Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Oh My... Fifty Shades

In the last couple of weeks, I've seen headlines on several major news outlet mentioning the book du jour. The Fifty Shades of Grey. At first, I didnt even read the articles, but since the name of the book keep popping up, last weekend I've decided to see what the fuss is all about.

And I read, and read, and read more.

You see, the book is part of a trilogy of a relationship between a young dashing billionaire but emotionally damaged Christian Grey and a twenty-one year old innocent fresh graduate with an annoying inner goddess Anastasia Steel. It's a mash up between Mills & Boon, Cinderella and BDSM story written by EL James, a pseudonym of one Erika Mitchell. There are plenty of sex, vanilla or otherwise, in the book, but the story it self keeps you turning the pages even though it was badly written.

What's with Anastasia's inner goddess coming out all the time? My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves (p137), [after a spanking session] my inner goddess is prostrate... well, at least she's quiet (p276).

Then there's the repetition of words/sentences. All variation of 'holy..', muttering, mumbling (apparently they cant just say what they want to say) and oh my. Then again, this book started as a Twilight fanfic titled Master of the Universe with about 80% of it stays in the book (I didnt know about it until I finished all three books. Holy crap! I cant bear to read it if it was 'Fifty Shades of Cullen'!).

The part that I enjoy is the email exchange between the two protagonists.

That being said, I couldnt keep the book down because I want to know how far he will push her and how far she grows as a woman and in (a difficult) relationship. Can she tame him? Will she stay in the relationship with all that money, power and mind blowing orgasm but sans love?

Christian is a Harvard educated, who pilots his own helicopter while he is not playing his piano and being filthy rich. What's not to like about him? He, however, starts every relationship with a non disclosure agreement and a written contract. That's the only relationship he knows. He does and doesnt want to bring Anastasia in to his lifestyle. He does and doent want to hurt her.

Anastasia's journey from virginity to BDSM, and relationship with men for that matter, is very intense. Does she want it for herself or does she do it to please the person she loves?

The book also sparks feminist debate about whether women should be sexually submissive in bed. Not bad for a book with terrible quality of writing.

4 comments:

colson said...

Funny, the walls of the anti-pornography law obviously are extremely permeable :).

Yet I wonder why "50 grades" is a hype among female readers. It's not the Cinderella part of the book, I assume. Too many highly educated devoured it.

Nor it's literary value. The reviews I saw al are pretty critical of James' style.

So I guess it is what is is: it's explicit erotic content. The same quality I liked in Anaïs Nin ( "Delta of Venus"), Pauline Réage ( "Story of O") and Manon Uphoff ( "Begeerte").

Maybe a young female generation is equalizing the score with men. What Marquis De Sade's "120 Day of Sodom" did tot 18th century's men E.L James perhaps does to self confident ladies in 21st century's ladies.

triesti said...

I havent read Marquis De Sade's, so I cant make any comparison.. most of the explicit part I skipped.. because it littered with the inner goddess thing.. basically it's porn written from female perspective. Probably because it let women dip their toes in BDSM scene.

colson said...

Toe-bondage? :).

triesti said...

exactly.. chinese inspired