Reality vs. Everyone

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!

*Pulling a barrel of rum forward and balancing upon it…

Let me start this with a disclaimer. I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. I haven’t seen the movie. Not from any particular held belief in the subject matter. I like reading erotica, I don’t mind some BDSM in the mix. I simply don’t have time.

With the book – I’m writing constantly and I choose the books I read with great care. I generally read cozy mysteries. For the pure distraction of stepping into a world I don’t write and likely never will write. (I’ve written erotica. I’ve written BDSM – someday I’ll publish them.)

With the movies…again, there are so many I really want to see so why spend energy on something I don’t really care about? (To be brutally honest, if I wanted to observe real BDSM in action, or a realistic depiction of it, I’d watch some porn.)

Now, with all of that being understood, I’ve watched the FSOG hysteria with some amusement. Firstly, I wish some TV doctor would call my books ‘mommy porn’. I’d like the money. Secondly – and this ties in with Dr. Drew and his infamous words – books are not reality. Neither are movies. FSOG has about as much to do with actual BDSM as Pirates of the Caribbean has to do with the actual men sailing under the pirate flag in the 1690s. And despite the oft used term ‘tachyon energy’ from the Star Trek universe…there is no such thing. (I bet some geek turned scientist will one day name an every source tachyon…)

While we’re dispelling myths – I think it’s extremely doubtful that Hitler almost had the Ark of the Covenant in his hands. Or that George Washington knew Ichabod Crane. I know that Samuel Adams wasn’t a roof hopping rebel, in 1774. (Image courtesy of the History Channel’s Son’s of Liberty.) (The man was in his 60s or 70s at the time.) (I like spry seniors – but lets consider reality here…)

Oddly enough, I won’t dispel the possibility of alien abductions, time travel, magic, bigfoot or a hundred other ideas. I’m open to all sorts of possibilities.

But does Hollywood, or the printed word, guarantee any sort of authenticity when they deliver entertainment? (Or attempt to deliver entertainment…)

That is a big fat NO.

The pure idiocy – or let me be kind and say naiveté – of people wringing their hands over someone believing FSOG is accurate regarding BDSM… I’m just a bit speechless. And I’m inclined to state that any person who embraces FSOG as a guide to the life…well, they sorta deserve what they get.  Darwin’s survival of the fittest in action.

I know a lot of authors who write about BDSM. Writer’s who do the research and endeavor with all sincerity to correctly depict what is a lifestyle choice. I hope they reap the benefits of FSOG FICTION.

I don’t attempt to be accurate when writing about historical events. I don’t do the research – I like to say I’m lazy, but really…it’s because I don’t want accuracy to muck-up my stories. People should know the difference. I’ll step off the rum barrel now.

So, readers…what is the favorite bit of fiction you’ve seen embraced as reality? Anything you wish was real?

4 Comments:

  1. I like what you said about the porn. They’d be more accurate. You’re right, it’s not accurate and hopefully people will be smart enough to do the research for such a lifestyle if it moves them. And yeah, if they get hurt from not doing the research on safe, sane, and consensual, kinda seems like karma to me. Good post, Maureen.

  2. Honestly…I don’t want anyone to put themselves in danger… But you just gotta wonder sometimes…

  3. I completely agree. I started the book but didn’t finish. The writing wasn’t good (I know people say that a lot, so I don’t mean to be a cliche, but it’s true) and the heroine was TSTL in my opinion.

    But, I think people who are stressing that this is giving women “IDEAS” and the people who are pseudo fearful that women aren’t smart enough to realize this is straight up fantasy FICTION, well those people need to build a bridge and get over it.

    (I’m being kind.)

    Read what you like, folks. But when people tell me they like FSOG, I end up rec’ing lots of other folks. Welcome to the romance yard, meat. There’s so much more to see.

  4. I have heard so much about the dialogue…and seen so many spoofs. Though the sad thing is most of these spoofs are reading actual dialogue. That said, I pray the readers who dive into my pirate worlds will forgive the occasional … ungraceful prose … and move past it.

    At the same time… I do not understand the inability of some readers to accept and fully understand that we are writing FICTION.

    We (most of us) haven’t traveled to every local we write of. We don’t take pictures of street corners and take note of every ‘correct’ placement of every road, building, church, sign color or anything else. We imagine.

    Please, take the imagination express with us!

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