That "50 Shades" book

Somebody pick me up off the floor!

Uh-oh - now I'm going to have to go re-read all the would-be erotic scenes I've written, hearing them in Giolbert Gottfried's voice, just to see how bad they really are.

This was a highly amusing article to read, especially the way that it skewers the male romantic intertest as a guy who's socially clueless and intellectually vacuous--outside of his business anyway.

However, he's also ultra-wealthy, powerful and physically attractive, so apparently his lack of a meaningful personality doesn't bother the young, naive, hero-worshipping female protagonist.

Well, that's undoubtedly true RE many women (RL and fictional), whether they (and/or their intended paramours) have spankophile tendencies or not, but I'd rather not spend my time reading about it.

However, I certainly enjoyed reading this Cassandra Parks satire/commentary on the novel... --C.K.

Well since I'm outing myself here in ways I never have before, I'll volunteer the following highly damning information: I am a (semi-apologetic) consumer of pop culture, even/especially when it's awful, out of a sense of morbid curiosity. Also, some of it is great diversion. I got into this in a big way when studying with a cultural historian, who worked on what popular entertainment and mass media tell us about the evolution of cultures and sub-cultures (American primarily.) He only half jokingly said it meant he could watch TV any time he wanted and call it research.

So I read the 50 Shades books, and the Twilight books, and the Left Behind books (well some of them, there were 13 ultimately) largely to see what the fuss was, and in the sense of "what does the popularity of this book tell us about who we are and what we think?"

Anyway, 50 Shades is not, IMHO, a BDSM or DD or spanking book. The actual BDSM elements are remarkably tame by any standard other than that of a complete novice to reading about it; it's more like a spicier Harlequin than actual spanking erotica. The main thrust of the book/series is the "damaged hero who is redeemed by the perfect, long-suffering and cipher-like virginal heroine" dynamic, which is common to most Danielle Steele books, the Twilight books, and any number of other romances, whether free-standing romances or romances within larger stories.

HOWEVER, as someone for whom trashy romances involving ultra-alpha men and perfect self-sacrificing women whose loyalty is rewarded by the perfect happy ending after a serious of Terribly Misunderstanding are a great guilty pleasure, I enjoyed these books. But they're not particularly erotic, the protagonist narrates the whole thing in the first person present tense and talks like, well, an adolescent, and the spanking is purely ornamental, not central to the story in any meaningful way.

kd, your story sounds more interesting than Shades of Gray!!

Interesting pair of articles in yesterday's Observer about 50 S of G. The longer one, by Vanessa Thorpe, the paper's Arts and Media Correspondent, is a fine display of vanilla bemusement. Trying to work out why EL James's mild sex 'n spanking saga has become "the fastest-selling paperback since records began", she consults various clueless 'experts'. Here's 'forensic psychotherapist' Estella Welldon: "Clinically speaking, she said, she had found there was a big gap between those patients who fantasised about violence and those who had a dangerous masochistic habit, but there was a connection. 'One can lead to the other, if someone cannot get it out of their system.'"

I love the implication that, if you're just fantasising about it, that's fine - but if you actually get your bottom spanked, you've got 'a dangerous masochistic habit'. Quick, girls - get it out of your system!

The shorter news item I found the more interesting. It reports that the novel's success "has led to a boom in sex toys and erotic literature.... Sales of blindfolds, whips and handcuffs have soared.... At Simply Pleasure [a Soho sex shop] employees said that the curiosity generated by the book was introducing a new generation of women to sex shops and sex toys." So whatever you think of the book's literary merits (or lack of them), it sounds as though it may be doing what kinksters like us have hoped - bringing quite a few potential spankophiles out of the closet. Can't be bad....

PhilK - isn't the condescension great? Yes, consensual spanking between adults is nothing more than the gateway drug to being a DV victim. Clearly.

Sheesh.

My wife is reading it now and I'm waiting for some reaction.

The book is now translated into German and caused also a hype. One interesting fact is that a publishing house owned by the catholic church is selling this book (although with a warning, that it is sexist) in their shops, but abandoned an objective sex-education-book with the title "make love" at the same time.

Historically the Catholic Church have practically cornered the market in warped ideas about sex allied to overdosing on religious sado-masochism so I'm not surprised that 50SOG is more saleworthy than a sensible guide to real sexual practice.