Is it normal that i'm this ashamed that "50 shades" got published?
Once upon a time when I was reading a magazine, there was an article about a book series called "50 Shades of Gray". In this article, it described how in such a short amount of time that this series, written by a mom in England, managed to become so popular and how it's also improved the sex lives of women.
Now, I'm 19. I'm assuming that the intended audience for this series was an... older audience. An audience that's into BDSM. Now, I'm not into the BDSM kink, so just the concept of the series automatically told me that it wasn't for me. But my curiosity got the better of me, so when I was in a book store, I read the first chapter to see what it was all about.
And... my god.
Just the FIRST chapter- no, the FIRST PAGE, I knew it was bad. Really, really bad. It was awful. God awful. Yes, I know that it was originally Twilight fanfiction. And it READS like an awful Twilight fanfic. It is horrendous. TWILIGHT is better written than this book. That's right, I said it- TWILIGHT is a better written novel. In fact, I'm more ashamed that 50 Shades of Gray got published because it was written by an adult FOR adults.
I know it's porn. I know it's not suppose to be a masterpiece.
But I've read GOOD porny fanfiction online. And by GOOD, I mean that they were better written and actually took the time to develop the scenes to make the characters interesting before the inevitable "climax", if you will. So yes, I've read FANFICTION that WASN'T published and had the names changed that was better than this garbage.
I'm not saying that I think 50 Shades is bad because of its premise, I'm saying it's bad because of the writing. And the fact that the characters are Mary and Gary Stu. Yes, even by the first chapter, I could tell that they were that bland. I'm ashamed as a casual reader that this "novel" got published, I'm ashamed as a reader of fanfiction this got published, I'm ashamed that something this awfully written can get published that easily while other writers who have natural talent struggle to get a publishing company to publish their novel.
It is without a doubt one of the worst things I've ever read.