Update on 50 Shades of Grey:

I am now about 65% through That Book (which I am of course reading on a Kindle like a good married 30-something lady so as not to let anyone know what I’m doing, except of course I’m telling all 400+ of you and I’ve been reading it in the privacy of my own home and therefore only face the judgment of either Mr. Pietra or the cats, none of whom are inclined to judge).  Some observations:

  • I suspect part of the appeal for many readers is less a reflection of current social concerns than economic ones.  A super-rich guy wants to buy you Ana a Blackberry and a MacBook Pro and a new red Audi A3?  And he has his own stunningly gorgeous house that is almost definitely not being foreclosed on?  Not to mention his own helicopter?  And you’ve Ana’s just graduated from college but doesn’t have to worry about finding a job or paying back student loans?  Oh yes please tell me more don’t stop or let me look at my credit card statement!
  • The sex involves some highly questionable metaphors, and you have read (and snarked on) most of them already.  Despite that, it is also notably lady-centered, and not just because the book is narrated in first-person present-tense from Ana’s POV.  So far, every sex scene has either involved Christian doing stuff with the clear goal of getting Ana off (and getting himself off because he’s getting Ana off) or Ana thoroughly enjoying herself while getting Christian off.  The focus is all on her.
  • It is definitely Twilight fanfic.  It’s also a little bit like looking in a literary house of mirrors, as Twilight started out as Pride and Prejudice fanfic of a sort.  (Seriously.  Boy meets girl; girl thinks boy hates her; boy is actually in love with girl.  Throw in some sparkles, swap out some sibling drama for tracker vampires, and boom.)  However, FSoG bears zero resemblance to P&P–well, aside from the part about money solving all immediate problems.  In much the same way as Stephenie Meyer based New Moon’s plot on Romeo and Juliet and Eclipse’s plot on Wuthering Heights–which is to say, extremely superficially and with no understanding of the greater themes–FSoG is chock-full of references to Tess of the D'Urbervilles.  For those of you now convulsing with laughter or screaming in dismay, yes, I am right there with you.  
  • That said, it tidily dispenses with the Sparkle Motion setup and gets right to the sexin’.  Given that a large chunk of the appeal of Twilight (insofar as it has any) is the loooooong, protracted, drawn-out process by which Bella finally convinces Edward to give her some spangly dick, this is an interesting inversion of the source material.
  • Likewise, the main thing distinguishing Twilight (and other paranormal romances) from most mainstream romance novels is the literalization of tropes related to desire.  (I wrote a thing about this concept a while back; it’s a little convoluted and may require reading another essay written by someone writing in the persona of the Incredible Hulk.  Please feel free to skip if you don’t particularly care or don’t have a lot of time to devote to intellectual noodling about Twilight.) Short version: the Mysteries of Luv or Lust have specific paranormal explanations, e.g. Edward is attracted to Bella because he wants to schlorp her blood, not because of some ineffable romantic nonsense.  This in turn has some interesting implications for characterization. FSoG Ouroborosizes this whole concept back into a mainstream romance, which gets a little weird. 
  • To that end, it would be entirely possible to read this book without having read Twilight and be none the wiser as to its origins.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that if E.L. James had stealthily written FSoG offline and claimed that it was Pauline Réage fanfic, a whole lot of people might find it a whole lot more appealing. 

Notes

  1. reallyblurry reblogged this from ladonnapietra and added:
    I’ve started reading this because, you know, it’s very popular and has a lot of sexy times in it. But I just couldn’t...
  2. ladonnapietra posted this