i’ve just finished the first part of fifty shades of grey. if you tell me that you haven’t heard of it, i will not believe it.
originally a twilight spin off story, the trilogy is an indie publishing phenomenon: it was first published as an e-book and print-on-demand format and, due to its incredible success, it was re-launched by vintage books in april 2012, hence the recent buzz. the author has surpassed all other sale records and is presently best-selling author in history.
aptly dubbed mommy porn, the trilogy features a black and white, rest-your-brain flat and highly repetitive story line that proves to be a rather depressing fairy tale of gender roles. the smart and beautiful, but poor and shy virgin falls for the cold overachieving man. the moral is sad and expected: if you’re ever gonna be a “ho”, at least do it with a beyond rich, beautiful, successful dominant who (the ultimate cherry on top!) loves you…sigh!
and they say romance (novel) is dead!
well, if bdsm, gags and fisting have you running for wiki, you’ll find this pretty entertaining. but if you are even mildly familiar with the related concepts, you’ll see this as the predictable vanilla-scented mainstream wet dream that it is.
there is, of course, controversy around the books: in part, they’re called out to be promoting the age old stereotype of the submissive woman, etc, but there are also many voices who say that the fact that so many women read the trilogy and are taking control of their own sexuality is a feminist success.
all these being said, read it on the beach or on a long haul flight. it’s entertaining enough and afterwards you will be able to bitch about it with the rest of us. enjoy!
photo credit: google search
