February is a special month for couples (or so they say) for obvious reasons. For some people it is extra special because last February 13, the film adaptation of the talk-of-the-town Fifty Shades trilogy was released. A friend in the office has been pestering me to watch it with her, but eventually went to see the movie with one of our friends. Since she was convincing me to join them in the cinema until the last minute, I, not having read the book, decided to check it out on the internet.
Apparently, the Fifty Shades trilogy was originally a fan fiction of Stephen Meyer's Twilight Saga entitled Master of the Universe before E.L James rewrote it as her original piece. This fact gave me a light bulb moment, thinking "Oh, I see! That's why!"
I didn't read the whole book (I don't plan to) but I did read the summary of the whole trilogy and handful excerpts available in the internet. Reading them made me cringe and at the same time laugh. It is not that I'm berating the authoress but the whole plot sans the BDSM theme is a rip off from a typical preteens romantic fantasy. I wished it should have stayed as a fan fiction - that way, I might even praise it. The sheer effort of putting up a story with multiple chapters is commendable enough. But to get it published and be compared to Anne Rice's works is almost a crime.
When I was in the university, I read fan fictions more than I read my course books. The likes of Fifty Shades of Grey is something you could easily stumble upon by typing the right keywords on Google. It is a template story in which you key in the name of the characters then you decide which industry the leading man is in as long as he is filthy rich, grossly multi-talented, dashingly handsome, outwardly cold and romantically possessive and lastly, you insert a meek, naive and innocent girl who reads romantic novels and whose charm is her inexperience. As they say, you can never go wrong with cliches!
Adding BDSM into the mix is what held the adult audience, specially women, captivated and the book has become their guilty pleasure. Reading the book could mean exploring their sexuality and discovering their inner goddess (scoffs). I read comments and reviews around the internet telling the non-supporters to be open minded about subculture sexual lifestyles specially BDSM. But did the Fifty Shades trilogy do a good job representing the BDSM community? I think not. While the vast arrays of toys and BDSM paraphernalias are spot on, the line "Because I'm fifty shades of fucked - up Anastasia" made raise my brow. Apparently,one needs a childhood trauma or be fucked up as a valid psychological premise for becoming a practitioner of BDSM. My knowledge about BDSM is next to nothing but I've watched few documentaries about it. Individuals practicing BDSM is your everyday people. There are no special prerequisites in order to participate on such relationship. All you need is to be knowledgeable about it and then give your consent. In short, BDSM is a preference.
The main problem with the Fifty Shades trilogy is not the BDSM theme or the overrated Cinderella story plot but the fact that it is poorly written. I'm not an expert here but as an individual whose hobbies are reading and writing, I know that no decent writer would use "Holy Crap", "Holy Cow", "Holy Shit" or "Holy -Insert Whatever Word Here- repetitively throughout their novels. I'm glad I didn't read the book. It'll be like reading a printed typical erotic web fiction after paying it for Php455. You could actually find original stories and fan fictions with the same theme that are written way better online and it would cost you nothing.
While personally, I have nothing against the book, what frustrates me here is that this series is getting all these undeserved praises as an erotic romance book and creating another stereotypes about BDSM and female sexuality in general. It is really sad that there are many amateur and aspiring talented writers working very hard to get their works published and then we get this atrocity in the shelves of our favorite bookstores - this leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
No comments:
Post a Comment