Saturday, March 16, 2013

Fifty Shades of F**ked up: a book review of Fifty Shades of Grey


“I’m fifty shades of fucked up”
 ~ Christian Grey


Synopsis: Anastasia "Ana" Steele is a 21-year-old college senior attending Washington State University in Vancouver, Washington with her best friend Kate Kavanagh, who writes for their student newspaper. Due to an illness, Kate persuades Ana to take her place and interview 27-year-old Christian Grey, an incredibly successful and wealthy young entrepreneur. Ana is instantly attracted to Christian, but also finds him intimidating.  Ana and Christian enter a sexual relationship while slowly building up to a  bondage/discipline, dominance/submission  relationship.


In all seriousness Fifty Shades of Grey brings nothing new to the table.  
You’re not missing anything.
What about the sex scenes? Nope, nothing new – and yes, I have read erotica and no there is nothing new/amazing/unique about what E. L. James has written. 
What about the S&M scenes?  There were only four S&M like parts.  Two were in Anastasia’s dreams and another was when Christian spanks her.  The last is at the end when Ana wants to have the full experience of what an S&M relationship would be like and gets beaten with a belt.
If you like this book that’s fine, you are entitled to like what you want.  I just didn't care for it.  I’ll go into why I don’t like this book later (the only pro I can give for this book is that if you like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series you’ll like E. L. James books…which is basically Twilight and porn combined.  For now I will give you a short list of things you could do rather than read this book.

You could watch…

Every Dr. Who episode
.

All of Firefly.
Sex and the City series.
Game of Thrones.
The Walking Dead.
Or the news.

You could read…

Any fan fiction.
Any other Erotic novel.
A magazine.
A romance novel.
Anything by Amy Tan, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, or Marquis de Sade (the father of   S&M).
You could also…

Go on Tumblr .
Clean your house/car/office.
Find a cure for any cancer of your choice and save lives.
Paint your nails.
Build a bird house.
.

My Verdict:
I've read the Twilight series and have read the first book in the Fifty Shades trilogy.  I understand that Fifty Shades of Grey was originally a fan fiction of Twilight, however, just because you change the names, the ages, and the city (from Forks to Seattle and Vancouver – still in Washington) doesn't make it entirely different.  Actions speak louder than words and Fifty Shades of Grey is a prime example of this old saying.  Bella bites her lips, so does Ana.  Edward and Christian stalk the female character whilst also showering her with expensive books, a car and a phone.  There were some differences that I liked, i.e. Ana doesn't shy away from Christian’s stalking and bossiness.  E. L. James even makes a few cracks about Mr. Grey being gay.  But a few laughs doesn't hide that this is Twilight for adults.   There’s also the bad writing (the over use of adjectives and adverbs), abuse of the thesaurus, poor/lack of character development, and the humorous descriptions (i.e. “my inner goddess” – E. L. James never explains this so I’m left to believe that it is Ana’s inner femininity).  
The only thing I enjoyed was the ending.  When Ana realizes that she and Christian are incompatible and she leaves.  Oh, yeah, spoiler.
But what bothers me, what really makes me dislike this book has nothing to do with what I’ve put above.  When a writer works hard on their novel, with little to no influence from other writers, and can’t get published but something like Fifty Shades of Grey can.  A fan fiction story where the writer changes the original character’s names, ages, and where they live, then passed it off as their own or at least in some way and in some form. 
That’s what really upsets me; why is it she can get published but people who are truly gifted, who write a novel without the aid of another writer or story, can’t?

Thursday, March 7, 2013

E-READERS, EBOOKS, AND SOME HISTORY


...because hey, history.


Let me first state that I do own an E-reader.  I have a Barnes and Noble Nook, 1st Edition and on its second battery life.  Now that that is out of the way we can begin.
What is an E-reader?  Most people know but lets clarify it.  An E-reader is an electronic device used to read text, books or magazines.  There are the two big sellers, Barnes and Noble's Nook and Amazon's Kindle, as well as some off brand E-readers.
E-readers are great if you travel a lot, if you’re not a big reader –and don’t want to have shelves of books that will just sit there gathering dust – or if your book shelf is too full and you need to put books elsewhere.  In my case I was the third.  I have over nine hundred books (900!) and space is a big issue.  I also bought an E-reader – a Barnes and Noble Nook – to buy a novella to a series I was reading that was only in EBook format.  I could read in-between classes, or on a trip, and the E-reader helped save space in my bag.
However, Stephan King* made a good point when he explained that you could drop a book in the toilet, fish it out to let it dry and keep reading it.  Whereas an E-reader would be completely destroyed; ten to a hundred books get ruined in a flash.  I agree, I would feel more comfortable replacing a twenty dollar book than a $150 + E-reader with $0.99 to $9.99 priced books.
For some people there is a nostalgia feeling when holding a hardcopy book (hardcover or paperback).  Perhaps your family owns a rare copy of Gone with the Wind or To Kill a Mocking Bird and reading it makes you think of those who read it before you. Whatever the reason may be it doesn’t mean that E-readers are bad.
Personally, since I do have an E-reader, I don’t think electronic books are bad.  It’s easier for people to obtain, it gets them reading and it saves paper.  Does that mean I’ll convert all my books into EBooks and sell/burn the rest?  NO!  Do I still buy hardcopies vs. EBooks?  Yes, and that is based out of habit.  To me there is something fun (again with the nostalgia) about going to the store and looking for a book. Picking it up, flipping through the pages and yes even smelling it.
Only time can tell if E-readers will replace hardcopy books but you know what?  It’s okay.  And why is that?  History.

The Place of the Cure of the Soul
The Library of Alexandia existed around 285 B.C. in ancient Egypt.  Organized by one of Aristotle’s students, it had gardens, meeting rooms, dining halls, lecture rooms, and in the main part of the library – and this is a rumor but hey…rumors – above the shelves the phrase “The Place of the Cure of the Soul” was written. Now, the point, all the books were written in papyri scrolls.  Many people would bring books to the library to have them copied down and added to the library. And since it was so busy (copying, growing, rearranging) there was no catalog kept of the books in there. 
At that time Egypt was ruled by Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy.  And the two siblings were always beating heads.  Well Rome sent an army lead by Julius Caesar to calm power-hungry Ptolemy down and to regulate the country.  Caesar and Ptolemy got into a fight and it ended with Caesar setting Ptolemy’s boats and docks on fire.  Unfortunately, the library was caught in the fire’s path and…yeah, it’s gone.
So what’s the point of this history lesson?  There are books that we’ll never see again.  Stories we’ll never get to read and philosophical insights that we’ll never get back.  E-readers may help save records – yes they can still be destroyed with the click of a button – and in the right hands with multiple copies they’ll hold more information, and be there for future generations.
The original books were spoken orally, and then written on papyri in scrolls and now on paper.  While I still prefer a hardcopy book to the EBook, I do respect the ability to try and preserve stories and text for the future.

*Stephen King give his opinon on E-readers and Ebooks in this video on Youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ELlianFnL0