making the movie a more commercial product?

It is confusing.

I would be worried about the woman at work, if she really has celiac disease then eating glutens is very self destructive (of course I know diabetics who would get very self destructive in their eating occasionally). But you can't fix other people, even if they are family or close friends....

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I would be worried about the woman at work, if she really has celiac disease then eating glutens is very self destructive (of course I know diabetics who would get very self destructive in their eating occasionally). But you can't fix other people, even if they are family or close friends....

I made my case, then I backed off. Because like I told her - I don't tell other people how to live their lives or what to eat or believe or read. That's up to them. I got this from my maternal grandmother - who stated, "I don't care what the other guy does as long as he/she doesn't impose it on me. Not my business." Generally speaking, that's good advice.

So...it's up to her. But she was admitted to the hospital, is taking drugs for it, and is constantly with a belly ache and very thin. I see denial. (I told her - 'no wonder you are sick you are eating dunkin donuts. Seriously.)

Lately I've seen big slick ads for 'Fifty Shades of Gray' all over cable TV, and I've been wondering about this... I mean I've always heard about good books first online, never ever because of expensive ad campaigns on television.... I wonder if a studio has already bought the book and figures that promoting the book will end up making the movie a more commercial product?

My guess is much the same. Someone is putting a heck of a lot of money towards marketing this thing. Pushing the product big time. It reminds me a little bit of Jacqulaine Suzanne's Valley of the Dolls which had a similar marketing push in the 1960s/1970s complete with movie deal and mini-series. Saw both. Equally silly book. Albeit with more plot and character development than Grey. Actually Shades of Grey makes Jacqulaine Suzanne's Valley of the Dolls seem like Shakespeare by comparison. But so does Twilight for that matter. It's sad, but I think they had better taste in the 1970s. (I'm wondering sometimes if the lost generation is basically everyone from the age of 16-50, told my mother the current generation makes me want to go back and neuter mine, she said she felt much the same way about my generation, made her want to go back and neuter her's...are we devolving culturally speaking? )

Not sure how they will do a movie out of it. There's not much there. It's basically sexually curious/promiscuous 21 year old virgin meets rich enterprenural and somewhat kinky 30something who is into BSDMsex. Lots of sexual hijinks ensue. Not exactly plot driven. Harlequines and Regencies have more plot. Danielle Steele has more plot. It's a bit like taking a porn with little plot Everybody's Human Spuffy or Bangle fanfic and turning it into a book and then a movie, except this is actually worse - it's based on TWILIGHT!

So ...What are they going to do? An NC-17 Porno for women??? If so, can they cast someone hot like James Marsters as Grey? Or maybe Alexsander Skarsdale? Or Daniel Craig? Or ...I don't know any of the 20-somethings. Too frigging young. All the actors I know are 35 and above.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

yeah, I checked online and Universal and Focus Features have bought the book... it will be interesting to see how close into the 'R' they will want to go with it... I doubt if I'll be seeing the movie (or reading the book) my own self (since I hated Twilight I'm not likely to be tempted by anything based on it! LOL).

BTW Felicia Day has a book club that meets once a month online to discuss romantic/smutty books.... called 'Vaginal Fantasy Hangout' (seriously! ) I watched the last one and I enjoyed the discussion, but I hadn't read the book (which was called Slave to Sensation).... But I'm trying to get the next book which is 'Iron Duke' by Meljean Brooks (I've requested it through my local library... I'll see if they can get a copy for me).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Let me know how Iron Duke is. That actually sounds like fun. (You saw my reviews...I've read a smattering of them. The best by far was Dom of my Dreams...which is basically Shades of Grey but with a woman who is Really experienced and in her 30s with a career and serious Daddy issues. They always have serious Daddy or Mommy issues in these books.
The historicals work better than the contemporary ones. Anne McCaffrey did a few sci-fi short story ones though.)

Should mention that Shades of Grey is explicit sex and BDSM. It's not PG. It's basically all sex. He ties her up with his tie and proceeds to
well...take her into places she's never gone before. While Twilight is well no sex until we get married and then somewhat violent leads to pregnancy.

I'm not sure they can do it with an R rating...and again, why do movie?
It reminds me of when they did one of Anais Nin's Henry and June - that ended up being NC-17 and a bit draggy. There's better stuff - such as Nine and a Half Weeks, Wild Orchid, Henry and June, The Pillow-Book, and Deep Throat. Or...people could just rent True Blood and Nip-Tuck. Or for that matter S6 Buffy - specifically Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Dead Things, and As You Were. Focus - naked Spike. Actually skip the episodes, go find the dailies on the internet, bonus?
Marsters's boxer shorts with little hearts on them, which I couldn't decide if they were adorable or just hilarious.


Personally, I find visual porn really boring. I need the banter and story.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

There was a report in Private Eye this week that suggested the author of "Fifty Shades" is a film producer, which I hadn't heard of before: not sure how successful.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Sorry, British TV, not film.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Well, according to the EW interview:

"I'm a former television executive - I was head of production for a small independent production company, doing contracts and budgets. And I've been a production executive for the BBC for eight years. I'm now - full time- someone who gets carted around and thrown in front of people.

[That's the problem with selling your soul to evil marketing people, you get carted around and thrown in front of people.]

Her dream when majoring in history at university was to become an accountant.

[This actually explains a lot when you think about it.]

Hubby writes TV scripts. Lives in West London with their two sons, 15 and 17. And she's in her mid-late 40s.

I'm very publicity-shy," she says. "It's hard. All that. I didn't expect this. I'm rather overweight and it's a bit of a struggle."

Aren't we all? Honey, you have a hubby, two kids, a successful career, and a novel that evil marketing people have decided is the best thing ever. Stop whining! Plus, you can still keep your private life, private. Stephanie Meyer is jealous.

Still with no glam cosmetic enhancements and a nice cascading mop of dark hair, she carries the stray, appealing Every-woman extra pounds of modern forty-something working motherhood with verve.

Asked what she'd be doing if she were at home rather than blinking in the California sunshine, she doesn't hesitate: "Smoking, probably, all the interesting people smoke."

[And die of lung cancer, lymphoma, ephemsema, throat cancer, but let's not be a downer? Oh and give everyone who has the ill luck of living with them or being near them all the time, allergies. But hey, interesting! Remind me to tell my brother this the next time he lights up.]

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

BTW I meant to say that I'm sorry your co-worker is in the hospital, and yeah, denial is the biggest barrier to managing a disease like that!

Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon, who is on the cover of the Spring 2012 'Lupus Now Magazine' said (in the magazine article):
"“It took me forever to grasp that acceptance is the most essential part of healing,” "
http://www.lupus.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/new_magazineempty.aspx?articleid=4456&zoneid=225
If the patient won't 'own the disease' then they won't do what is necessary to get better (or at least control the symptoms).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh, she's not in the hospital now. She was six months ago. She went gluten three for three months and now thinks she can eat again and just take a priobiotic to control it.

Sigh.

It makes me realize how strong my will is. And that what I did, giving up glutens entirely, even at the cost of my social life, was actually not something everyone can do.