50 Shades of Grey(Oliver)

## Introduction

Literature is defined as written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.  Who defines whether a written works is superior or lasting? Is it the critics or the readers? Literature would be just meaningless words on a page without the communities that surround them. The National Endowment for
the Arts, Reading at Risks report shows a decline in the amounts of literature being read by adults, especially young adults. However, the findings of this report are skewed because they seem to imply that reading literature only includes literature in the traditional sense. As the way we produce and consume literature changes the definition becomes broader, accepting blogs, movies,and video games.

As literature evolves, we find the worlds within it also evolve. Literature has expanded to allow room for things such as digital poetry and electronic literature. Accepting fans of this new broader definition literature create fan fiction. Masters of the Universe was the fan fiction from the twilight series that turned into the 50 shades trilogies. 50 Shades of Grey by E.L.James is a book that spawn out of a community of avid readers. The fans of Twilight and the 50 Shades trilogy would agree that both have lasting artistic merit. The critics will all have their say but its the fans and the readers that give a book bestseller status. Especially in the case of 50 shades of grey, were the book was not highly marketed but rather promoted by word of mouth. Because we live in a "wired world" it's believable that this fan base has made 50 shades what it is today. The fact that we are all so connected changes all the relationship that exist within literature.

The relationship between authors, text, and "the wired world" greatly changes as the way we use the internet changes. Traditionally authors performed a solitary act of writing. They also invented their stories from scratch. The text was a physical object that could be held, with binding, font, and chapters. The reader performed the act of reading much like the author wrote, alone. The way that text was
interpreted,traditionally, is different from person to person. While some of the traditional ideals of literature do apply to 50 Shades of grey, the "wired world" changes and expands on the possibilities of the book. 50 Shades was written by a blogger, however in contradiction to traditional literature, it was not the original idea of the author. Rather it began as fan fiction based on the characters from the Twilight series. Since it starts as fan fiction it strays from traditional ideas of text. Originally being posted on a website didn't allow it to be a physical object with binding and pages. The traditional readers evolves into author in this particular case. The reader does have an individual response, this response to one series of books was so motivating and inspiring that the reader became the author of not just one, but the three books in the 50 shades trilogy.

Walter Ong talk about the print and how it creates a private ownership of words. He discusses how print offers this sense of privacy. When Masters of the Universe was written it was under the alias Snowqueen's Icedragon. This allowed James to separate herself from the book and a personal sense of privacy. It wasn't until Snowqueen's Icedragon removed the episodically written story from and her website and published 50 shades of grey that she became "famous" and lifted some aspects
of privacy from her life. Ong also discusses the concepts of closure that are afforded to us by print. It becomes clear that this isn't enough for E.L. James. She wasn't done with the characters of Twilight. She needed and wanted more from them. She was able to produce that, not just for herself but also for the fans that surrounded her evolving story. This speaks volumes on what the "wired world" allows us to
do as the fans that fuel the success of any piece of text.

## Authorial Intentions and Interactions

Many years ago, before the internet became a major part of all of our lives, authors would write a book and release it to be read with little interaction with there readers. But the era writing of without connection to the audience seems to be fading away. Having connections to social media seems to be broader line mandatory. However, these connections can be a good thing. It allows the author to stay relevant in a world were anyone can publish a book. Listening to the complaints and compliments of the reader allows the author to respond and explain should the feel it necessary. It allows for interaction
that can lead to new books as a response and a way of giving the people what they think they want.  50 Shades of grey is told from the perspective of Anastasia Steele, the leading lady of the story. After it was read by the masses many request were made for the story to be told from the perspective of Christian Grey. Despite James attention being turned to the movie production of 50 Shades of Grey. She still made time for the book 'GREY' which was released June of 2015. James is also known to interact with her fans via email as well as on Instagram and twitter. It is this communication between author and reader that causes her fans to rally around her and the story she tells.

While the Authors interaction is keeps her fans engaged. Its her intentions within the book that keeps them coming back for more. Following up a story like Twilight was a great for James, as twilight was one the bestselling books at the time. However, its safe to say that wasn't the intention of James. After watching the movies and reading the books of Twilight she became absorbed with the story. So much so that she sat down to write her first book based on the already developed characters Bella and Edward. Slowly her original intentions transferred into a best selling books and a movie with earning upwards of $95 million. Once Bella and Edward turn to Ana and Christian, James sets out to make there story there own. You do not have to read any of the Twilight books to know or understand what is going with the 2 main characters. The books have often been referred to "mommy Porn" and James has said that 50 Shades is her very own Mid-life Crisis.

## Interpretative Disputes

In everything we do there is going to be someone that comes along and tells us how much they hate it. There seems to be much debate around the ideas of fan fiction becoming published. The problem for many of the critics of fan fiction being turned into published works is the traditional ideas of literature. The idea that the within any novel the characters, setting, and plot should be the complete and original idea of the author.  Within fan fiction created by either one person or several people the base of the story is always the idea of a published story. Fan fiction simply takes the existing story and expands it. 50 Shades is no exception to this criticism. The problem lies within who the characters are. In, comparison to twilight both the leading ladies are smart, awkward, and beautiful in the eyes of those around her. The leading men, are powerful, rich, and struggling with the beauty of the leading lady. There is an underlying issue of morality for many of the critics of the James trilogies. Taking something that isn't yours and changing what it does, does not make it any more yours than before you took it. Morally, most critics feel that James was wrong to simply change the names of characters within her story and call it her own, then make money off of it. They feel James has used someone else story as a cop-out for creating her own. The idea of other riding on the backs of the Authors that took out the time to create an in depth story with well developed characters is beyond unfair to those that put in the work. This, in many ways, exploits the ideas and even more importantly the fan base of other authors.

This all leads to the great debate on when fan fiction is no longer fan fiction but rather a story written of its influence. After all, everything comes from something. The step-parent is the murderer, the boy gets the girl, and the underdog wins these are all story plots we have all read and watched repetitively. The problem for 50 Shades is that when ran in the plagiarism detection program Turnitin the similarity index between Masters of the Universe and 50 Shades of Grey there was 89%. This brings up issues of plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the act of using the thoughts and language of an author without permission and presenting them as your own. On the surface its hard to imagine how someone could plagiarize them self. However, the issue really exist in the fan fiction. That 89% similarity index is not 100% because James changed the names of the characters and the setting. She also took time to remove the vampires and Werewolves from the story. If there is that much similarity in the two version of the story, when one is fan fiction then the story is still very much so written based on the works of Stephanie Meyer. This for the nay-Sayers of 50 Shades makes the story plagiarized.

## Remediation

Remediation within text is this idea of taking the original piece of work and then re working into something that is

inspired by the original. There are many ways for a fan of any text to do this, Fan Fiction, Fan Art, and Fan Music. 50 Shades of grey makes this concept easy an easy one to explore. The book series serves as a prime example of remediation. The fans E.L. James and her stories surround them and take to their own ways of expressing the them. Many do just as James did and create Fan Fiction. While others create beautiful pieces of fan art based on who the saw the characters within the story.

### Fan Fiction

There are several fan fiction story each written by a different fans. Each one based on the same story but telling a very different story from the previous. Fanfiction.net is where these stories are archived. One of the largest story I came across was entitled Putting Down Roots by Christine Wood. She has written over 32 chapters of her 50 Shade of Grey inspired story. She has also acquired over 700 reviews. This is place where the readers can take their thoughts of what if and turn them into words on page for like minded fans everywhere to read.

### Fan Art

The art that surrounds this story is interesting to observe and take in. When the time is taken to read almost any fiction story we begin to picture what we think the characters look. We often take to time to think what actor or actress should play the parts of the character if i movie were created. Much like Fan Fiction fan art takes these thoughts and acts on them. The definition of art is, like literature, a broad one. Allowing for several ways for any text to be interrupted.

## Additional Links

Fifty Shades of Grey Wikia

Fifty Shades Amazon Reviews

E.L James

Masters of the Universe v.s. 50 Shades

## Reference

1. ↑ Literature Definition
2. ↑ NEA, "Reading at Risk", Course Reading
3. ↑ Course Presentation: Authors, Texts, and Readers
4. ↑ Ong, Walter: "Print,Space,Closure." Course Reading
5. ↑ Oh Fifty http://ohfifty.com/forum/e-l-james/11958-e-l-james-emailed-me?limit=6&start=36
6. ↑ Erika James Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/3YsFpwykRD/
7. ↑ E.L. James Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.\_L.\_James
8. ↑ 50 Shades of Blogs http://www.blogher.com/50-shades-grey-when-if-fan-fiction-not-fan-fiction?page=0,1
9. ↑ Ethical Fan Fiction http://jamigold.com/2012/03/when-does-fan-fiction-cross-an-ethical-line/comment-page-2/#comments
10. ↑ Galley Cat http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/fifty-shades-of-grey-wayback-machine/50128
11. ↑ Plagiarism Definition http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism
12. ↑ Plagiarism http://www.fiftyshadesofplagiarism.blogspot.com/
13. ↑ 50 Shades Fan Fiction https://www.fanfiction.net/book/Fifty-Shades-Trilogy/
14. ↑ Fan Art http://50shadesofgreyfanart.blogspot.com/