In case any of you have been living under a rock (hey, hi there, pull up a chair, join me for a cup of tea) and have not heard the buzz surrounding this book called 50 Shades of Grey, let me explain.
This is a New York Times best-selling erotic ebook and paperback written by E.L.James. It is called, in some circles, "mommy porn" as if that clears up the confusion. (I always thought mommy porn was the HGTV channel or REAL HOUSEWIVES series.)
The story describes a relationship between a young graduate student named Ana and a moody, demanding billionaire with a penchant for bondage named Christian Grey (oh, the symbolism is as subtle as a shovel to the side of the head, innit?) He is described as unable to love and "charismatic" because nothing screams charm like someone who's humorless and slap-happy. It has been described as The Story of O meets a Harlequin Romance meets Bridget Jones Diary.
So Ana meets up with Mr. Grey and her inner voice of reason dukes it out with her secret desires to submit to his hanky panky.
The setting is Seattle, just like Twilight and Frasier, which is the only thing they have in common (there are no vampires in 50 Shades as far as I know, but there may be the odd "tossed salad and scrambled eggs" in his "red room of pain" if you follow my drift.) Some say it started as Twilight fan fiction, which makes me even less inclined to read it. Especially when most agree it's poorly written, with a "cheeseball narrative" and "corny" dialogue.
Maybe it's a statement about woman's submission and gender equality, how modern women who have economic and political power can only be turned on by being tied up, but it also sounds like regular old porn to me. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But like the saying goes, if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, don't call it a great work of art.
It's a fricking duck.
Will you read it? Have you read it?
Here's a clip of Ellen recording the audio book:
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5 comments:
Doesn't really sound like anything I'm interested in following up on. I just reread The Snow Goose, which I hadn't read for years and still got teary eyed over. Plus nobody got spanked. Bonus.
Ellen was a hoot though.
Oh, and PS. I must be living under a rock...
No. Just...no.
I don't know why the media is jumping all over this. Is it because it is porn written by a woman? It's not the first time, and by all accounts, it's poorly written so why?
Whoop dee doo, I say. And fie.
Even if it were the first time porn was written by a woman, the story is retreading the same trodden trails, woman-submissive, man-controlling. Nothing new here, or worth my time. I first learned about the book in March from http://www.earlyword.com/
I was curious whether our library system had it on order. Not only was the order record there, there were already 40 hold waiting. That list has now grown to 323. I understand people's interest, but after reading the description, why are they still interested- nothing new here.
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