Fifty Shades Of Grey

I can pull it apart better: Stockholm syndrome isn't cool. This is the only thing that leads someone down the path of shaping their life, marrying, and having children with the man that made them a slave. It isn't love, it's dealing with trauma in the worst way possible.

End Debate.

FYI, I wasn't pulling the plot apart in its entirety, I was ripping out the whole starting point for the plot right out from underneath it.

And if the BDSM is a sideline, well that doesn't change the fact she got it wrong. But I'm not here to argue with anyone about that, okay?

I've never even heard of this but I kind of want to check it out.

However, I'm with chele -- it will never be the misrepresentation of BDSM or whatever that turns me off of it, it'll be just plain crap writing. People are turned on by non-con and try and represent the various forms of it as a BDSM relationship and fail utterly half the time, but to me that's easy to ignore since I'm rather used to BDSM being misunderstood.

I can force myself through a stupid story or even a ridiculous one where a girl orgasms because someone touches her nipples... but if it's written in a way that makes me want to bang my head against a wall, I won't bother.

However, I'm intrigued that it's getting such hot responses, so I think I'll go try and find it somewhere, because man. At this rate it's either fabulously good or horrifically terrible, and I want to know which.


Edit: I CAN TYPE

I've read it for the reason that Ruffian stated, to see what all the fuss was about and continued out of horrified fascination. The BDSM angle (realistic or not) is but an excuse for some rather vanilla kinky sex and wasn't needed for the plotline. You can write about controlling characters without needing a Dom. As for the quality of the erotica, apart from the point it is unrealistic, every sex scene is nearly the same and feels like a template that was just rather mechanically added. "I'm going to f*ck you, real hard". Rinse and repeat.

It is all very fairy tale with many happy endings (for her best friend too, for instance) and nearly no hardship (or if there is, its hardly explored). Its subplot about a villain wanting revenge upon mr Grey is very light weight too. It feels like that plot was almost an after thought thrown in for the second and third book on request of the editor "The sex is nice, but you must have some action, dear, or it won't sell" . It is nearly exclusively character development and reflections upon self, but without a clear reason why the characters are developing. It misses logic.

Isn't that the optimistic thought of the day though? If this book can get published, then surely all of us can become published authors

I want to read it to see what it's like now.

*curious*

If we have contacts in the industry like el james does.

Seriously though, for a truly romantic idea of what bdsm can be and actually understanding each other and coming together in a way that makes sense to two people watch "Secretary". 50 Shades of Grey is NOT that.

This is the entire point in reading the book anyone who has actually read even just the first one knows she never signs his contract and becomes his submissive.

This is why synopsis of books are misleading they grab on the most ludicrous part of the book and run with it like the Synopsis for the Host it sounded cool but then I read three pages and was done with that because it was like a restatement of Animorphs where people have the slug aliens in their brains and the Animorphs turn into animals to find and fight them just minus the animal part.

Thus you really cannot judge the book or make an assumption based on something you never read.

I only got halfway into the first book in the Sleeping Beauty series and it bored me to tears. The characters were just wooden and one-dimensional without any personality or persuasion to them whatsoever. It made the sex rather pointless, IMO.

Abusers hide under every guise. BDSM is only one of them. And yes, there are a lot of abusive and non-consensual sadists who find their niche under the umbrella of BDSM -- the Marquis de Sade was one of them, for whom the term sadism was originally coined. That all Bondage Discipline Sadism Masochism must follow a set of 'safe, sane and consensual' rules to qualify as true BDSM, is a bit biased. I will say that if a sadist-dom has to have persmission to inflict torture upon another person to get off.. then he isn't a real sadist in the strictest sense of the term for whom de Sade was so labeled.

Also, some people would call anything out of the vanilla norm 'abusive'. And as those successive circles become smaller and smaller, people involved in BDSM still draw lines and throw stones at those deemed more abusive than themselves. It's just all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

I've only read excerpts of 50 Shades of Grey.. enough to know that the character relationship dynamics are explored and tested through adversity and uncomfortable subject matter. Which, in the end, probably makes for a good story and characters which make an impression (good or bad) upon the reading audience. If some Hollywood studio has deemed it worth the investment risk to buy the movie rights from the book's author.. then kudos to the author. When did it ever become a rule that only safe and proper subjects could be made into movies?

Actually, I was disappointed with the actual amount of adversity which was hardly explored beyond being mentioned. It amounted to no more than Anastasia changing her mind a couple of times, a quarrel over needing space and some outside sources of tension (*****y exes, a villain bent on revenge). It could have been so much more. Since when are Hollywood studio's tastes a measure of quality? I think they would buy up the movie rights of any bestseller, no matter how ill executed.

The only good I see coming of this is that online writing is taken more seriously, starting writers are bolstered in their confidence and a gradual relaxing of puritan standards in the land across the pond from me. That last thing might be wishful thinking

hey you guys all know that 50 shades of gray was originally a twilight fanfiction, yes/yes?
no i'm serious

cool, cool cool cool

next up

i would like someone to talk about how women are able to very easily project themselves into characters who are the partners of controlling abusers who then romanticize that abuse

is anyone else wondering why this so called "mommy/housewife porn" is so accessible to that audience?

p.s. if you think this is good porn by any stretch of the imagination i weep for your soul

Without getting embroiled in the topic of discussion, I wonder how her husband feels about her books. I'd consider the protagonists' relationship fairly unconventional and Erika Leonard has stated that this the trilogy was basically the culmination of all of her fantasies. I wonder if that could be interpretted as being reflective of her relationship with her husband.

I started reading this (downloaded the PDF) and... I mean, aside from the writing (which is not my cup of tea) and the story so far (I like a lot more chase in my cheesy romances -- this was sort of like

"It seems we share a mutual attraction."
"Yes! Let us enjoy physical relations."
"I shall gather the condoms!"

which is already kind of unsatisfying but whatevs), I'm actually most distracted by the weird bending of space-time.

Ana goes to school at WSU, which is in Eastern Washington, on the border of Idaho. Yet she pops over to Seattle in like an hour and change (um, that's a five hour drive?) and then she drives to Portland for work (that is a six hour drive). You don't drive six hours for your shoddy part-time retail job. You just don't. What the heck is going on in this novel with the space-time?

It's really distracting because I was born and raised in Seattle. Seattle is much closer to Portland than either city is to WSU (it's only about three hours from Seattle to Portland), and I'm just confused by the way the characters reference the distance, as if Seattle is like a thousand light years from Portland and WSU, which are apparently close together.

Like, I get that the author is from England or whatever, but it's as easy as opening up Google Maps these days. Also, when this was fanfiction, did seriously no one catch that and leave a comment about it?

That's my biggest peeve so far. Also, Christian Grey gasps a lot. Like, she'll say something and he'll just gasp in response. It's weird.

Out of morbid curiosity, I'm going to finish this chapter, because they're about to make love and divest her of her virginity. I prrrrrrrobably won't finish, but if by some odd measure it actually gets my rocks off, maybe I'll keep going.

rule #1 of writing: ignore the haters

this seems pretty accurate, and also reflects how i conduct my personal affairs

i am successfully dee-prast

She keeps talking about her "inner goddess" wtf is that?!

some inner goddess phrases because the door has been opened

rofl yeah! Any book who uses a phrase like "as I watch him writhe subtly with carnal longing" forfeits its right to be discussed in a serious manner.

Edit! I forgot subtly! How does one writhe subtly with carnal longing exactly?

I think a week ago, but I'll have to get back to you on that one. >.<