I was recently introduced to the controversy that is the NY Times bestselling book, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.
According to this article, 50 Shades started as Twilight fan-fiction with an erotic bent. If Twilight were the PG-13 love story, 50 Shades would be the X-Rated erotica version.
Apparently, James took her fan-fic, changed the names and character backgrounds and landed a 7-figure publishing contract with Random House. You can read the finer details here, where the post points out that the author fan-fic and final novel are 89% similar according to plagiarism software.
So, I bought 50 Shades in order to see what the fuss was about.
(Warning: I couldn’t write this post without spoilers for both books, though I’ve only read 25% of 50 Shades, and I don’t think I mention anything about Twilight that isn’t public knowledge at this point, please proceed at your own risk!)
At around 25% into the book, here’s my assessment.
Ana vs. Bella
Both main characters are young, a bit naive and domestic with a love of classic British literature and operatic music. Both are pale, dark haired and self-proclaimed average looking, but with multiple men interested in them.
Both are klutzy beyond the realm of what is normal. Neither like attention, and neither have been serious about a boy before, until they meet the dark, handsome and rich fellas that set their hearts aflutter.
They both have somewhat scatterbrained mothers who can’t, apparently, care for themselves well. Ana’s mom marries an older man who keeps things together for her and Bella’s mom marries a younger man who also makes sure life functions and gas tanks are filled.
In a self-sacrificing attempt to give their moms chances at happiness, both girls chose to live with their fathers after their moms remarried. Â Both have taciturn fathers who like to fish. (Though Ana’s dad is actually her step-father.)
They both respond to the attention of their infatuation with the same blend of “You are so arrogant and full of yourself” and “Oh my God, he is so perfect and handsome and perfect and god-like… and did I mention perfect?” Yeah, we get it, they’re both hot. Moving on…
In Twilight, Bella works at some kind of outdoor warehouse, where the All-American boy next door who has a serious crush on her, works with her… and it’s owned by his dad.
In 50 Shades, Ana works at some kind of Home Depot like place, where the All-American boy next door who has a serious crush on her, works with her… and it’s owned by his dad.
In 50 Shades, the controlling and powerful Mr. Grey shows up to a bar where Ana is getting drunk and saves her from a ‘friend’ who tries to force her into some PDA she’s not interested in–and this is after he saves her from almost getting run over by a cyclist.
In Twilight, the controlling and powerful Edward shows up in a dark alley where Bella is
about to get raped by a gang of bad boys–and this is after he saves her from almost getting hit by a car.
Both girls abhor presents. They don’t like when their love interests buy them fancy things and balk and argue and try to give it all back.
Now, to be fair, there are some difference. Their names, for one, are different. Ana. Bella. See? a few letters are different.
Also, Ana is in college and Bella is in high school. HUGE difference, right there, right? And they don’t meet in high school (obviously, because of the huge differences), they meet in an interview that Ana does for her school paper when her best friend gets sick and can’t go.
Oh, and speaking of… her very best friend ends up dating Mr. Grey’s brother, who’s very nice to Ana despite Mr. Grey’s aloof and haughty manner. (Remember Alice and Jasper?)
Ok, so onto the men…
Edward vs. Mr. Grey
I’ve already pointed out the ways in which they both miraculously save their damsels in distress from horrible happenings. But there’s more.
Edward is drawn to Bella, inexplicably, and wants her, but knows he’s bad for her, what with his vampirism and desire to eat her and all. So he pursues her, saves her and then pulls away. He tells her “I’m no good for you. I’m bad news. Stay away.” Or something to that effect. Then a few pages later he says, “I know I said stay away, and then I keep showing up and saving you, but I can’t stay away from you. There’s something special about you.”
In 50 Shades, Mr. Grey is drawn to Ana, inexplicably, and wants her, but knows he’s bad for her, what with his Master/Submissive dominatrix sex play and desire to eat her and all. So he pursues her, saves her and then pulls away. He tells her “I’m no good for you. I’m bad news. Stay away.” Or something to that effect. Then a few pages later he says, “I know I said stay away, and then I keep showing up and saving you, but I can’t stay away from you. There’s something special about you.”
Both men are rich, so astoundingly gorgeous that they put Greek gods to shame–for pages and pages and pages–they are both controlling, protective and are used to getting their way, and they both have dark passions that could destroy the women that so fascinate them.
Both men have methods of finding their women against all odds… Edward with his mind reading and super vamp senses and Mr. Grey with billions of dollars and technology. (He traced her cell phone location to find her at the bar.)
Both men get insanely jealous over any other attentions bestowed upon their women by any other men, and are very possessive.
Both men are compared to characters from British classics, in demeanor and speech.
Now again, there are some differences. And again, we have the names. Those are different. Also, Mr. Grey is not a sparkly vampire. Still, his dark side is enough that the feeling is the same, if not the fangs.
Summary
And here’s the thing… many of these similarities that were a core part of the Twilight story, are half-assed mentions in 50 Shades–not even relevant or necessary, as far as I can tell so far.
The boy who hits on Ana at her work is a talking head to make Mr. Grey jealous. Her parents are brief mentions after a ‘tell but doesn’t show’ phone call to each of them. The rescue scenes are weak, at best. Almost getting hit by a kid on a bike? A guy she’s friends with pushing a kiss while they’re both drunk? Lame.
It’s like she’s trying to set it up as a Twilight rip-off without putting the work in to make those characters and scenes pivotal to the growth of the characters and forward movement of the plot. These people, these relationships, fall flat in 50 Shades and don’t feel real at all.
These are just initial thoughts, and obviously the books diverge on the whole sex thing. In 50 Shades, Mr. Grey seduces the virgin Ana into a world of BDSM, whereas in Twilight Edward rejects sex until they are married, and even then only engages once until after she’s turned.
Many are calling 50 Shades “mommy porn.” I’m not a prude and I’ve read more hard core scenes, but for me, this book wasn’t as interesting once the sex came into the plot.
So is this too close to fan-fiction? I don’t know. Lots of books have the girl attracted to the bad boy thing going–even my Forbidden Mind Trilogy has Sam attracted to the mysterious, dark and dangerous Drake.
But, I definitely see strong parallels between the books, and I’m not one to scream Twilight rip-off just because a book has a vamp/girl romance or love triangle. (Meyer was not the first to write of this, has no one watched Buffy or Angel?) But this book did send my Twilight alarms going pretty early on.
What are your thoughts? Have you read both books? Do you see the similarities? What do you think about pro-fic that’s taken from fan-fic? Is this just glorified Twi-porn? And if so, is that a problem? Based on the sales and reviews, it’s not a problem for a whole lot of readers. What’s your take?
Check out the show Roswell also. HUGELY similar to Twilight.
How so?
Hmm, I’ve never thought about it before, but I think CB is right. Liz is dark-haired, pale, kinda klutzy, and very smart, just like Bella. She falls for a mysterious loner boy who turns out to have freakish powers–her best friend ends up dating Max’s “brother”.
As for Max, he also falls into the Edward category. He’s hot, and he’s drawn to Liz (apparently has been in love with her since the first grade) but knows he’s dangerous to her. He saves her life, has a weird connection to her that he can use to find her, and more than once tries to leave her “for her own good”.
I loved that show!
I think a lot of books (and TV shows and movies) where the romantic element stems from an attraction to the bad boy type of figure features the dynamic mentioned here. The whole he’s so bad, but I want him so good/I’m no good for you, but I can’t stay away from you deal. Definitely not exclusive to Twilight or 50 Shades.
If the fanfic and the published version are 89% similar, that’s a red flag to me. I have nothing against fanfic, but if the author then turns around to sell it for a profit, I definitely have a problem. On top of that ethical grey area, I’ve heard from readers/writers whose opinions I respect that 50 Shades is just poorly written, period. You mentioned it in your post. Which makes me even more frustrated that the “erotica” getting so much mainstream attention isn’t indicative of the real quality out there.
Thanks for coming by. For me it wasn’t so much the romance as ALL the character relationships and very specific events that correlated with Twilight.
What you’re saying is that Twilight is hugely similar to Roswell… Roswell is the forerunner of the 2 properties.
I’m still in shock that Fifty got published in the first place. When I first decided to become “professional” I was told writing fanfic was career suicide if a publisher caught wind of it. Who knew?
Though I think writing fanfic is great fun as a hobby (I’ve written a snippet here and there myself), I don’t think anyone should get paid for it. You’re not truly a fan if you demand payment for an imitation of someone else’s work. IMO, it shows a lack of respect for the work the writer put into it. Better to write your own story.
I agree, though a lot of people claim they don’t see the resemblance between the two books. But the fact that she admitted it started as fanfic is pretty damning, in my opinion.
There are too many similarities. Had the author properly edited her fanfic Masters of the Universe she could have had some credibility with this book. As a Twilight fanfiction reader I find this embarrassing. There are some great Twilight fanfiction stories that have been properly edited and had all traces of Twilight removed and been written in to very good published novels.
Thanks for the comment, Jenn. I don’t know a lot about fanfic, so you bring up a good point… that fan fic can turn into great books of their merit, but this one is just too much like Twilight. Yeah, there’s no sparkly vampires and way more sex, and lots of people argue this as the basis for it being unique, but I think they are missing the inherent same-ness in the characterizations, character histories and basic plot line. So thank you for the feedback!
I was never a fan of Master of the Universe, but I do have the pdf on my computer and if I would pull it out and compared the Twilight fanfiction story and the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, the majority of it would be exactly the same minus the different character names.
Just so happy I am not the only one who thought it was twilight with adults and sex and no vamps ;). Kind of surprised they are making a movie of this book – hope they don’t cast Pattinson and Stewart as the leads (which from reading the book you definitely could). They need to at least make the cast different chris pine gets my vote for grey ;)). But seriously- how many similarities in the background for the carractors – I understand it started as fanfiction but I think she could have done a little work at making this more original before publishing. Or maybe the publishers should have familiarized themselves with a little trilogy called twilight before printing a thinly veiled plagiarized series. If I were Stephanie meyer I would check with a lawyer! Still enjoyed the books and after the first it pulls away from being a complete rip off but still lots of similarities.
As I read through more of the first book I saw even more similarities, but I agree, after the first book it gets a *little* more original. I’m blown away by people who don’t see a similarity.
The people who don’t see the similarities maybe only saw the movies for twilight which don’t explain the characters as well as the books do – maybe? Don’t know – I read in a few chapters before I thought oh hey this is twilight with sex – and that was before I knew it started as fan fic (I only found that out after checking on the web for the author to see what else she had written). My husband thinks maybe it is Meyer and like Stephen King did – she has created an author in order to write this book – so that her tween following wouldn’t read such an adult version of her stories. I don’t know, i guess would be possible, it is a similar style of writing. If not, then I guess people don’t care for an original story so much as a salacious one.
I could almost believe that Meyer did write it, except the quality of writing in 50 shades doesn’t even begin to compare to that of Twilight. That was the biggest problem for me with 50 Shades… If Meyer doesn’t care that they are similar, then I don’t care, but the writing was pretty bad at times.
I agree that the quality of writing in 50 Shades was pretty bad. I skimmed so much of it, just to get through it. I don’t think Stephenie wrote it, but it doesn’t appear she cares about the similarities, or just doesn’t want to speak about it in public.
I, like you Ms. Kinrade, have noticed similarities between 50 shades and Twilight, in fact I’m almost done reading Fifty Shades and from the beginning I couldn’t help notice the similarities between the two. As you say, both books have innocent girls and dominating men and if you notice they both take place in WA. Both moms live in hot places, Bella’s mom moves from Arizona to Florida and Ana’s mom moves from LA to GA. Many likenesses, I agree or is it coincidence?
Diane,
I don’t believe it’s coincidence. The author has admitted that this started as Twilight fan fic!!
Don’t forget the boys are both adopted, have dr. parents and both have an interest in cars. Leila/Victoria… I think if I read 50 shades without knowing it started off as fan fic I would have like it more. But my girlfriend let it slip when she told me “you have to read this” so that’s all I thought about while reading it.
Yes, I thought about and/or noticed a lot more similarities after writing this post and the more I read. I too found it after knowing it was Twilight fanfic!
There are too many similarities to count in the first book, it does get more unique in the next 2 books but the basics are identical. I personally have enjoyed the books! The raunchy scenes are great, but tbh, I think there should have been less as a lot of the parts (not to mention the description) got over used and repeated in several places.
All the eyes references and the mind reading is hinted at a lot in the book, very similar to twilight. I almost saw Jose as Jacob too in several parts… this book could have been its own as so many of the ideas were unique and well thought it, and a lot could have easily been changed to make it stand away from the twilight, more than them not being vamps. Again, I reiterate, I did enjoy the trilogy though. 🙂
I noticed the Jose/Jacob comparison too! And the series does have an addictive quality to it that many are enjoying! Thanks for the comment, Becky!
I’m nearly finished with the first book, and I’m shocked that it got published. Not because of the explicit scenes, but because of how poor the writing is and what a blatant ripoff it is of Twilight. What is galling is that, as you said, in many of the cases (Ana’s workplace, parents, etc) there could have been minor tweaks (easily changed) to make it different from Twilight, regardless of how they started out in the planning/creative process. That’s why I think that they were left in on purpose, not only by the author but by the publisher, in order to hook fans of Twilight that might not have been ready to leave Forks behind. I am absolutely astonished that anyone who has read the Twilight series could possibly claim to not see the similarities in this book – not only does the author whack you over the freakin head with them…she’s flat out admitted to this story “originating” as Twilight fanfiction. I hope that this doesn’t start a dangerous new precedent because if so then no writer is safe. Though most fanfic that I’ve read is pretty bad, I approve of it as a creative hobby…but just that. One shouldn’t PROFIT from it.
As a side note, was I the only one who found the character of Jose to be offensive? He was an obvious ripoff of Jacob (so obviously he just *had* to be a minority, right?) The constant use of “Dios mio!” was really overkill.
Janice,
I wrote this post very early on in the book, so a lot more become evident as I read. And yes, the Jose character… oh I hated him. He had none of Jacob’s loyalty, compassion, or friendship. He wasn’t developed or fleshed out at all, it was such a forced contrivance to fit the Twilight pattern and it was horrible. He was such an ass!
I really hope this doesn’t become a trend.
There are similarities with other characters as well. Anna’s best friend Kate is as gorgeous as Rosalie and ends up in a relationship with Christian’s brother Elliot, who is described much like Emmit. Christian’s sister Mia is very much like Alice and begins to date Kate’s brother Ethan who reminds me of Jasper.
Yes, I noticed those too. The whole family dynamic on both ends were very similar!
did i read that correctly…”there are some that don’t see the similarities?” it’s not just similarities, there are scenes and lines that are same. I just jumped on the 50 bandwagon last week being stuck in a camper during the rain with my kindle…i don’t think i was in one chapter or two before i was saying “this is weird”. i found it very distracting, reading the story because i kept comparing the two…even txting a friend about it. i finally googled it and saw supposedly that it started as this fan fic erotica of twilight. explained a lot. i love twilight. read the books numerous times and i love Bella and Edward. So when it came to the last chapter of 50 Shades, i cried (i’m a sap, i know) and when i told that to my friend (who just finished 50 but has not read or seen twilight) she looked at me like i was crazy. of course our reactions were different because we felt for them differently…i felt for Bella! 🙂
thanks
I too am surprised that there are so many bloggers who claim not to see any similarities. I enjoyed Twilight, though it’s been many years since I read it, and I had a lot of problems with 50 Grey that came up after I wrote this blog (My blog indicates I had only read a small portion when I saw these similarities.) The near abusive relationship between Christian and Ana really bothers me. I actually do think he was abusive to her in the books, in many ways, and her reactions were so similar to an abused woman that I worry about how many women loved Christian so much. I don’t feel the same about Edward and Bella. Maybe a lot of people are transposing Edward and Bella in this and ignoring the parts where Christian is downright scary? I don’t know!
I have been a huge Twilight fan from the beginning, and like some other had no idea of the origins of 50 Shades before I stared reading it. When my friend asked me how I was enjoying it (I was about halfway through the 1st book at that point) I said it was just ok. The naughty scenes were indeed naughty, but honestly nothing I hadn’t read before in other works. The quality of writing wasn’t great – very repetitive and somewhat immature. I told her I was mostly shocked by all the blatant similarities to Twilight. That’s when she told me it started out as Twilight fan-fic. I finished reading 50 Shades out of curiousity.
I have read a lot of fan-fic over the years and have been known to write it too (yes, even some “spicy” stuff) – though not in the Twilight realm. I can’t believe there hasn’t been any talk of legal action from Meyer. I would be some pissed if someone ripped off my series, changed a few names, and released it as their own. Fan-fic is a hobby where it is clear you are exploring different scenarios with someone else’s characters and core ideas. It’s for fun. Profitting from it though? That’s just plain ol’ stealing. In my opinion James is not an author, just someone who re-wrote someone else’s work (and not particularly well).
Agreed!
You forgot to mention that Christian’s mother is a doctor and Edward’s father is a doctor.Both father’ names are similar as well. I spotted the similarities right away and wondered who someone could copy another story and get paid for it.
I see the similarities, but the fact is that Twilight in itself is also not an original story.. I mean, this storyline of the naive girl who falls under the charm of the young troubled rich handsome man is old… I mean, if you have read all these “fabio” romances (and I have to admitt, I have read a lot of them during traveling!) the story is just the same.. naive girl, mainly brunette, who meets the charming but troubled man with a dark past or a dark secret, they fall passionately in love, at one point they separate, they both suffer, they reunite and most of the time there’s a baby by the end of the story.. . so its old news and therefore, I think we should accept the reality that it is an old story told for the 1000000 th time.. only with a new background! in that sense, let’s just enjoy the stories as they are!
I think if you research a bit, you can make a comparisson of any number of heroines who are just like Bella/Ana..and the same goes for Edward/Christian.
What I definitely agree upon is that both books are terribly written. Let’s face it, both Twilight and 50 shades are far from Nobel Literature Prizes.. so, they aim to entertain, no more. They are both upgraded romances and that’s it. I enjoyed 50 shades a lot, a bit less Twilight.
I agree that the archetypal themes are prevalent in a lot of books and romances. My main issue was how many very specific things were the same. The details about their lives, their relationship with their parents, the description of friends and family, even specific scenes are so very similar. That’s where it crosses the line from a similar theme to a very similar book. That and James admitted that 50 Shades started as Twilight fan-fic, so that’s not even a question. I’m just surprised that more wasn’t changed before publishing with a major publisher.
I’ve read the books and only watched the 1st part of Twilight but picked up the similarities immediately. I emailed my friend 30 minutes into the movie mentioning these similarities. Now I’m interested in watching more of Twilight. In my opinion the blindness on Grey’s side is because of sex. Remember sex sells, so I guess it kinda erased the whole abusive element in the relationship. I just hated the fact that Anna couldn’t be her own person. Everything was dictated to her.
I completely agree!
I love all twilight books and im onto the second fifty shades book, of which i love also. I immediately noticed a similarity between these books as i began 50 shades. In fact i cant get bella and edwards faces out of my head. So many things are similar. Particularly christian greys sister mia….not unlike alice from twilight. I do still love both books and im especially njoying the second of the 50 shades. I actually thought i was a bit nuts until i found this article…..hmmmm