Fifty Shades of Green (with envy)

I haven't read Fifty Shades of Grey and don't intend to.

Most writers and most novels don't really come out of nowhere, but when they appear to beam into the national consciousness from another galaxy, there's always a lot of talk. No matter how much they dance around their comments in blogs, Twitter, Facebook and interviews, some writers approach all that talk with a "fairness quotient."

If writer ABC and writer XYZ write equally wonderful books, yet ABC's next door neighbor just happens to be an influential agent or publisher who gives ABC's book a lot of attention it normally wouldn't get, writers are likely to think "unfair" even though they won't say it. Saying it sounds like sour grapes.

Since most writers aren't quite sure why everyone seems to be reading Fifty Shades of Grey, there are a lot of sour grapes being stomped into bad wine behind the scenes. Why? Well, because those who know erotica say there's nothing new here. Those who know romance, say many mainstream romance novels are more explicit. And those who know writing, say the book isn't well written. All that leads to "unfair" in many writer's minds.

True or Not?

I don't know if these contentions are true or not. I don't have an opinion because I don't read or write either erotica or romance. What interests me is the number of people who are making a lot of bland comments about the book that have a lot of overt subtext lurking between the lines.

It looks bad to be envious in public even though many of our Hollywood stars remain well-loved even when they tell secrets out of school and make nasty comments about their co-stars. So far, writers are expected to be better than that, and frankly, while we're human, I hope we are.

So, what's the difference between choosing to read, say, The Tiger's Wife and choosing not to read Fifty Shades of Grey when both books seemed to come out of nowhere, vaulting (to use a sports term here) writers out of sandlot baseball straight into the major leagues? Goodness knows, more people will probably ready Fifty Shades of Grey than The Tiger's Wife. I liked what I read in blurbs, interviews and reviews for Téa Obreht's novel and not what I read about James' novel. That's not a value judgement. It's simply a matter of reading preferences and personal tastes in fiction.

If I wrote erotica, I would probably make some bland comments about James' novel while quietly speculating in print about just how it sold so well and my novel, say, Lust in a Red Barn, sold only a few hundred copies. I would probably be, very carefully, fifty shades of green with envy about Fifty Shades of Grey.

Nobody seems to know why certain books become "Black Swan Events" that sell better and capture reader and media attention better than anyone could have predicted before hand or can even understand after the fact. It's fair to say Fifty Shades of Grey is a black swan. But after reading the blogs and Facebook comments, I know that for a fair number of writers, the subject is also a green and envious swan.

What about you?

Have you read it?What influenced you to buy it?Did you like it?If so, was it poorly written, well written, or very well written?After reading it, do you better understand how and why the book became such mega-hit?--Malcolm