(Untitled)
ALSO I FORGOT TO TELL YOU GUYS that I am reading 6-10 category romances about millionaires and billionaires in preparation for writing some kind of crazy essay about them. After 50 Shades of Grey was "published" (using quotation marks to distinguish its appearance in actual bookstores from its appearance as Twilight fic), I became fascinated by
( Read more... )
Legally, she can't sue for a variety of complicated reasons (you can't really copyright plot elements), and my guess is that she's just decided to thoroughly ignore the whole thing.
In a previous life, I was a private equity wife, and I know a lot about the very wealthy. So the unbelievability factor was even higher for me than for most readers - you quite simply don't get that rich that young unless you (i) inherit it; (ii) win the lottery; or (iii) are Mark Zuckerberg. Super-rich dudes don't have time to lavish this kind of attention on their ladyfriends, either - they're working until 9 PM and they're taking conference calls and answering email round the clock. Most of them are married, because they (perhaps more than people in other kinds of jobs) need the stability of marriage to keep them from losing it. And if they have unusual sexual practices, they'll hire professionals, not deal with college girls who might tell all to a newspaper.
And that was just the beginning of my annoyance. Fetishization of female incompetence! BDSM as the hallmark of a damaged personality! In short: UGH.
Reply
That's really unfortunate, because I would be pissed if I were SM. I mean, it's one thing to write fanfic, realize you maybe could turn it into your own story, and then do so... but to be so blatant about ripping off the characters? She would have been less skeevy if she'd completely changed up the characters and just had the plot (in regards to the girl meeting the guy who turns out to be an emotionally traumatized sexual deviant whom she eventually convinces to change) stay the same. If it were me, I would have gone in an opposite direction from Bella and Edward to make it 100% evident that this was a different story. Maybe had her be a 30-something ophthalmic surgeon or something who has fallen into a rut and gotten bored with her life, LOL.
In a previous life, I was a private equity wife, and I know a lot about the very wealthy. So the unbelievability factor was even higher for me than for most readers - you quite simply don't get that rich that young unless you (i) inherit it; (ii) win the lottery; or (iii) are Mark Zuckerberg. Super-rich dudes don't have time to lavish this kind of attention on their ladyfriends, either - they're working until 9 PM and they're taking conference calls and answering email round the clock. Most of them are married, because they (perhaps more than people in other kinds of jobs) need the stability of marriage to keep them from losing it. And if they have unusual sexual practices, they'll hire professionals, not deal with college girls who might tell all to a newspaper.
Exactly! And so far it hasn't really explained how he got so rich by the age of 27. He just owns his own company, which I don't believe it's really even told us what the company does. And he does random charity work on the side because he had to go hungry as a kid or something, I'm not really sure. But he didn't invent facebook or anything. And he has time to learn how to pilot helicopters and engage in other "rich people" sports, and to leave his company on a whim to go track down this girl he met once, follow her around for days and days, then fly her back to his penthouse to show her his sex room and try to convince her to sign a contract giving him full authority over her life and her vagina.
And EXACTLY. Oh, here you go, girl I just met and don't know from Adam. Get a front row seat to my depravity! Say hi to the nice people from TMZ for me!
Fetishization of female incompetence! BDSM as the hallmark of a damaged personality! In short: UGH
Yes. Her incompetence is the worst for me. Why does she have to be incompetent, exactly? Why couldn't she have been a good-head-on-her-shoulders gal who met this guy, let curiosity get the best of her, and ended up falling for him? You certainly don't have to be a dimwit to fall for a screwed up guy, even the best of us have fallen into the "I can change him" trap at times. I just have a hard time identifying with a female "heroine" who is useless other than to be a catalyst for some man. How am I supposed to root for a girl like that?
ETA: I looked for the original Twilight fic a few days ago to see how much she had changed in the books. I couldn't find it (I don't even know the name of it or what the author's fic name was), but I did turn up an article saying that E L James had been trying to force all websites hosting the fic to take it down. Guess now that she's getting rich off of it, she doesn't want anyone to get to read it for free. Hilarious, given that the fic was originally a copyright infringement of another person's book! Wonder if she'll make a fuss if people start writing 50 Shades fanfic... especially after the movie comes out.
Reply
Leave a comment