Who do we blame for this?
- Thread starter Tsukuyomi
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Firstly, I don't mind 50 shades of grey because it has spawned a large number of hilarious youtube videos. Dramatic readings are especially entertaining. The SNL skit is also amazing.
Secondly, this is nothing new. The Trashy Romance Novel (which shall henceforth be referred to as TRNs for the remainder of this post) has been around for a very long time. TRNs feature imbalanced power relationships with the woman being put in a contrived situation so that her submission to the male sex-fantasy figure seems less offensive to the feminists among their readership, and will have shoddily written sex with varying levels of graphic description.
Most attempt to use poetic language like "seperating the petals of her womanhood" or equally nonsensical and flowery images to make the sexual descriptions seem less tawdry. In modern TRNs, this has become less of a fad in favor of explicit descriptions and more hardcore sex to give the reading a feeling of illicitness, sometimes described as "Oh my, thats SOOO dirty."
50 Shades of Grey is only unique in how goddamn awful it is. A friend of mine has been texting me some of the more ludicrously bad sections of it for the past week, and it's been one hell of a laugh overall. It's the "Eye of Argon" or "My Immortal" of the published romance novel, it should only ever be read to be mocked. Or possibly for use in a drinking game.
Secondly, this is nothing new. The Trashy Romance Novel (which shall henceforth be referred to as TRNs for the remainder of this post) has been around for a very long time. TRNs feature imbalanced power relationships with the woman being put in a contrived situation so that her submission to the male sex-fantasy figure seems less offensive to the feminists among their readership, and will have shoddily written sex with varying levels of graphic description.
Most attempt to use poetic language like "seperating the petals of her womanhood" or equally nonsensical and flowery images to make the sexual descriptions seem less tawdry. In modern TRNs, this has become less of a fad in favor of explicit descriptions and more hardcore sex to give the reading a feeling of illicitness, sometimes described as "Oh my, thats SOOO dirty."
50 Shades of Grey is only unique in how goddamn awful it is. A friend of mine has been texting me some of the more ludicrously bad sections of it for the past week, and it's been one hell of a laugh overall. It's the "Eye of Argon" or "My Immortal" of the published romance novel, it should only ever be read to be mocked. Or possibly for use in a drinking game.
The fuck is 50 shades?
And the people to blame are the people who buy it, obviously. Does anyone really need to be blamed though? A nation that reads rubbish is still probably better than a nation that doesn't read at all.
And the people to blame are the people who buy it, obviously. Does anyone really need to be blamed though? A nation that reads rubbish is still probably better than a nation that doesn't read at all.
I'm having some difficulty figuring out exactly what you're asking. So a book that you believe to be shitty has sold very well. How did this negatively effect you? Put simply: Why do you care?Tsukuyomi said:
EDIT: By the way, judging by just how many people are asking "What the flying fuck is 50 Shades?", I would say that this "controversy" might be a bit....Overestimated. Incidentally, what the flying fuck is 50 Shades? (Don't answer, I can use google)
For those who are asking (and apparently too lazy to navigate to wikipedia):
50 Shades of Grey is a novel based on a series of "erotic" "BDSM" twilight fanfiction. [footnote]Those words are in quotes because the sex scenes are not at all sexy and apparently those actually in the BDSM community have stated she has no clue what she's talking about.[/footnote] Someone expressed an interest in publishing it to the author, so she changed all the names to avoid litigation, and voila, really poorly written bondage porn is now cheaply available.
You'd think it would end there, but somehow this train wreck has become a best seller.
Its outsold even some novels you may have heard of, like (to pick an example totally at random) Harry Potter.
While the trashy romance genre has always been fantastically successful, it only tends to be so in general rather than having a remarkably popular set of books like this, so it's quite surprising, especially considering the amusingly terrible quality of the writing.
So there you have it people who asked a random question on forums instead of using the freely available one click away resources, you have been educated.
EDIT: Okay, upon double checking it has not outsold Harry Potter, but it has beaten its record as the fastest selling paperback of all time. And has sold ten million copies worldwide.
50 Shades of Grey is a novel based on a series of "erotic" "BDSM" twilight fanfiction. [footnote]Those words are in quotes because the sex scenes are not at all sexy and apparently those actually in the BDSM community have stated she has no clue what she's talking about.[/footnote] Someone expressed an interest in publishing it to the author, so she changed all the names to avoid litigation, and voila, really poorly written bondage porn is now cheaply available.
You'd think it would end there, but somehow this train wreck has become a best seller.
Its outsold even some novels you may have heard of, like (to pick an example totally at random) Harry Potter.
While the trashy romance genre has always been fantastically successful, it only tends to be so in general rather than having a remarkably popular set of books like this, so it's quite surprising, especially considering the amusingly terrible quality of the writing.
So there you have it people who asked a random question on forums instead of using the freely available one click away resources, you have been educated.
EDIT: Okay, upon double checking it has not outsold Harry Potter, but it has beaten its record as the fastest selling paperback of all time. And has sold ten million copies worldwide.
I only heard about this 50 shades book a few days ago when the author of the web comic Girls with Slingshots pissed some people off in the S&M community. This is a very big thing I take it? Cause up until now it has passed silently below my internet radar.
Though if Gilbert Godfried is doing a reading of a trashy romance novel I guess there's some laughs to be had from it.
Though if Gilbert Godfried is doing a reading of a trashy romance novel I guess there's some laughs to be had from it.
I'm not too mad about the twi-tards thing, but I do make a silent facepalm when I'm in a bookstore and there's a huge section reading "Supernatural Romance". I mean, seriously? WTF?
Television and our increasing use of it. Given the general lack of reading going on, it's unsurprising that people can't tell complete and utter garbage when they find it. The horrifying thing is sometimes you think, "well, at least they're reading something."
I blame you! No, I'm not just saying this for giggles. I mean you specifically John! Yeah you heard me...
But seriously how is a bad book gaining a massive following a new thing? It's happened countless times and will happen again bitching about it won't solve anything.
(On that note not enough people have read the Dexter books... Seriously they are fucking awesome and too few people have read them...)
But seriously how is a bad book gaining a massive following a new thing? It's happened countless times and will happen again bitching about it won't solve anything.
(On that note not enough people have read the Dexter books... Seriously they are fucking awesome and too few people have read them...)
Heh... You do realize this book is not at all marketed to teens right? The primary demographics buying romance novels, and almost certainly this one in particular, are 40 year old housewives. Just like the author of this piece of dreck.Preacher zer0 said:
Interesting fact: According to the guy who works at the comic book store I frequent, it's the same demographic that buys up all the Yaoi manga. As he put it, "they crawl out of the woodwork for the stuff."
Enjoy that image.
Who don't we blame, that's the shorter answer. Here's my blame list:
WRITER for obvious reasons.
PUBLISHER for putting out this atrocious garbage.
ADVERTISERS for marketing it.
THE VAPID IDIOTS WHO BUY IT because their standards are so low that "garbage" equals "glorious."
HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES for cashing in on garbage by throwing millions at it to produce a movie of it.
SCREENPLAY ADAPTERS for translating the awfulness of the original product to another medium without in any way improving it.
ADVERTISERS AGAIN because they're advertising it in two mediums now.
MOVIEGOERS for supporting this tripe with their money instead of going to see something else more worthy of their time (see also: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -vs- The Expendables).
WRITER for obvious reasons.
PUBLISHER for putting out this atrocious garbage.
ADVERTISERS for marketing it.
THE VAPID IDIOTS WHO BUY IT because their standards are so low that "garbage" equals "glorious."
HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES for cashing in on garbage by throwing millions at it to produce a movie of it.
SCREENPLAY ADAPTERS for translating the awfulness of the original product to another medium without in any way improving it.
ADVERTISERS AGAIN because they're advertising it in two mediums now.
MOVIEGOERS for supporting this tripe with their money instead of going to see something else more worthy of their time (see also: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -vs- The Expendables).