By Jove, I think I've got ... um, none of it?

[veronica_rich]

In the POTC fandom, I used to often wonder why some of the shoviest purveyors and defenders of the Sparrabeth porn (and adjacent fic) were older than about fourteen; like, a LOT older. Like, some of them had adult children. Some had grandchildren. To be fair, I only really wondered about the ones who acted like they were kids and heading up the cast of "Mean Girls" ... but I digress.

Considering the number of older women going for "Fifty Shades of Gray" and the fact the quality of the passages I stood in Target reading a week and a half ago is roughly the same as most J/E fanfic I used to see in POTC, I found this sort of enlightening - though, it did raise more questions than it answered on that front. Why do middle-aged women get off on reading about a 20-year-old woman fucking an older guy? I can't say I do (but then again, my issue with the sparrabethers was never their preference, only that they seemed to think they'd invented a groundbreaking genre of burgeoning-society-woman/older-bad-boy, when Harlequin et. al. had been publishing it for decades). Is it fantasy self-insert? Maybe, if you want to be 20 again. I wouldn't mind having the body and health I had at 20, but you can go hang yourself if you think I want to be that naive or dependent on other people's opinions again, LOL.

(None of this is to insult those who enjoy "Fifty Shades of Gray" - hell, I write fanfic. I used to read this kind of thing when I was a teenager, so I can't even say I've never enjoyed that kind of book. I guess I just think Anne Rice did it better 30 or so years ago with Sleeping Beauty? Not sure what I'm saying; but click on the link above, it's hilarious.)

Comments

[venusinchains.livejournal.com]

I am completely baffled by this trend. Everything about it seems so wrong. But I'm kinda glad it opens up the floodgates for articles like the one you linked. I almost couldn't get past the "I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Team" line for rotflmao. (The titles are definitely the best part of video porn.)

I haven't read this monstrosity myself, just the quotes that so many writers, like the one you linked, are willing to share. They remind me SO much of that epic Sparrabeth fic (that I also only read snippets from, thanks to others), the one that took Jack Sparrow, the stinging trickster we know and love, and transformed him into a weak-as-water imitation of Will Turner. I wonder if that's why I'm finding it so repellent (Twilight and all its baggage aside). It's reopening an old wound. Why would anyone fall for this trash!

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm torn between slagging off on the book quality (I can easily point to unpaid het fic in more than one fandom that's better, and that's not even including slash - if erotica is what's wanted) and doing the feminist thing of "do you all know how much raw sewage there is in the mainstream for men to get off on? Let the ladies enjoy their questionable turn-on, geez." Not at you, but you know what I mean. *G*

I've read enough excerpts, and I'm a pro enough skimmer to know how to form a quick preliminary opinion, and this book didn't hit either of those favorably for me. Save your money! After all, there's a new Red Dwarf series to buy later this year on DVD. ;-)