A "Book" Revisited

Back in March I posted a little something about reading works that were once fan-fiction but have been self-published. The topic of one of the works I discussed has come up over and over again in the last couple of months. 

The Fifty Shades of Grey Series is not something I would consider literary genius.  I can't even consider it decent literature.  There are so many errors and repetitive use of words and phrases that it becomes difficult for me to read.  It's annoying because I know that I've read something similar just a few paragraphs back.

What prompted today's post started out so simply. 

A very dear friend of mine texted me this morning with a link to this article on Crushable.com.  She thought I would get a kick out of it because she knew how I felt about the subject matter.  The author of the article, Natalie Zutter, let the cat out of the proverbial bag about E.L. James' true feelings about those that helped her to get where she is today.  She's making millions of dollars thanks to those that loved her "original" story.

If you read the article, you find out that Fifty Shades of Grey was originally written as fan-fiction.  The name of it was Master of the Universe (affectionately known as MotU) and yes, it was Twilight fan-fiction. What does that mean?  Well, Christian and Ana were originally Edward and Bella.  James built a huge fan base through the Twilight fandom, and if you believe the quotes from a former confidant, she doesn't much appreciate those people.  

The article did spark a question in my mind.  How did Zutter find out about James' dislike of the fandom?  Did she speak directly with the source or pull from a blog?  A bit of a search took me to the spot I was looking for--which brought a great amount of respect for Zutter because she obviously believes in doing her research well.  I found the original source known as "gentleblaze"--well her journal.  Actually her final journal entry.  

I try not to judge people that are so negative--it takes me down a road I don't want to go down--because I'd hate for anyone to judge me so harshly.  I'm sure gentleblaze aka AngstGoddess003 had her reasons for doing what she did.  To be honest, if James had told me how she felt, I don't know that I could have kept that to myself either.  I'd want the fandom that adored her so much and gave her such high praise to know the truth. 

Psst...she doesn't really like you. 

What is sadder still is that James contends that Fifty Shades of Grey is an original work.  She even has Vintage Publishing backing her claim.  Those that read MotU before it was pulled know that this is false. James did pull the story down from Fanfiction.net and Twilighted.  She even went as far as to shut down her site 50shades.com.  If you were to try to go to that site now, it shoots you over to James' current site.  

I understand the drive to get published, believe me, I do.  When you get where you eventually hope to be, you should praise those that helped you get there.  Why would you try to ignore them as if they were a kid throwing their fourth tantrum of the day because you don't want anyone to know they're yours? Oh...wait...is that what it is?

I decided to go ahead and watch Erika James on The View.  One of the things that truly bothered me was that she couldn't look any of the hosts in the eye when speaking to them. She kept playing with her mug of water or looking at the table, finding the grain rather interesting.

"I had no idea so many people had been reading the story." 

Really?  Have she really forgotten about all those people in the world of fan-fiction that helped her with her research and kept telling her how great she was?  Is her memory that short?  Apparently so.

She also said she had an idea and put the "idea" out there. Well, let's see, she put more than the idea out.  She wrote the full story and put it out there on her website.  People have pdf copies of the entire thing.  If you google it, MotU can be found available for download. 

To this day, I don't think MotU should have been published. It was a mess then and it remains a mess.  The editing is bad, there is constant repetitiveness, and let me just say, inaccurate on certain subject matter.  I cannot believe the bull rubbish that she is spilling in these interviews. 

I was laughing my fool ass arse off about the BS-storm from James' camp regarding 50 Shades. I did find some very interesting articles.

For example: Vintage, James' publisher and an extension of Random House, says that MotU and FSoG are two distinct fiction pieces.

 **choking cough**  

There was an actual analysis done.  The gist of it, 89% the same. The 11% difference includes name changes and punctuation additions. Yeah...not at all impressed, but it was interesting to see the few changes she did make.  89% the same does not make two distinct works of fiction.  So sorry.

In the Summer of 2010 a woman by the name of Anne taught a unit in Twilight fanfiction for her Theories of Popular Culture course.  Her blog has the information on the coursework and I found it interesting. I think I may have liked that class and probably would have ripped James' story apart. Oops! Did I say that?   

I found another blogger that brought some interesting points. Fan-fiction cannot be copyrighted.  Not truly.  It's a bit of a GREY area, but the gist of it is that if it's on the net, sadly it falls under "fair use".

I did the research.  A person would have to pay a copyright fee for every piece of work written.  You can't do a general copyright based on your name.  For that you'd need a trademark and the requirements for that get even hairier.  Now James is published and her story copyrighted as Fifty Shades, so under those laws MotU is still fair use.

DISCLAIMER: I have nothing to do with legal.

That being said, I am sure a lawyer could figure out a way to say that MotU was copyrighted.

Where Has Education Gone?

"Education is no substitute for pure raw talent.  However,
it is a good foundation on which talent may build."  ~ David Allio

We all hear about education dollars being cut from states's budgets, schools laying off good educators because they can't afford them, programs being cut in our schools, etcetera...it's all disheartening.  So when one goes to a choir concert at an elementary school, there is hope that some school districts understand the need for the arts as well as education.

Fast forward to the end of an auditorium filled with joyful noise.  The choir director became rather vocal and told all that were gathered that, though she is happy to be kept on after this school year, her program is being cut from three one-hour sessions a week to one half-hour session a week.  Using my skills in Mathematics, rounding up, her program is being cut down by 83%.  Eighty-three percent!

Say you heard that your favorite TV program was just told that their budget was cut and instead of having forty-three minutes of programing to film, they had to fit all of it into seven minutes, 18 seconds.  Could they do that?  Would you still like the show?  Would you be satisfied with the content?

Try this?  You're used to getting a full business week to complete a presentation or a comprehensive report.  You now have six hours and 48 minutes.  Talk about cramming!  Good luck with that.

One more...You're used to making $32,000 a year, budget cuts means you have to take an 83% cut in pay.  Could you live off of $5440 a year?  No?  Scarily enough, some are trying.

Not so easy is it?  Hard to imagine, yet this is what is happening to children's education.

This is only the latest thing to really upset me over what is happening to our educational system.  Three short weeks ago, I was sitting with my niece and she was so proud as she showed me all her hard work.  She was excited for me to see just how well she's been doing in school.  I was looking over one of her rough drafts and noticed there were no marks on the paper except for a "100/100".  There were no notes for improvement in the margins, no kudos.  When I asked her why this was so, she told me that students were getting 100% for turning in their rough drafts.  Just for turning it in!

I, being the way that I am, looked over her draft and saw misspellings, flow issues, punctuation issues, and grammar errors.  I couldn't believe that nothing had been written on this paper by the teacher!  I wasn't at all pleased and decided to work with her on it.  We spent well over an hour discussing the paper and correcting some of the issues.  I made sure that she understood each step that we had gone over.  She ended up getting a good grade, but it made me angry that the teacher gave no direction.

"A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order,
which means knowing what things are more important than other things;
it means putting first things first.
~Wendell Berry

What has happened to our educational structure?

When I was little--in elementary/junior high school--I had art, choir, band and physical education. Art class was once a week with band and choir taking up the other four days of the school week.  Physical education was mandatory five days a week.  I was still taught for a full hour on each of the following subjects: Social Studies/History, Science, Language Arts/English, and Mathematics.

How in the world did this all break down to Physical Education twice a week and Arts programs that are virtually non-existent?  How did educators become so lax in being certain that their students understood the objective?  When did teaching become about only the positives in our nation's history?

When we were younger and fell down, didn't we learn how to get back up without being coddled?  When you got into trouble at school, you went to detention and were not allowed to take your music with you.  You did your school work or the teacher in charge of detention would make sure you had work to do.

I probably should have known this beforehand, but I decided to check and see just how many of our education dollars have been taken away from our kids (by "our kids," I mean family, friends, acquaintances and those I have yet to meet).  I did some research and what I found, shocked the hell heck out of me.

In my state alone, the education budget for fiscal year 2012 was cut by $488,989,600. If you think that's bad, since fiscal year 2009 the budget has been cut by $2,033,762,269.  This sum includes salaries and pensions, maintenance on sites and vehicles, building new schools, supplies, transportation, sports, arts programs, extra-curricular activities, and so much more.  All previously mentioned are necessary to ensure that the kids are being taken care of mind, body and culture.

So where has the money gone?

That's a good and fair question, don't you think?

I have seen that they've erected monuments at the capital, increased politician pay, spent more money to police the border between the United States and Mexico, spent money to entertain out-of-town politicians in a goodwill gesture, and paid--and continue to pay--consultants and accountants to figure out how to better plan our state's future by researching our previous laws and budgets.

How are we faring?

Obviously, not any better.

"A man's mind may be likened to a garden,
which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild;

but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth.

If no useful seeds are put into it,

then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein,

and will continue to produce their kind."

~James Allen