My dearests!
I emerge from my cave that has swallowed me to proclaim:
You all need to read Fifty Shades of Grey.
Rosecuervo is currently tearing through the my copy and because I haven't heard from her in hours, quite out of the ordinary for her, I know she is enjoying it much like I did.
Rosé has already said that she would probably do a review of the book on her blog when she finishes so I will not steal her thunder. So what is this blog post actually about? It's about not taking shit.
What could that possibly mean? Exactly what it says. I actually emailed the author, EL James, and she responded. Promptly and politely I might add. In summary, I just said how I enjoyed the book and how she took something that could very easily be construed as sleazy and made it beautiful.
But as a writer, even at the lowest levels, you will not always be met with positive reviews. What you might find insightful and brilliant someone else might consider boring and contrived. A stellar example of this is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. For those who aren't familiar with the premise, the book is about a boy who may or may not have Aspergers (they talk about test being inconclusive and then give him savant tendencies) whose father died in the September 11th attacks. I found the book fairly interesting as it weaves the family story like a braid focusing on the younger generation but relating their problems to the older generation's issues in WWII. It's fairly impressive. And while the book is interesting and fairly well written look at the central components.
1. Aspergers Syndrome
-I have a problem with how this is and Autism Spectrum Disorders are portrayed in the media anyway, and this makes it worse. Not every child is a savant and there is a great deal of harm being done when this is the only way the disorder is presented.
2. September 11th
-Does this need an explanation? Granted, we have no idea how soon Titanic movies were being made after the disaster and it would be hard to determine how much money was made off of it in the sudden aftermath. But one hundred years have gone by. There are hardly any, if any survivors. September 11th was ten years ago. People are still feeling the effects. Many critics have said this is an insult to the families still dealing with the pain that day caused.
3. World War II
-Believe it or not there are still people who are not over this war. And there are a lot of issues that surrounded this war that are still brought up. That was the age of Eugenics, the age of fear and some might say an age ignorance, and we're still dealing with cultural clashes involving race and religion (see almost every article written about 9/11). We may be far removed from this time, but it still has its grips.
I've already said I enjoyed this book, but see how others might not?
Now ask Jonathan Safran Foer how he feels about my comments.
Everyone is a critic and when you put yourself out there, you put yourself out there to be critiqued. But if you love what you do then don't stop. It's hard, but thicken that skin! My personal favorite, and maybe this is the darker side of me, but I relish harsh words. I want to be pushed, I want to be discouraged and beaten down. When I get knocked in the dirt it makes getting up and doing it, whatever it is that I want to achieve, that much sweeter.
Sincerely,
S. Darkly
