50 Shades Revisited

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leonine -> 50 Shades Revisited (12/13/2013 1:37:28 AM)
There is an entertaining program on BBC Radio 4 called “I've Never Seen Star Wars,” whose premise is to get the week's guest to try something which, by accident or choice, they've never done or experienced before, and find out if they've been missing a treat or were right to avoid it. I could have called this “I've Never Read 50 Shades of Grey.” When it first came out, the critics panned it with one voice; I picked up a copy at the railway station, read a page at random and decided I had a hundred better uses for the money. But last week I came across a copy in a 50p charity box and decided I could spend that much to find out what the fuss was about. One important thing has changed since I skimmed it that first time. Largely through Ms. James' influence, “BDSM Romance” has appeared on the publishers' lists as an important sub-genre: and since I write for those publishers, and since I know BDSM but hadn't done romance, I've been reading a lot of Mills & Boon to get the style. A few pages into 50 Shades I was smiling with recognition. “Brooding billionaire with dark secrets falls inexplicably in love with naïve student,” is top of the romance hack's stock plots list. His dark secret happens to be that he's a Dom, but a romantic hero must have a near-fatal flaw to come between him and her until Love Conquers All, otherwise the story would be over in a chapter; the fact that this one longs to take a strap to her arse is just a new twist to an old trope. I suspect that the critics who slated the book have never read romance, or studied it as a genre, because most of their criticisms amount to saying it's a typical paperback romance. So yes, it's a literary box of chocolate creams, unashamed of its purple passages and clichés (when did you last see a writer use “passionate embrace” without irony?) That's just saying it's true to the genre, and no more of a criticism than to say that a sword-and-sorcery adventure isn't realistic. And this, I think, is the secret of its success. Millions of women who'd never dare to read a “kinky” book have been able to enjoy Ana's bondage and beatings because they were safely in their comfort zone, reading the sort of prose they know and love, sure that it'll be all right in the end because He Truly Loves Her. The commonest criticism I'd heard from BDSM contacts is that the sub is an idiot and the Dom is incompetent. Again, this is partly the conventions of the genre. A romance heroine may be a rocket scientist in everyday life (Anastasia has a business degree, and enough smarts to walk into a job straight from college, though admittedly that was easier when the book was written,) but when she falls in love all the blood rushes to her groin and leaves none for her brain, otherwise the story would never happen. But I had to feel a deep sympathy for Mr. Grey. How many of us have been where he is, hung up on a vanilla lover and desperately trying to convert them to what we need without scaring them off? According to his backstory he's been in the scene since puberty, so he comes to it with the confidence of experience rather than, as for so many of us, the added burden of adolescent uncertainties: but on the down side, he's used to dealing with equally experienced subs, and keeps treading on steps that aren't there. On the other hand, the crisis that splits them up and ends Book 1 on a downer is entirely his fault: a Dom that experienced should know far better than to jump a novice from spankings and sensation play, to a strapping delivered stone cold. If I were writing this I'd hint at an element of self-sabotage here, he's expecting her to reject him so he subconsciously pushes to make it happen; there's no better excuse for such a clumsy mistake. Yes, Ana asks him to “show her the worst,” but he's already told her, and proved it, that pain and pleasure are just a matter of context. With a sensuous warmup, and plenty of sexing between strokes, he could have beaten her just as hard and made her, if not enjoy it, at least accept it for the sake of the spoonfuls of sugar. The author clearly writes of what she knows, and at least hints in the dedication that she has a Master. So it's jarringly noticeable that after some 500 pages of verbosity about Ana's feelings, she suddenly goes all Hemingway in this crucial scene. I'd bet money that the heroine's limits are the author's: she simply hadn't ever taken a beating like that herself, and was too honest or too unimaginative to make up how it feels. So what of the book's effects, a few years on? As with every new discovery in publishing, the industry has enthusiastically piled onto the bandwagon till the wheels came off: my publishers are currently sighing that the public are tired of bonking billionaires, and well they may be. But once launched, a genre will survive over-exploitation if it has something to say. Mills & Boon, who became an industry by giving their readers exactly what they want, now have a BDSM label, and will still be selling it when James' books are only sold in the 50p box. As a BDSM writer who's discovered I can write romance, the long term prospects are good. And for all of us in the scene, we have a new safe way to come out. Just tell your parents/roommate/sewing circle that “it's a 50 Shades relationship,” and they'll understand.

DesFIP -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/13/2013 5:42:17 PM)
I read a lot of romance but I expect the main characters to be self aware. Not barely legal twits who don't have any experience dealing with real life.

ResidentSadist -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/13/2013 7:12:59 PM)
Did you really just compare 50 Shades to Hemingway? In complying with the TOS, I will not tell you what that tells me about you and your skill or lack thereof as a writer. Laura Antoniou reads "50 Shades of Sellout" Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey

Moonlightmaddnes -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/13/2013 8:22:52 PM)
50 Shades of Grey.. ick. There are so many things I did not like about that book and I can give you a nice list of books way better then that if you just want some fluff BDSM romance fiction that doesn't have the main character beating their lovers because of some serious mommy issues.

njlauren -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/14/2013 8:52:00 AM)
50 shades as 'real BD/SM' doesn't stand up, but I agree with the OP, the book is basically a typical romance book with BD/SM grafted into the sub plot. The book isn't about BD/SM, it is a typical romance story of the fucked up billionaire who is saved from himself by the naive girl. I didn't think it was all that great,there are a lot of adult romances out there that are really well written, but as such it is typical of the genre. One of the biggest things is the D/s is a plot point, it isn't the main theme, Christian uses it because he is emotionally scarred and it is the only way he can have any kind of relationship, because he controls everything so for example, the sub can't touch him.... You can call it hype, but the reality was this book was selling well long before it ever hit the medias attention, it sold several hundred thousands of books by word of mouth, so it has to be touching something. Sure, some or a lot of the sales were generated by hype, but even if 90% of the books were sold because of hype, that to this date leaves almost 10 million sold because people liked it...which in book terms, is huge. I think the authors who slam the book quite honestly are jealous, and with one of the people resident sadist gave a link to, I guarantee it. As weak as the book is, they see themselves as 'real' BD/SM authors, probably have sold their books in the thousands, and therefore are irked that someone could pull of 50 shades and sell nearly a hundred million books, who isn't pure..and it is idiotic, because the reason her book sold is the very reason that it isn't 'pure' bd/sm, or even bd/sm at all, it is a standard romance yarn with a kinky subplot, big difference. Yeah, I know, I am sure Laura Antoniou thinks if she had the publicity and hype 50 shades had, she would sell like that (guarantee that one,) when the reality is her books would cause most of the people reading 50 shades to run the other way screaming. It is comparing apples and oranges, and quite frankly EL James sold because the book isn't serious S/M......we live in this world of BD/SM, take it seriously to various levels, it is lifestyle, but it is also easy to forget that our sensibilities are not that of most people, and it is those people who read 50 shades and liked it, or at least weren't threatened by it. The backlash against this book is nothing new, writers of 'serious' books, that only literature profs, literary critics and english majors read, have been railing against this since writing has been around. "Serious" writers made fun of genres like science fiction and mysteries, even though some of the writers in those categories were producing great fiction, were excellent writers; it is the old 'popular versus the serious', in classical music it is the modern classical 12 tone/serialist composers who complain that no one wants to listen to their music, and scoff at 'popular' classical music, the warhorses that people love to go listen to, or when someone like Paul McCartney did some classical style pieces and could sell out major venues with performances......but it is sad, because comparing a romance novel to Hemingway or Proust is idiotic...one of the problems with many 'real' BD/SM books is like 12 tone music, to appreciate them you generally have to have a solid background in them to actually be able to read them, if you aren't hardcore yourself, won't be very attractive.

kalikshama -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/14/2013 9:21:32 AM)
50 Shades of Sell Out April 12, 2012 at 7:11pm "Double Crap!" Tiffany extrapolated, as she realized her perfectly perky 37D breasts had gained another D overnight. "Now what will I wear to the company party! I must make a good impression on Mr. Momzer Macher, the new President and CEO and CFO and CBO and...oh, whatever he is!" Sighing with frustration, the gorgeous blonde gazed at her mirror image and fingered the honey gold waves of her naturally wavy hair. "I know! I will wear that daring leather bustier that my gay BFF talked me into buying at that strange street fair he took me to in San Francisco! Gee, I wonder if he worked things out with that hunk he met that day. He said he was into leather, but when I asked him where to find a good purse, he just laughed." She blinked her cerulean eyes in her memory and then went to get her fetching outfit. It was tight in all the right places and really emphasized her 37-24-36 shape, and the leather felt so stiff and hot and sexy against her alabaster skin! And how it molded her perfect 110 pounds! "How will I ever get through the night without fainting?" she wondered as she strapped her tiny, delicate alabaster feet into her four inch heels, deciding not to take the really high ones. "Good thing I already threw up." At the party, everyone was in their fanciest clothes and the music was awesome and loud and there was dancing and great food like chicken fingers and the little hot dogs in pastry and sushi and tapas and stuff. Tiffany said hi to all her girlfriends, except for Boring Brenda and kissed all the gay guys and was licking a cherry popsicle that had a fancy imported liquor in it when suddenly she saw...HIM. Like. O. M. G. There he was, so freaking hot. In his leather pants from Dolce and Gabanna and his black silk shirt and really expensive black tie and black jacket and black diamond stick pin through the really expensive black tie and his ink black hair and jet black eyes and his big feet in big, black boots, oh, he was so into black. "you're Tiffany," he murmured as he leaned in toward her, gracefully looking at her plunging cleavage, and her heaving alabaster breasts. He was so tall! Even with her lithe 5'7" frame enhanced by those 4" heels, he was at least a foot taller! And his piercing black eyes pierced her to her very soul. "I...I..." Tiffany stammered, letting her booze popsicle drip, drip, drip down her hand to splat, splat, splat on the floor. She bit her full, ruby red lips in luscious lasciviousness. "I'm disgustingly rich and dominant," he sneered dominantly. "you will be Mine!" "Oh, wow," Tiffany seized. "Um. Wow. OK. Sure. What does that mean, exactly?" "I have a checklist!" he said triumphantly, while texting an URL to her. "Go to My Web Page and fill it out, and tell Me whether you like, dislike, or are neutral about the 300 activities and fetishes listed there, and whether you've done them before and with whom, and what you thought about it, and then rate them on a scale of 1-10 on whether you'd like to do it now, tomorrow, next week, or after the Mayan Apocalypse." "Um," Tiffany coughed out, a delicate flush gathering on her porcelain features, her beautiful, full lips, her high, sculpted cheekbones, her delicately feathered eyebrows and her oh-so-cute upturned nose. "But I'm sure I haven't done anything on your list at all! Despite being an adult in 2012, working at your huge corporation and having been through some form of schooling, I am still completely virginal and know nothing at all about kinky sex! I am beautiful, though." His anthracite eyes brightened under His heavy, midnight brows and He gazed at her with an acquisitional hunger, like a Guy who hasn't had anything to eat in days. And yet she could see some painful memory, some dark - dare she think black? - secret lurking behind those onyx eyes. "Then you're really going to be Mine!" he thundered. "Because I Alone can teach you the gift of submission, give rise to your slave heart, grant to you the loving dominance of My Masterful Aggression, all tempered, of course, with rationality and with all due care and attention given to risk-aware negotiation! I will teach you to serve Me with your submissive soul, your passive power, your girly gushiness, train you to come at the snap of My Fingers and find true freedom in your complete subjugation to My Will. Yes...you will even learn...Bad Grammar." "Triple crap!" Tiffany declaimed. "All that? But...how is that possible? It all sounds crazy! And yet...when I look into your charcoal eyes under that irrepressible lock of ebony hair, as I run my searching, trembling fingers across the steel buttons on your sable silk shirt, all I can think of is...Jesus Christ, I am so horny I can die. I think. But i don't really know, because of the virgin thing?" Mr. Momzer Macher took her pale, shaking hand and led her gentle, undulating form away from the party into his private boardroom where the table could be set up like a bed and tumbled her back onto it. "I will teach you, little one," he said with intrepid confidence in himself. "And you will be my prized little party girl possession for all time. Just like the last seventeen." "Oh, quadruple crap!" she extremed, as he tore away her leather bustier with one hand and fell on her like a ravening wolf. A ravening black wolf. To be continued...OK, not really. For SM fiction of a different color, see lantoniou.com

angelikaJ -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/14/2013 12:57:32 PM)
I have read that Ms James does not claim to have have any real experience and has stated she does not. I am not sure if you are aware of the back story of the book: it was originally a fanfict piece on the Twilight series. Your claim that it has moved BDSM fiction into the mainstream of the Romance genre is incorrect, but I will assume that as a man you just weren't aware. Bodice Rippers have been around for ages. Black Lace books often have a BDSM theme and they have been around for 2 decades. Not to mention the numerous anthologies edited by N.T. Morley, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Alison Tyler among others. I know people who have loved the trilogy. [My] Master has read it and He found Ana impossible to like. His other comment is that whoever wrote it has no idea about how to touch a woman. I do agree that it has given people a new reference point that they can use. The down side is that there are many women entering the scene who want a 50 Shades experience... and find reality a huge disappointment.

littlewonder -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/14/2013 7:20:55 PM)
will not comment will not comment will not comment......[sm=bite.gif]

njlauren -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/16/2013 8:42:39 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: angelikaJ I have read that Ms James does not claim to have have any real experience and has stated she does not. I am not sure if you are aware of the back story of the book: it was originally a fanfict piece on the Twilight series. Your claim that it has moved BDSM fiction into the mainstream of the Romance genre is incorrect, but I will assume that as a man you just weren't aware. Bodice Rippers have been around for ages. Black Lace books often have a BDSM theme and they have been around for 2 decades. Not to mention the numerous anthologies edited by N.T. Morley, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Alison Tyler among others. I know people who have loved the trilogy. [My] Master has read it and He found Ana impossible to like. His other comment is that whoever wrote it has no idea about how to touch a woman. I do agree that it has given people a new reference point that they can use. The down side is that there are many women entering the scene who want a 50 Shades experience... and find reality a huge disappointment. Angelika- Bodice Rippers had some S/M , dominance elements to them, like the wicked pirate or Lord of the manner style stuff, and the other stuff out there with BD/SM themes tended to be pretty masked, or was out on the fringes. The difference is now that publishers are seeking adult romances with more 'real' BD/SM in them, that mention contracts and being a slave and bondage and sensation play and stuff, talking mainstream publishing houses and their romance imprints, who used to think Barbara Taylor Bradford was risque. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing, but seeing that 50 shades of Gray has sold some ridiculous number of books (I lost track at 75 million), it means that these books will be more common and not on a 'back shelf', but rather promoted by the publishers and such. 50 Shades at the beginning was more like the way most BD/SM themed books (or supposedly BD/SM themed books) were published, it was from a small Australian e-book publisher, others tend to be self published or through so called 'Vanity Presses" or the like (Vantage press in NYC was an example)......now mainstread publishers like Penguin and Random house are going after the market, big difference. I just read something, the movie version is going to have two versions, one explicit with total frontal nudity and I would assume showing the play, the other R rated.

angelikaJ -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/17/2013 8:02:50 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: njlauren quote: ORIGINAL: angelikaJ I have read that Ms James does not claim to have have any real experience and has stated she does not. I am not sure if you are aware of the back story of the book: it was originally a fanfict piece on the Twilight series. Your claim that it has moved BDSM fiction into the mainstream of the Romance genre is incorrect, but I will assume that as a man you just weren't aware. Bodice Rippers have been around for ages. Black Lace books often have a BDSM theme and they have been around for 2 decades. Not to mention the numerous anthologies edited by N.T. Morley, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Alison Tyler among others. I know people who have loved the trilogy. [My] Master has read it and He found Ana impossible to like. His other comment is that whoever wrote it has no idea about how to touch a woman. I do agree that it has given people a new reference point that they can use. The down side is that there are many women entering the scene who want a 50 Shades experience... and find reality a huge disappointment. Angelika- Bodice Rippers had some S/M , dominance elements to them, like the wicked pirate or Lord of the manner style stuff, and the other stuff out there with BD/SM themes tended to be pretty masked, or was out on the fringes. The difference is now that publishers are seeking adult romances with more 'real' BD/SM in them, that mention contracts and being a slave and bondage and sensation play and stuff, talking mainstream publishing houses and their romance imprints, who used to think Barbara Taylor Bradford was risque. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing, but seeing that 50 shades of Gray has sold some ridiculous number of books (I lost track at 75 million), it means that these books will be more common and not on a 'back shelf', but rather promoted by the publishers and such. 50 Shades at the beginning was more like the way most BD/SM themed books (or supposedly BD/SM themed books) were published, it was from a small Australian e-book publisher, others tend to be self published or through so called 'Vanity Presses" or the like (Vantage press in NYC was an example)......now mainstread publishers like Penguin and Random house are going after the market, big difference. I just read something, the movie version is going to have two versions, one explicit with total frontal nudity and I would assume showing the play, the other R rated. Black Lace books have been around for 2 decades I think, but perhaps not in the US. I have seen them here for at least 13 years. Many had strong BDSM elements in them.

MalcolmNathaniel -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/17/2013 8:25:22 PM)
I've read a lot of literary tripe in my life. Earlier this year I decided to read 50 Shades and thought it was utter crap. A former sub, still my best friend, told me how the series gets better as you move through it. I couldn't make it more than 50 pages into the second volume. It was just too painful. The writing is just so atrocious. In the edition I have chapter two starts off with two facing pages. One those two pages I counted SEVENTEEN changes of mood. Two pages. That's not flirtation: that's schizophrenia. I've read some real tripe in my life but nothing, before this book, that I couldn't finish. When I was 22 I met a woman who was 30 and she said her favourite book was "Atlas Shrugged." I read the entire thing, including the 122 page (incredibly repetitive) soliloquy by John Galt. That's the length I will go to in order to make a connection. Apparantly even the woman who's favourite book was "Atlas Shrugged" skipped over parts of it. This book was far, far, far worse. I couldn't read "50 Shades Revisited" even to get laid. That's how fricking bad that book is. "Elements of C Programming Style" is sexier.

GotSteel -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/17/2013 11:07:09 PM)
"You can call it hype, but the reality was this book was selling well long before it ever hit the medias attention, it sold several hundred thousands of books by word of mouth, so it has to be touching something." Since library copies have been testing positive for hepatitis I'll agree that it must be touching "something"

leonine -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/21/2013 6:14:53 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: angelikaJ I have read that Ms James does not claim to have have any real experience and has stated she does not. I suspect that's all part of selling it for the vanilla market. The very accurate descriptions of sensation play could be pure imagination, except for the way that imagination completely fails her when it comes to the much simpler situation of an ass strapping. The best explanation is that she's writing of what she knows and is not a good enough writer to carry on when she goes outside her experience. quote: I am not sure if you are aware of the back story of the book: it was originally a fanfict piece on the Twilight series. Well aware of it, which is one of the many reasons I avoided it for so long. quote: Your claim that it has moved BDSM fiction into the mainstream of the Romance genre is incorrect, but I will assume that as a man you just weren't aware. <wry smile> I did mention that I've been reading a lot of mainstream romance. Since I don't want to spend big money on research, most of those come from the charity store, and have dates anywhere from now to 30 years ago, so I think I have a pretty good survey of the genre despite the handicap of a Y chromosome. quote: Bodice Rippers have been around for ages. I'm well aware that a D/s subtext is part of the formula: the basic romance plot is "she fights his dominance for a while then submits happily." And as a teenage boy back when real BDSM books could only be found in back street shops, I discovered that the right historical romance novels could have a very enjoyable level of BDSM-lite. The difference, as with the hardcore sex in modern vanilla romance novels, is that back then it was all hinted, or stopped just when it was getting good. quote: Black Lace books often have a BDSM theme and they have been around for 2 decades. Not to mention the numerous anthologies edited by N.T. Morley, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Alison Tyler among others. I'm well aware of them, but they are all "top shelf" books. The difference is that now this stuff is on the same shelf as the rest of the pink-covered bonkbusters. quote: I know people who have loved the trilogy. [My] Master has read it and He found Ana impossible to like. <groan> Oh my gods and little fishes, me three. She's a dim-witted self-centred bimbo whose notions of empathy are copied from pop psych books, and it's no wonder Grey keeps asking himself why the Hell he puts up with her. quote: I do agree that it has given people a new reference point that they can use. The down side is that there are many women entering the scene who want a 50 Shades experience... and find reality a huge disappointment. That goes for every genre, and probably romance more than most. There's nothing you can do for people who don't read the line on the fly-leaf that says "This is a work of fiction."

AlluraVogue -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/22/2013 8:23:16 PM)
Single handedly the worst book I have ever read. She's a ninny and can't get herself together enough to answer an email with conviction. She's bratty and petulant and the most he ever does about it is fidget and bitch. At one point he gets "really kinky" and spanks her harder than she'd expected. The book was awful.

AlluraVogue -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/22/2013 8:26:19 PM)
Now THIS I could read.

Moonlightmaddnes -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/22/2013 8:47:01 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: littlewonder will not comment will not comment will not comment......[sm=bite.gif] You know you really want to~

TheLovedOne -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/25/2013 4:20:45 AM)
It was the holy's that did it for me....after Holy fuck, holy shit, holy cow, holy something else said about 7 times over 3 pages...I threw it out of the bath in disgust. Chapter 10, I think.....just couldn't do it any longer. I work with young educated women in their early 20's....never have I heard any of them utter holy anything. It has moved talking about kink in to the mainstream, if not kink itself...any vanilla woman that I have come across that has read it, has swooned about Mr Grey . Which quietly made me want to vomit. But each to their own. But anything that gets people talking about sex, even badly written bollocks must be a good thing surely?

Level -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/25/2013 10:36:01 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: GotSteel "You can call it hype, but the reality was this book was selling well long before it ever hit the medias attention, it sold several hundred thousands of books by word of mouth, so it has to be touching something." Since library copies have been testing positive for hepatitis I'll agree that it must be touching "something" Thanks for a genuine LOL [:D]

dominlosangeles -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/25/2013 10:33:45 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: njlauren 50 shades as 'real BD/SM' doesn't stand up, but I agree with the OP, the book is basically a typical romance book with BD/SM grafted into the sub plot. The book isn't about BD/SM, it is a typical romance story of the fucked up billionaire who is saved from himself by the naive girl. I didn't think it was all that great,there are a lot of adult romances out there that are really well written, but as such it is typical of the genre. One of the biggest things is the D/s is a plot point, it isn't the main theme, Christian uses it because he is emotionally scarred and it is the only way he can have any kind of relationship, because he controls everything so for example, the sub can't touch him.... You can call it hype, but the reality was this book was selling well long before it ever hit the medias attention, it sold several hundred thousands of books by word of mouth, so it has to be touching something. Sure, some or a lot of the sales were generated by hype, but even if 90% of the books were sold because of hype, that to this date leaves almost 10 million sold because people liked it...which in book terms, is huge. I think the authors who slam the book quite honestly are jealous, and with one of the people resident sadist gave a link to, I guarantee it. As weak as the book is, they see themselves as 'real' BD/SM authors, probably have sold their books in the thousands, and therefore are irked that someone could pull of 50 shades and sell nearly a hundred million books, who isn't pure..and it is idiotic, because the reason her book sold is the very reason that it isn't 'pure' bd/sm, or even bd/sm at all, it is a standard romance yarn with a kinky subplot, big difference. Yeah, I know, I am sure Laura Antoniou thinks if she had the publicity and hype 50 shades had, she would sell like that (guarantee that one,) when the reality is her books would cause most of the people reading 50 shades to run the other way screaming. It is comparing apples and oranges, and quite frankly EL James sold because the book isn't serious S/M......we live in this world of BD/SM, take it seriously to various levels, it is lifestyle, but it is also easy to forget that our sensibilities are not that of most people, and it is those people who read 50 shades and liked it, or at least weren't threatened by it. The backlash against this book is nothing new, writers of 'serious' books, that only literature profs, literary critics and english majors read, have been railing against this since writing has been around. "Serious" writers made fun of genres like science fiction and mysteries, even though some of the writers in those categories were producing great fiction, were excellent writers; it is the old 'popular versus the serious', in classical music it is the modern classical 12 tone/serialist composers who complain that no one wants to listen to their music, and scoff at 'popular' classical music, the warhorses that people love to go listen to, or when someone like Paul McCartney did some classical style pieces and could sell out major venues with performances......but it is sad, because comparing a romance novel to Hemingway or Proust is idiotic...one of the problems with many 'real' BD/SM books is like 12 tone music, to appreciate them you generally have to have a solid background in them to actually be able to read them, if you aren't hardcore yourself, won't be very attractive. I agree with you. If a book sells as many copies as Shades did, it's because it's resonating with a lot of people. And it's inspired a lot of jealousy among BDSM writers. But that's nothing new. I've heard many aspiring and unknown writers go on and on about how lousy the famous writers in their genre are.

EdBowie -> RE: 50 Shades Revisited (12/26/2013 2:56:13 AM)
Well of course, because short term profits are always the best indication of quality in a creative work. That's why Justin Beiber is the greatest musician ever, and all the others are just jealous... [8\|] quote: ORIGINAL: dominlosangeles quote: ORIGINAL: njlauren 50 shades as 'real BD/SM' doesn't stand up, but I agree with the OP, the book is basically a typical romance book with BD/SM grafted into the sub plot. The book isn't about BD/SM, it is a typical romance story of the fucked up billionaire who is saved from himself by the naive girl. I didn't think it was all that great,there are a lot of adult romances out there that are really well written, but as such it is typical of the genre. One of the biggest things is the D/s is a plot point, it isn't the main theme, Christian uses it because he is emotionally scarred and it is the only way he can have any kind of relationship, because he controls everything so for example, the sub can't touch him.... You can call it hype, but the reality was this book was selling well long before it ever hit the medias attention, it sold several hundred thousands of books by word of mouth, so it has to be touching something. Sure, some or a lot of the sales were generated by hype, but even if 90% of the books were sold because of hype, that to this date leaves almost 10 million sold because people liked it...which in book terms, is huge. I think the authors who slam the book quite honestly are jealous, and with one of the people resident sadist gave a link to, I guarantee it. As weak as the book is, they see themselves as 'real' BD/SM authors, probably have sold their books in the thousands, and therefore are irked that someone could pull of 50 shades and sell nearly a hundred million books, who isn't pure..and it is idiotic, because the reason her book sold is the very reason that it isn't 'pure' bd/sm, or even bd/sm at all, it is a standard romance yarn with a kinky subplot, big difference. Yeah, I know, I am sure Laura Antoniou thinks if she had the publicity and hype 50 shades had, she would sell like that (guarantee that one,) when the reality is her books would cause most of the people reading 50 shades to run the other way screaming. It is comparing apples and oranges, and quite frankly EL James sold because the book isn't serious S/M......we live in this world of BD/SM, take it seriously to various levels, it is lifestyle, but it is also easy to forget that our sensibilities are not that of most people, and it is those people who read 50 shades and liked it, or at least weren't threatened by it. The backlash against this book is nothing new, writers of 'serious' books, that only literature profs, literary critics and english majors read, have been railing against this since writing has been around. "Serious" writers made fun of genres like science fiction and mysteries, even though some of the writers in those categories were producing great fiction, were excellent writers; it is the old 'popular versus the serious', in classical music it is the modern classical 12 tone/serialist composers who complain that no one wants to listen to their music, and scoff at 'popular' classical music, the warhorses that people love to go listen to, or when someone like Paul McCartney did some classical style pieces and could sell out major venues with performances......but it is sad, because comparing a romance novel to Hemingway or Proust is idiotic...one of the problems with many 'real' BD/SM books is like 12 tone music, to appreciate them you generally have to have a solid background in them to actually be able to read them, if you aren't hardcore yourself, won't be very attractive. I agree with you. If a book sells as many copies as Shades did, it's because it's resonating with a lot of people. And it's inspired a lot of jealousy among BDSM writers. But that's nothing new. I've heard many aspiring and unknown writers go on and on about how lousy the famous writers in their genre are.

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