Okay.

Okay okay okay. I'm watching a series of video essays about how terrible Fifty Shades of Grey is, and how the films of Fifty Shades of Grey are equally terrible but in a slightly different way (apart from the first one, which is apparently at least better than it's source material, if not outright good) and I'm here thinking... I kinda want to read Fifty Shades of Grey just to see if I could actually wrangle a workable story out of it's component parts. Which - yes, terrible. Why would I do that. I don't want to work through those fucking books just for this. BUT. Apparently the books are almost indistinguishable from the fic it was based on - E L James allowed almost no editing to be done to her work at all - but according to the guy who make the video essays, there is, within Fifty Shades the... suggestion of a hint of an interesting erotica thriller or erotica horror within its pages. And I find that super interesting?? I think it's partially because I enjoy doing beta work but I sort of what to see if there's something to be made out of those building blocks. There probably isn't - or, more likely, there is, but it's beyond my ability to tease out - but can you imagine a good Fifty Shades? What would that look like? I never realised these books were so incomprehensible until watching these videos. Like, some truly batshit stuff happens in it, and of course Christian Grey is into BDSM because he was badtouched as a child. Of course. But surely there are workarounds to all that? Christian Grey could be the villain and the story is Ana realising he's controlling and abusive. Or he could just, you know, get actually decent therapy, though that's not a compelling narrative...

Oh my god I'm going to be thinking about this so much. Whyyyyyy...


PS the videos are A Lukewarm Defense of Fifty Shades of Grey, Lukewarm Defense 2: Things Go Downhill Very Quickly and Lukewarm Defense 3: Freed by Folding Ideas. If anyone wants to follow me into this madness.