I read the other day that 'Fifty shades of grey' is going to be made into a film/movie and will be released around August 2014. My first reaction was to laugh - I thought this was a literary disaster, but then I thought this makes perfect sense. It made money as a book now they're going to milk it for even more money by dramatising it for the big screen. It is obvious to me this is for those people who were curious about the book but never bothered to read it, or those who like a little bit of eroticia but perhaps don't like to read. My personal opinion in the book, and my predjudice dates back to when I saw the ebook for free (I've been duped by free/low priced books before and found them awful with spelling mistakes bad grammar etc.), I later heard of its 'overnight success' (but this still didn't tempt me to buy/read the book) and of its critics who ridiculed the book for its bad writing style. I'm posting this to find out others reactions to the news. Is this just a cash cow and it will be milked until dry or should we show our solidarity for the new aspiring writer who has 'made it' and gone from obscurity to fame overnight. Have the critics been too harsh on E L James? What's your opinion?
Moo-ing reply Cog. I couldn't give a crap either way about 50 Shades or it's creator. If a couple of years ago she was on a writer's forum trying to learn (like all of us), had the balls to ePublish her book and made a fortune then good luck to her. If she's sold the film rights to make an even bigger fortune then even more power to her. She has a firm fanbase who will pay to watch the film, who are we to make judgements? Who are we to say she can't write or her books are crap? I wouldn't complain if 50 million people bought my book.
What I know about this book is what I've seen on TV and on the net. It's wildfire rage and equally speedy dousing up the ranks of the public zeitgeist is the kind of thing that makes me dubious. Good for her, but... There's money to be made in poo. Actual poo. It's a business. There's money in it. Doesn't mean I'm going to go buy poo.
Everything is a cash cow in the hands of the industry. Those people operate in that way, so that's not a surprise. However, even though I agree with you, the writing in '50 Shades' can be significantly improved, the book is completely unedited. I can imagine that after a good editor has his way with it, we might have an interesting film. Sort of how first few seasons of 'True Blood' were so much better than the novels. The story has an intrinsic quality, though. It wouldn't have become so popular through word of mouth if it didn't.
From moo to poo in under four posts. Guess that says it all. Caling it meadow muffins doesn't make it any more appealing.
Good books often make for bad movies, and so I'm sure that Fifty Shades of Grey will be ... well, wonderful.
I was surprised when I found out that Fifty Shades Of Grey started out as a Twilight fanfiction. Guess I'll just make a copy of twilight, have a Mary Sue character, and make money instead of improving my skills as an author. And I gotta make sure my female MC can't live without a male MC.
If you ignore the underlying dom-sub nonsense, the sex scenes aren't half bad. I don't see how it can make any kind of a decent movie outside the hard core porn genre. The story's pretty minimal. Young virgin woman meets billionaire guy who likes kinky sex. She wants to tweak the relationship just a tiny bit, and in the end of the first book fails and leaves him. I didn't read the other two books. I agree though about the audience being a marketing flop for a movie. I'm guessing the women who read the story did so in relative privacy. It's not exactly a date movie.
This, by the way, is the best thing ever. As to the film, I'm a little confused. Yes it would make at least a reasonable amount of money, but as Ginger said, surely it could only be hardcore porn? Just for a laugh my sister an I picked up a copy and opened it to a random page, reading a random sentence in a silly voice...and let's just say it wasn't as pleasant-sounding as meadow muffins.
I do think the movie has the potential to be successful. The amount of buzz going on about who's going to be the male lead is a sign that there is a lot of curiosity. I'm not sure that all that many women (who read the books) will avoid going to the theatres and not see how their fantasies play out in 3D It will be in 3D, right? They have to at least give them that joy.
For cinema, they'd probably dial up humor and the relationship aspects, rather than the sex. Plenty of rope and rubber, leather and chrome on screen, no so much sweating and groaning. I don't see it being a big commercial success. Private guilty pleasures and flocking to the cinema are very different animals, and what's sure to be considerably watered-down is bound (no pun intended, for once) to be a limp disappointment.
As much as it may be discussed right now, in a couple of years no one will care about Fifty Shades... anymore and it will be replaced by the next literary craze. Neither the book nor the upcoming movie will ever be regarded as something remarkable, so there is really no point in attacking or defending the franchise. At the end of the day, it remains junk food riding a wave of hype.
I actually read 50 Shades of Grey not too long ago. It was like reading the first few novels I wrote as a young teen. Back then, I'd find new phrases in books, and then use it twice a chapter in my own writing. I went through a phase of describing everything as sharp or broken, for example: sharp rays of light cut the room in half. I was also testing the waters, and at the same time trying to be different. James used the word 'ooze' a lot ('she oozed enthusiasm'). I too, used the word 'ooze' a lot, in addition to 'exuded' and 'radiated'. I was trying to make my writing sophisticated and poetic, and it was kinda cute. However, the film is going to bypass most of what makes 50 Shades so awful. No screenwriter is going to keep in the repeated dialogue, typos and cringy descriptions, and no actress will bite her lip every twenty minutes. Sure, it's borderline pornography with a hollywood budget, but that's nothing new.
Readers with opinions, that's who. She can't write and her books are worse than crap. I have nothing against her, though; props to James for making a fortune off her work, no differently than other bestselling authors whose works I despise. (Coelho, Meyer, Rowling, Clancy, etc.) As for the movie, I agree with Cogito; "50 Shades of Grey" is an example of the explosion in popularity of the erotic fiction genre. The reason for this is purely technological. Thanks to Kindle, women can read erotic books in the presence of others without the title and cover giving them away. Not only will many be self-conscious about watching the movie, but since it's essentially literary porn, that will be impossible to translate into a mainstream picture.
Are you talking about E L James here? Have you ever tried to write a good sex scene? It's one of the hardest things to write. Overall story quality aside, that woman has at least serious talent in a specialty genre. I agree if you do a word search her books are awful. Bit lips, zipping foil packets, definitely amateurish and horrid. But you know, I can write better than that, but I can't write a good sex scene that comes anywhere close. We all have different talents.
Oh, I completely agree with you; writing a good sex scene is extraordinarily difficult, and many great writers have failed at it. And as James shows, awful writers fail at it just as badly. Perhaps she is better than other erotic fiction writers (it's not a genre I have read much of!), but her sex scenes are cartoonish and laughable. I'm aware that's a male perspective, and certain women are more receptive to it.
Another author made it from obscurity to being famous by writing. That's something we all should be happy about. The quality . . . well, that's a different story. I haven't read it and not sure I want to, but if you pick up the first book of Twilight and read it, then go read her newest stuff, there's quite an improvement. Let's just hope the same is true for this author. I am interested though in what her reaction will be to fanfiction works based off her story. Stephanie Meyer, for whatever a person thinks about her writing, was pretty gracious about 50 shades. "I'm so far removed from it. I haven't read it. It's not a genre that I have had any experience with. You know, it's kind of nice that she's done so well and that she's gotten a start, and that's cool."
Probably. My girlfriend works at an animal hospital, which is mostly staffed by women. She is one of only three females there that isn't a huge fan of 50 Shades, and that's including a middle-aged lesbian.
I'm not a huge fan. I read the first one and wasn't interested in the next two. But the sex scenes were quite readable, and I know how hard sex scenes are to write.
Whoever read all three books will know there's quite a strong personal drama in it as well as a mystery. So I don't think sex scenes ad nauseum is the way they'll go about it, but that remains to be seen.
The way I see it is, I haven't read the books and I refuse too. Not because it's supposedly poorly written but I hate how women love to read about some super-hot guy who has everything going for him. Just makes me feel inadequate. The author was able to tell a good story which interested the reader. It proved that editors/agencies/publishers don't care if your story is well written as long as you can tell a good story that the reader will like.
Bingo. If it makes you feel any better I read a live blog review with excerpts and he's one creepy dude. I don't understand the hype. The syntax and the descriptions make me feel ill. The main character sets off just about every red flag of mine. If he were a real person I'd run screaming in the opposite direction. Also people in the bdsm scene are unhappy about the book because they say it portrays it incorrectly to the point of being dangerous. When people who are into that are saying it's messed up you know it's gotta be messed up. I'm not saying people can't like the book. They're free to like whatever they choose. It's a little disconcerting because that power dynamic without the context of consent is crossing the line into abusive behavior. It's just worrisome when media normalizes behavior that is borderline abusive/flat out abusive. If people can read it with the understanding that it's not an accurate representation that's one thing. I don't want to call the entire human race stupid... it's just a lot of people don't think things through and just accept whatever is put in front of them as ultimate truth. Once more I want to make it clear I'm not bashing anyone who likes it. I'm just stating my feelings on it. A lot of people don't seem to have that filter between fantasy and reality so things like this make me feel concerned. :/
