In Defense of E.L. James and Grey.

Last Friday,  on my newsfeed on Facebook, was an article about Stephanie Meyers and Edward’s point of view Midnight Sun. If the story is accurate, here is the synopsis of the story, E.L. James published Grey,  the male point of view of Fifty Shades of Grey, and Meyers’s wasn’t happy.

When she found out about Grey, “It was a literal flip the table moment for me,” Meyers said at a New York Comic-Con panel.

Some of you may not know, as I didn’t, that Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight FanFiction. Here is my FanFiction primer, the characters from Twilight are used in original stories by ‘fan authors’.  Some famous authors whose novels started as fanfic are E.L. James, Sylvain Reynard, Christina Lauren and Alice Clayton, plus a whole myriad of Indie authors.  From a none writers point of view, the FanFic authors are a close knit supportive community,  true lasting friendships have blossomed as a result of their mutual love of Twilight and writing. Everyone and their mother seems to have their opinion on FanFic.  I see it actually as harmless and not copyright infringement.  I have read several FanFic stories and, except for the names of the characters. the stories are divergent from the original Twilight stories.  If it wasn’t for reading Sylvain Reynard and getting to know numerous of his book fans, I would have been oblivious to fanfic. I had read Twilight when it first came out, it was one of my ‘buy it’ for the cover reads. Which I did and loved it. I also read and devoured Fifty Shades of Grey, again oblivious that these two books were linked. Even after finding out that both James and Reynard’s books started out as fanfic for Twilight I was hard pressed to see the similarities.  I judge a book by what is on the pages. I might compare genres but don’t compare any book to another.  A book should stand on its own merit and both of these mentioned books stand. With Reynard’s Gabriel’s Inferno, I experienced poetry, art, passion and a deep abiding love between two characters. In James’s book, you have the exploration of sexuality and the emotional turmoil that Christian lives with daily, as he struggles with his past. The book is about love being the salvation of a man who didn’t know he needed saving.  I personally think people are titilated by the kinky fuckery and skip the love story part, and they seem to jump on the author and the readers of the book because it dealt with previously taboo subjects. These are of course only two examples of Twilight FanFic, but beyond using the characters name in online FanFic writing, I see only cursory similarities, as all these books are unique in their exploration of love and passion.

I remember well the backlash that Meyers experienced amongst adult fans when she omitted overt sex in her last book Breaking Dawn.  I think we adult readers, because of the immense passion of the characters, forgot that it was a young adult book.  I have often wondered since finding out about Twilight FanFic, if this forum wasn’t in part a need to mature up the intimate nature of the Twilight characters. There is also safety in writing in a community where you are all connected by characters you know, despite most times only the names were similar, as most of these authors made unique characters out of their fanfic roots. Authors were allowed to explore their talent and expand on their craft.

 

So, back to Meyers ‘upending a table’. First off Ms. Meyers’s had ten years to write her Edward point of view Midnight Sun. Second, even if E.L. James has published Grey, everyone is still going to flock to read Midnight Sun, as even though Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight FanFic, Edward is not Christian and Christian IS NOT Edward. Yes, I have heard that the movies can be compared, but I am talking about the characters. I adored Edward Cullen, but Christian Grey was a more complex character than Edward Cullen. Despite Edward being a vampire, Christian had more darkness inside of him that led to him being a tortured character.  Third, guess what Ms. Meyers? We the readers of the world would read anything else you care to write, so don’t worry about anyone else’s success or books, just write readers some new novels. Fourth, can anyone say ‘awkward’, as the best selling writers club is a small pond, be careful whom you offend. I stick with the ‘Thumper Rule’. Please insert cute Disney character here.  😉 Sixth, both James and Meyers’s have impacted literature with their books, and each should be proud of their stamp on literature. James’s writing may have been panned by some critics, but, we, the people who buy books, loved Fifty Shades of Grey. Meyers’s Twilight, was also panned by critics but crossed age groups and had mothers and daughters reading and falling in love with the same book.

So, in the end bravo to both ladies, bravo to writers in general, as they enrich my life with having lived many lives in the pages of their books, now follow Thumper and be nice.