Trying to respond and use a quote. First time. Have to agree with your point. Looking for the same.great read
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I like the idea of a sexual awakening for the masses but I really dont think yet another medium that expresses consent this way is needed. It glamorises an abusive relationship...can anyone say twilight?There have been a ton of threads about 50 shades of gray over on the bd.sm board, and just as polarized as the general discussion has been. The BD/SM folks don't like it because they (correctly) point out that what is in the book is not BD/SM per se, for a number of reasons, though the author is careful with the ethics of what the main character does, and they also worry that the main character (Christian Gray) is fucked up and therefore makes it seem like all BD/SM people are fucked up (though the psychiatrist in the book treating him makes clear that BD/SM is not fucked up, he is). Others don't like it because they think the main character is a clueless twit, it is too far out there, too unbelievable......you name it.
Okay, so what do I think? I read them, and I thought it was an okay yarn, it wasn't great literature (but then again, I don't read Don Delilo or one of the Barthe brothers whom English majors love and literary critics, when I want to read for pleasure and I find Wuthering Heights to be drivel), but it had its own charms to it. I think to someone who hasn't played around with kinky sex it probably is pretty hot, unlike many of the critics I ended up liking the characters and finding something in them (I love the comments that say "Ana is graduating college and she is a virgin? What planet did she grow up in..Christian is 28 years old and he is a billionaire, no way" or better yet "Ana goes with a guy who is into abuse like that.EEWWW" or "Ana is so weak" when she ends up changing Christian). It was a good read, not heavy duty, and in the end I didn't regret reading it.
The book has a simple message that I think people overlook in their fighting the political and philosophical wars, or frustrated writers jealous as hell, it is very much a book in the old vein about love winning (which last I checked is common in most romance novels,more adult or Harlequin bodice ripper of the 70's), Ana ends up being a lot more strong then she ever realized and she ends up helping Christian see the truths about himself........is it real? No, in many ways someone as screwed up as Christian isn't going to be 'fixed' by the right person IRL, but goess what, this is fiction. If women who read the romance books I have read held out for men in these stories or if they read that, compare their husbands to it, they would end up alone because they are fantasy novels, the tough biker guy with the heart of gold who is 40 years old and can get hard 6 times a night and has a PHd in history is a very rare phenomena, indeed *lol*.....I think if you go into it without expectations, of all the hype, you will prob find you like it and may find some parts of it hot.
I think the book struck a chord for a reason, the book sold several hundred thousand copies long before the hype machine hit, all by word of mouth, and I think it was because it spoke to them, for whatever reasons, through characters they liked and could kind of see themselves in, and opened them up. We can talk about hype all we want, but talk to Home Depot and Sex Stores about the women, many of them married and in their 30's and older, coming in trying things, and it isn't small fish. Hopefully it will open women up to reading more books in the 'adult romance' genre, many of them are more real about sex and hopefully it will finally start getting rid of the childish shit that religion especially put around sex and especially female sexuality (I will also add there are some hot gay romance novels out there, which are big among the same crowd of women, go figure
Can't get The Fermata on Kindle here
