Guilty Pleasures on PBS, Surveys, and More

Tonight on many local PBS stations in the US, a documentary called 'Guilty Pleasures' will air. I've been on the receiving end of several messages about it, asking me both whether I've seen the documentary, and whether I'll promote it. I haven't seen it, but based on this review from Jennifer Lohmann from April 2011, I don't think I want to:

I was left with the impression that Moggan had no desire to actually understand her subjects. She was an outsider looking inside a culture and she made a shallow effort to learn why Roger wrote a novel and Hiroko, Shumita, and Shirley read the novels but ultimately it was a superficial effort. She read hundreds of Mills & Boon, but I get the impression that she allowed them to confirm her stereotypes of the genre rather than opening herself up to a new understanding. Perhaps she is confusing understanding with endorsement and, in her effort to make sure she didn’t endorse the genre, she forgot to try and understand it.

This makes me wonder about the audience. I worry the non-romance readers in audience left feeling like they learned something about the genre when, in reality, stereotypes of romance novel and their bonbon-eating readers were confirmed. Moggan made a movie about three readers and one author who writes for one category line in a very large industry.  While she attempts to make a global statement about fantasy and reality, ultimately her conclusions are provincial.

Her full review was written after seeing the premiere along with a moderated discussion. If you watch Guilty Pleasures, I hope you'll let me know what you think.


RT Book Reviews is creating a digital magazine, and has a survey they'd like to ask you to take regarding the potential finished product:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SDY6X8C 

I love whoever named Survey Monkey. I wonder if Survey Monkey's like Podcast Pickles? 


Speaking of pickles (not really), Smash Entertainment has made an XXX-rated version of 50 Shades of Grey, and the cover art features all three of the items in the trilogy. You can see it here (SERIOUSLY NSFW YO).

There's also a shot of what appears to be some awkward dancing from the film. (NSFW)

Bonus hilarity: the back of the box copy (NSFW) includes the fact that there's BDSM “roll playing.” HIDE YOUR DINNER ROLLS, PEOPLE.

Graceful curtsey to James L for the link. 


If that just scarred you for life (or made you think about dinner rolls in a WHOLE NEW WAY), here's something awesome: Little Free Libraries, including instructions on how to build your own.

I totally want to build my own.


Finally, a few nights ago on Twitter, I posted about charities and asked which charities people like to support. The answers were so diverse and awesome I started retweeting them – and got put in Twitter jail.

Nobody knows the troubles I've seen. Anyway.

I made a Storify out of all of them. So if you're looking for ideas of where a little money might do a lot of good, there are some inspiring options in this thread.

Categorized:

The Link-O-Lator

Comments are Closed

  1. LauraN says:

    When I saw “Guilty Pleasures on PBS,” I was hoping you were going to tell me about some totally awesome show on PBS that was guaranteed to be my latest guilty pleasure.  The actual documentary sounds significantly less fun.  Oh well.

  2. DreadPirateRachel says:

    Ditto what LauraN said.

    Re: 50SoG pron adaptation, I cannot in good conscience watch any XXX version of that book unless James Deen is playing Christian. Not since he posted this awesomeness: https://twitter.com/MoshiMoshi…

  3. I think I’ve heard about this documentary last year. There have been attempts to make documentaries or write stories about wrestling fans, comic con fans, Star Trek vs Star Wars fans and they always ultimately end up making fun of those involved instead of enlightening those who aren’t apart of these communities. You can never be sure if that is the director’s intention.

  4. Sam says:

    Is it just me or do the nipples on the cover of the Fifty Shades adaptation look…plastic? They look weird and fake to me—and if any adaptation can star real nipples, isn’t it the porn one?! What is the world coming to? (Clearly not this, ifyouknowwhatImean.)

  5. JamesLynch says:

    When I read the phrase “roll playing” I immediately thought of Teri Garr in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN:

    [from inside the haycart]
    Inga: Hallo. Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?
    [Dr. Frankenstein stutters]
    Inga: It’s fun.
    [She begins to roll in the hay]
    Inga: Roll, roll, roll in ze hay.

  6. Flo_over says:

    I wish to click on your links.  But I am sitting in a room full of my family members and do not wish to openly snort-laugh on pervy things.  Sadness.

  7. LG says:

    Lol, the nipples look fake to me too. My first thought was that they started to Photoshop them out, remembered that they didn’t need to, and then forgot to revert back to the original file.

  8. KellyM says:

    I think I saw the Guilty Pleasures thing a while back.  If I remember correctly, these were my reactions (chronologically of course):
    1. Yay, oh happy day, this looks like it will be a respectful and intellectual profile of romance writers and readers!  Huzzah!
    2. Oh…oh, no…
    3. Aw, come on, PBS!
    4. What else is on? (*flip*)

  9. Nita says:

    NPR had a piece about Little Free Libraries earlier this year, and I’ve wanted to put one up so bad ever since. There is one in my neighborhood, and the future librarian in me applauds every time I see it. Anything that promotes the exchange of reading material= awesome in my book.

  10. MissB2U says:

    I love this idea and have done a “wild release” of a few books myself.  I don’t track them, I just like to cast my bread upon the waters and imagine all the possible outcomes.  Check it! 

    http://www.bookcrossing.com/

  11. Bnbsrose says:

    I tried, honestly tried, to watch “Guilty Pleasures”, but once they started on the Indian woman covered in some kind of green cream (new STD?) having a pedi reading her book aloud while everyone else in the salon appeared either bored unto death or disgusted, I gave up and switched to a subtitled documentary about some Scandanavian detective books. I think I stayed awake longer that way.

    @MissB2U: have loved bookcrossing for a long time as well as doing “wild releases”. Much fun.

  12. Bonnie says:

    Worst. Show. Ever.  Jesus. 

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