50 shades of grey-Why so popular?

carbob

Honey-ec wrote: »

It's p0rn for people who haven't had sex with the lights on in years. That's it. No great mystery. Also one for people who only read one book a year, just to reassure themselves that they still can...

now that is the truth only it doesn't even make good porn for these with lights off haha:D

hmmm

Because people have suddenly realised that they can buy erotica on their Kindles, and not have to deal with the embarrassment of having to pick it up off a shelf and hand it to some teenager at the counter.

panda100

xDramaxQueenx wrote: »

Let me sum it up.
Oh im so modest and clumsy and quite ordinary but all the boys love me.
Oh christian, hes so arrogant.
Oh anastasia don't hurt yourself.
OH christian, my 50 shades.
Oh Anastasia here is a mac and blackberry, dont ever leave me.
Oh christian i wouldnt ever leave you.
Oh ana, i want to beat you.
oh christian, im not hungry.
oh ana, you must eat. i need you to be healthy while i watch you sleep.
oh christian can i touch you?
FREAKOUT!

Book 2:
ana you said you would never leave me
christian, im now a nympho and completely harmless to boot
ana my mother has a hard on for you
christian, im just so plain, ms kate is the pretty one.
ana are you eating
christian ill have some granola


now im bored, you get the jist and yaaaah, i read all 3.

Classic post!Though I think you need to inlcude Ana biting her lip for the milllionth time, and christian asking her every minute what she has eaten.

rainbowtrout

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

It is striking that nobody seems interested in answering the question posed by the OP. There's plenty of sniggering, condescension and literary critique of what is, by any measure, a novel of limited literary value - but why is it so popular?

I say that it is popular because it appeals to a very arousing female fantasy - that of being dominated by and submissive to a male within a physical relationship, a consensual and non-abusive relationship.

As a fantasy it only works for both partners if they have equal respect for one another - only then will both partners be comfortable in playing out the fantasy. I also suspect that for most couples the reality of the fantasy extends no further than the man taking more control during lovemaking, but who knows where the imagination flies in those moments?

I'm not suggesting that this is what is precisely what is portrayed in the book, but the story is sufficiently close to this fantasy to generate the frisson that it has.

Hardly. It's nothing like that at all.

I read all three, a friend gave them to me so I figured may as well read them and have an opinion rather than going 'well I heard they're crap so they probably are'.

I won't get those hours of my life back again.

Christian stalks her from the beginning, it's clear (if you can suspend disbelief for the whole series: 26 year old self made billionaire, fluent in French, pilots his own helicopter, good looking, amazing on the piano, can't remember the rest of his attributes) that he stalks her from the start and can basically get any sort of information that he wants, he has her phone number, address, bank account details, keeps an eye on all her calls etc. Tells her what to eat, where to go, who she can be friends with, interferes with the running of her workplace, is emotionally, physically and sexually abusive to her, uses emotional blackmail to get what he wants, controls her, on their honeymoon gives her a load of love bites across her chest so she won't wear a bikini on the beach... oh god I can't remember half the crap there was so much of it. If you knew someone that treated a friend to even a fraction of this is real life you would say run, yet people seem to be lapping it up and for some bizarre reason think this is romantic?

I didn't think much of the never ending pages of sex which were boring and repetitive where Ana chews her bottom lip a lot, does stuff to please Christian a lot and has an inner goddess that makes an appearance at least once on every page.

And Ana the spanner that she is knows that most of this is wrong throughout the series but then justifies it with 'but he loves me, so it must be ok for him to do this, usually after he's justified the abuse'

So without spoiling it for anyone who wants the 'pleasure of reading the third book', an incident happens at the end, but they all live happily ever after and he seems to have a radical change of personality which is really the only way the author could end it because otherwise she's just married to an abusive control freak, and really people don't change that radically when they are like that.

Kimia

LittleBook wrote: »

The best review of 50 Shades EVER!

And there's a word count.



But to answer the OP's question, I think there are several reasons:

1. Marketing
2. It appeals to people who don't read for pleasure
3. It was available on e-readers so the books could be read anywhere discreetly

Funniest review ever.

I had to stop after getting about half way through the first book. It was just so cringy. I can't understand his obsession with her eating, when I think about it it makes me feel really uncomfortable - like what the f*ck am I reading. The 'murmuring' killed me. I wanted to slap her across the face to get her to pull herself together. She is like a limp dishcloth, pathetically biting her lip to entice Christian, who sounds like a complete weirdo altogether.

I could not relate to the characters at all - I just couldn't get into it. Ana is too pathetic and wishy washy. It honestly just creeped me out. I may as well have taken the 15 dollars I spent and set it on fire.

SusieBlue

I read all three. I found the first one mildly interesting, though I did notice that it was very badly written. I wanted to find out Christian's back story, which was what compelled me to buy #2 and #3.

The second and third book are just pages and pages of sex scenes, rehashed over and over again. It grew extremely tiresome so I ended up skipping the sex scenes cause they were predictible and frankly, I thought they disrupted the flow of the story. I didn't find any of the characters to be particularly likeable or admirable.

I have no idea why these books are so popular. I've even seen quite a few Christian Grey's on facebook, which is very worrying considering the profiles are full of middle aged women leaving messages asking to be dominated. Its kind of pathetic really.

I can also see loads of similarities between Twilight and 50 Shades. My OH has read out a few paragraphs to his friends, they were in stitches at how cheesy the sordid scenes are. He couldn't understand how I wasn't bursting out laughing every few minutes at the cringey dialogue.

I think its just the latest piece of pop culture. My bet is that it'll disappear faster than it got popular :pac:

The Sweeper

Judes wrote: »

Myself and several friends are on an Anti-Grey Protest i.e. we won't read this trilogy, as it sounds like the books were very badly written - repetitive - and the story line sounds so, so, familiar?!* I realised that when I asked a colleague for a summary of the story line.

So - if you ever read Jilly Coopers, "Riders" or "Rivals" - or Julie Burchill's "Ambition" these were viewed as explicit/raunchy at the time. Also, sounds like there are bits of "Pretty Woman" and "Nine and a Half Weeks" thrown in - and if there was any doubt as to where the story line came from -watch "The Secretary" - with Maggie Gyllenahall and James Spader. I've just lifted a synopsis of that film from Wikepedia - you will laugh when you read the main character's surname - and the basic story line.

FROM WIKEPEDIA:
"Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the socially awkward and emotionally sensitive youngest daughter of a dysfunctional family, adjusts to normal life after having been hospitalized following an incident of dangerous self-harm. She learns to type, starts to date an acquaintance from high school named Peter, and begins to work as a secretary for an eccentric attorney, E. Edward Grey (James Spader), who hires her despite her stilted social skills and unprofessional appearance.

Though at first Grey appears highly irritated by Lee's typos and other innocuous mistakes, it soon becomes apparent that he is sexually aroused by her submissive behavior. After he confronts her about her propensity for self-injury and commands that she never hurt herself again, the two embark on a BDSM relationship. Lee experiences a sexual and personal awakening, and she falls deeply in love. Edward, however, displays insecurity concerning his feelings for Lee, and he shows shame and disgust over his sexual habits. After a sexual encounter in his office, he fires Lee.During this period of exploration with Edward, Lee has also been attempting to have a normal boyfriend in Peter, played by Jeremy Davies, even engaging in lukewarm sex with him. After Lee is fired from her job, Peter proposes to Lee, who reluctantly agrees to marry him. However, while trying on her wedding gown she leaves and runs to Edward's office where she declares her love for him. Edward, still uncertain about their relationship, tests Lee by commanding her to sit in his chair without moving her hands or feet until he returns. Lee eagerly complies. Days pass, as Peter, family members, and acquaintances individually visit Lee to alternately attempt to dissuade or encourage her. After three days, Edward returns to the office and takes Lee to his apartment where he bathes and nurtures her. The pair marry and happily continue their dominant-submissive relationship. " END

See what I mean - very, very familiar!

Judes, 50 Shades and Secretary are really worlds apart.

50 Shades is extremely sex-negative, it's BDSM-negative and it's essentially domestic violence dressed up to pass it off as a 'perfectly normal' kink relationship.

In Secretary, Lee wants to be dominated and controlled. It gives her shape and boundaries in her world and helps her cope with things she couldn't cope with previously. She is a willing subjugate, actively and happily participating in her role. She is not at any stage frightened of, or by, her dom.

In 50 Shades, Ana spends her entire time being a begruding submissive to a dom who breaks a lot of rules and who is, frankly, a controlling stalker. He by turns frightens her and threatens her and intimidates her, but she carries on regardless. Additionally, Ana sees Christian's dominance as freakish, and is basically hanging around to try and 'cure' him of his kink. His behaviour is seen as a direct result of an abusive childhood, and she thinks she can 'heal' him of it.

In the meantime, she makes bad decisions and tolerates unacceptable, abusive, controlling behaviour in the hope that he'll desist because he loves her.

It's domestic violence in a suit.

It's all kind of fucked up, tbh. I worry about anyone who reads it and puts it down and says 'Oh ya know the sex wasn't THAT good, I don't see what the fuss is about' instead of 'Holy fuck this is the most subversive piece of anti-women propaganda since Stephanie Myers wrote a series of books about how utterly important it is to have a boyfriend, regardless of how obsessive he is'.

Hillmanhunter1

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Hardly. It's nothing like that at all.

I read all three, a friend gave them to me so I figured may as well read them and have an opinion rather than going 'well I heard they're crap so they probably are'.

I won't get those hours of my life back again.

Christian stalks her from the beginning, it's clear (if you can suspend disbelief for the whole series: 26 year old self made billionaire, fluent in French, pilots his own helicopter, good looking, amazing on the piano, can't remember the rest of his attributes) that he stalks her from the start and can basically get any sort of information that he wants, he has her phone number, address, bank account details, keeps an eye on all her calls etc. Tells her what to eat, where to go, who she can be friends with, interferes with the running of her workplace, is emotionally, physically and sexually abusive to her, uses emotional blackmail to get what he wants, controls her, on their honeymoon gives her a load of love bites across her chest so she won't wear a bikini on the beach... oh god I can't remember half the crap there was so much of it. If you knew someone that treated a friend to even a fraction of this is real life you would say run, yet people seem to be lapping it up and for some bizarre reason think this is romantic?

I didn't think much of the never ending pages of sex which were boring and repetitive where Ana chews her bottom lip a lot, does stuff to please Christian a lot and has an inner goddess that makes an appearance at least once on every page.

And Ana the spanner that she is knows that most of this is wrong throughout the series but then justifies it with 'but he loves me, so it must be ok for him to do this, usually after he's justified the abuse'

So without spoiling it for anyone who wants the 'pleasure of reading the third book', an incident happens at the end, but they all live happily ever after and he seems to have a radical change of personality which is really the only way the author could end it because otherwise she's just married to an abusive control freak, and really people don't change that radically when they are like that.

You say that I've got it completely wrong, and I have no problem with that, but do you have an alternative answer to the question of why these books are so popular?

It seems to me that very few people are addressing the OP's question. There's a lot of criticism of the style and content of the book, but little effort to explain why 40m people have bought it.

lindtee

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

You say that I've got it completely wrong, and I have no problem with that, but do you have an alternative answer to the question of why these books are so popular?

It seems to me that very few people are addressing the OP's question. There's a lot of criticism of the style and content of the book, but little effort to explain why 40m people have bought it.

Sex sells.......and people are curious about the books. On one side I was hearing the books were great/women were falling in love with Christian/people's sex lives were reignited...and so on. On the other I was hearing that they were ****e. So curiousity got the better of me. (I wish it hadn't) I'd say many of the 40 million were bought by the likes of me! I do have a problem with buying too many books though.

LittleBook

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

It is striking that nobody seems interested in answering the question posed by the OP. There's plenty of sniggering, condescension and literary critique of what is, by any measure, a novel of limited literary value - but why is it so popular?

All from before your post:

Catari Jaguar wrote: »

People are sheep?

WhyGoBald wrote: »

It started off as Twilight fanfiction but had the names changed to avoid legal liability. I think there's a clue somewhere in there.

Deleted User wrote: »

Because a lot of people fantasise about being young submissive virginal girls, or being wealthy, powerful men who get to sleep with young girls?

krankykitty wrote: »

I think the books seem more popular than they are, a lot of people are reading them from curiosity.

meeeeh wrote: »

Because people like naughty stuff that is generally acceptable? Add to that the usual summer blockbuster and you have a winning formula.

starfish90 wrote: »

its all curiosity drawn from hype and over exposure.

WhyGoBald wrote: »

Interesting article on why Fifty Shades... is so popular. http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/27/why-are-women-devouring-fifty-shades-of-grey/

flowerchild wrote: »

it does seem to have an elegant pulled back cover. Not the normal embarrassing torn bodice look of traditional romance literature. Could a more adult look and positioning have affected audience acceptance and sales?

OakeyDokey wrote: »

people who wouldn't usually touch a book let alone read one suddenly runs out and buys the whole series!

LittleBook wrote: »

to answer the OP's question, I think there are several reasons:

1. Marketing
2. It appeals to people who don't read for pleasure
3. It was available on e-readers so the books could be read anywhere discreetly

WhimSock wrote: »

There is far more obsession about the popularity of the book, rather than the book itself.

But in spite of my own reply, I think now that the two responses I've highlighted are quite telling. This insistence that there has to be some deep meaning that applies to why the books are so popular is exactly the same question that was asked about why the Twilight books and films were so popular. It's not deep, it's not the same reason for every reader and it's certainly not universal.

Her husband wrote a book in a month and has been offered a three book deal by her publisher, that says a lot too.

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

I say that it is popular because it appeals to a very arousing female fantasy - that of being dominated by and submissive to a male within a physical relationship, a consensual and non-abusive relationship.

To be fair, that might be ONE of the reasons SOME people bought the book, but the problem is that what you describe here is the one thing the book is not!

Hillmanhunter1

50 Shades of Grey is a book about dominance and submission within a physical relationship. It would seem to me that any thesis that seeks to explain why 40 million people (most of whom it seems are women) have read this particular book, in a world that is saturated a broad specturm of erotic/pornographic publications and media, needs to acknowledge and take into account the subject matter of the book.

There's an interesting piece of research published in 2011 "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire" that analyses a vast quantity of online data.
http://www.amazon.com/Billion-Wicked-Thoughts-Largest-Experiment/dp/0525952098

The research has its critics, but in a Q&A on the Feakonomics website one of the authors offers the following: "Most men are wired to be aroused by sexual dominance and most women are wired to be aroused by sexual submission, though a large minority of straight men (and a majority of gay men) prefer the sexually submissive role, and a small minority of women prefer the sexually dominant role.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/05/17/the-neuroscience-behind-sexual-desire-authors-of-a-billion-wicked-thoughts-answer-your-questions/

We each must rely on our own experiences and perceptions, but this feels intuitively correct to me.

Honey-ec

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

50 Shades of Grey is a book about dominance and submission within a physical relationship. It would seem to me that any thesis that seeks to explain why 40 million people (most of whom it seems are women) have read this particular book, in a world that is saturated a broad specturm of erotic/pornographic publications and media, needs to acknowledge and take into account the subject matter of the book.

There's an interesting piece of research published in 2011 "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire" that analyses a vast quantity of online data.
http://www.amazon.com/Billion-Wicked-Thoughts-Largest-Experiment/dp/0525952098

The research has its critics, but in a Q&A on the Feakonomics website one of the authors offers the following: "Most men are wired to be aroused by sexual dominance and most women are wired to be aroused by sexual submission, though a large minority of straight men (and a majority of gay men) prefer the sexually submissive role, and a small minority of women prefer the sexually dominant role.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/05/17/the-neuroscience-behind-sexual-desire-authors-of-a-billion-wicked-thoughts-answer-your-questions/

We each must rely on our own experiences and perceptions, but this feels intuitively correct to me.

I think you're giving far too much credit to the book, tbh.

akelly02

Its simple. Its so popular because every woman is acting like a big white fluffy sheep. Hop on the bandwagon and lets pretend we are all great because we read a dirty book and we sont care who sees us! One person says its great, then we all say its great. Women on Facebook bragging about reading a feckin book, get over yourself! Women who havnt read a book since secondary school are reading it beacause they want to be like everyone else, talking about how 'great' it is. You would swear an erotic story was never written before!

meeeeh

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

You say that I've got it completely wrong, and I have no problem with that, but do you have an alternative answer to the question of why these books are so popular?

It seems to me that very few people are addressing the OP's question. There's a lot of criticism of the style and content of the book, but little effort to explain why 40m people have bought it.

I'm guessing most people didn't even know what they are buying. I gave the example of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Do a short recap and it sounds very appealing but when you start reading it, you realize it is badly written (or at least translated) and descriptions of 10-15 years old Apple products really aren't that interesting.

If somebody describes 50 Shades as a book in which a pretty girl does naughty stuff with mysterious billionaire using some nipple clamps and has loads of orgasms, you get very different idea than when you read rainbowtrout's recap here. I read some extracts from the books in newspapers and saw how badly written they were and decided I'm not going to read the books. But a lot of people didn't, they just heard how everybody is reading those books and some sort of a snowball effect was created. I'll make a wild guess here that the books will be forgotten in a couple of months, there might be a spike of interest if the movies come out but in the end it will turn out that somebody in marketing department just had a very good day and that is all. There might be a spike in erotic literature of any kind though, helped by invention of electronic readers.

Today nobody is interested anymore in Dan Brown's drivel (the time lost reading that book still stings). So if you want to make conclusions how dominated or abused women want to be, I'd wait a year or two when people won't be constantly bombarded how everybody is reading the book and how they have to read it themselves because there is loads of sex in it. Anyway take away the sex and dominance and you get exactly the same core story that sells books since i don't know when. Even classics like Jane Eyre are about naive girl who falls for a rich guy with a dark secret (I thought she was an idiot too btw) and that is the theme which seems to be universally appealing.

openup

I can't think why it became popular but I understand why it maintained it's popularity. It's simply because it's socially acceptable porn.

Women aren't supposed to like porn, but that's nonsense. I have two groups of friends, one are my college friends, we are all liberal and we all talk about sex, porn and masturbation like they're normal things. None of us read Shades of Grey.

My other group of friends are from school and much more conservative; we can talk about sex but if it's outside a relationship it's tinged with shame, and masturbation or porn: "Oh my god no! Do you think I'm that sick?". But they all read 50 Shades of Grey and were happy to both read it and talk about it in public. It's basically porn that conservative women feel they're allowed. IMO.

scoob70

Catari Jaguar wrote: »

People are sheep?

Mmmmm - religion seems to come to mind

Elmer Blooker

meeeeh wrote: »

Even classics like Jane Eyre are about naive girl who falls for a rich guy with a dark secret (I thought she was an idiot too btw) and that is the theme which seems to be universally appealing.

Good point. In Jane Eyre Edward Rochester is the Byronic bad boy, In Wuthering Heights its Heathcliff, in Gone With The Wind its Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and in 50 shades its yer man Christian Grey.
All above bad boy novels were written by women.

kylith

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

Good point. In Jane Eyre Edward Rochester is the Byronic bad boy, In Wuthering Heights its Heathcliff, in Gone With The Wind its Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and in 50 shades its yer man Christian Grey.
All above bad boy novels were written by women.

That's a very good point. I haven't read the 50 Shades books, but I do remember thinking that Heathcliff was a dickhead and Cathy a complete tool. I really couldn't understand why people talked about this 'great romance' when they spent the whole book being gobshítes.

WhyGoBald

kylith wrote: »

That's a very good point. I haven't read the 50 Shades books, but I do remember thinking that Heathcliff was a dickhead and Cathy a complete tool. I really couldn't understand why people talked about this 'great romance' when they spent the whole book being gobshítes.

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202

meeeeh

WhyGoBald wrote: »

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=202

Ahahahaha... So true.

Morag

I think it's trendy, I think it that it's part of the move which sees the decline of the large publishing houses hold on who gets published and it's part of the fanfic cross over into being published combined with that there is kink in the book which got it written about in the first place.

After that it's become trendy and an excuse for people to start conversations about erotic fiction and kink just like the sectary and sex and the city was.
Women who would not start those discussions with people for fear of being seen as a perv or a deviant it's an excuse to talk about the topic or write about the topic.

Unfortunately most of what is being written about be it in blog pieces or newspapers or even some of the online discussion, is mis informed or ignorant about bdsm and D/s
which ranges from thinking that book is a blue print for such relationships (it's not) or that the book explains how abusive people use bdsm D/s to abusive people (they don't).

If more people come away having explored their own sexuality more and having learned some facts about bdsm D/s then the book and the surrounding discussions may have had a positive impact but thus far I don't think it has.

RDM_83 again

Sharrow wrote: »

Unfortunately most of what is being written about be it in blog pieces or newspapers or even some of the online discussion, is mis informed or ignorant about bdsm and D/s
which ranges from thinking that book is a blue print for such relationships (it's not) or that the book explains how abusive people use bdsm D/s to abusive people (they don't).

If more people come away having explored their own sexuality more and having learned some facts about bdsm D/s then the book and the surrounding discussions may have had a positive impact but thus far I don't think it has.

I'm just wondering why thats particularly beneficial, why is it a positive that people are more educated about a particular minority sexual fetish, is bdsm more worthy than for example furries, feet, grannies or any of the million other fetishes. My understanding is (coming from an uneducated viewpoint about the book and bdsm in general) is that if it leaves the bedroom it is unhealthy, if it doesn;t leave the bedroom is there a need for a greater public awareness about it?

or that the book explains how abusive people use bdsm D/s to abusive people (they don't)

Is this saying that BDSM practioners are never emotionally/psychologically controlling, or is it that if this occurs its no longer BDSM even if it involves all the assorted paraphernalia (also is there any studies to back up either point of view, I could only find one study done is Australia that said there was no link to coercion however it involved self identifying which I'm sure is raises issues if a relationship is genuinely coercive*)

Don't take this post as an attack I'm just curious as to if there is a disjunct between being 'strongly feminist' and being accepting of the idea of the relationships which involve (generally) the female being submissive in terms of sexual activity (even if all activities are completely consensual), I raise this because one of the criticism i read of the masterkey/crappy lock analogy was its implications about female agency, surely a male dominant female submissive relationship is highly lacking in female agency. Also is there not a potential for 'bleed over' into other aspects of the relationship e.g. as highlighted in this article (BTW as somebody uneducated about this whole thing apologies if the people in the article are refering to some other sort of behavior)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/7204543.stm

"Mr Graves said: "She's very animal like, she's kind of like a pet, as well as a partner."
He said he "does everything" for his girlfriend, including laying out clothes for her, feeding her and cleaning their house.
He said: "You wouldn't expect your cat or dog to do the washing up or cleaning round the house."



* http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00795.x/abstract;jsessionid=8B5AC90FCF14CC2887F56F413CBC2BD5.d02t01?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

rainbowtrout

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

You say that I've got it completely wrong, and I have no problem with that, but do you have an alternative answer to the question of why these books are so popular?

It seems to me that very few people are addressing the OP's question. There's a lot of criticism of the style and content of the book, but little effort to explain why 40m people have bought it.

Beacause it's had a lot of hype, and that hype has gone viral. It's come up in conversation in my staffroom a couple of times in passing ( staff rooms in schools do tend to be conservative places). So far I haven't heard any other staff mention they've read it but when it comes up the most popular comment is 'oh that's the book with porn in it' or words to that effect.

So for anyone who hasn't gone as far as finding out a bit about what the books are about, they think they are just about some women who has a lot of sex, uses sex toys, and it's become socially acceptable to admit to reading this and talking about it.

So I reckon most people are just curious and having heard all the hype have just thought, well if 'it's the fastest ever selling book in Britain ever/it's sold 40 million copies/insert appropriate 50 shades soundbite here' then it must be good so i'll buy it and read it.

So far nobody has yet to say in my social circle that has not read it ' it's about a woman who is abused by her control freak stalker partner in lots of ways' because that's not it's tagline line and that's not what it's being promoted as.

Memnoch

It's funny the number of people on this thread alone who, 'just happened to read it,' but sure didn't they find it 'crap/nothing special,' and it was 'just to satisfy a curiosity really.'

'But no, I didn't read it because I wanted to, or because a part of it appealed to me. No... I'm not one of THOSE women, you know, the kind that would want to read this book. Twilight yes... but NOT THIS!'

Then we all look at each other quizzically and ask - 'but how is it so popular?!?!'

And the world goes round and round.

TLDR: We are the proletariat.

Madam_X

That always happens all right on discussions relating to stuff like this, The X Factor, Facebook etc - comments about how "people are stupid sheep".
That's not to say I don't think The X Factor is shyte, and this book seems shyte too, but it's a bit unfair to feel superior to all who enjoy them.
I will say it's a bit off-putting to hear people say 50 Shades is a lovely love story etc, but reading it for a bit of escapism and a turn-on but nothing more... that's just a way of unwinding and switching off.

rainbowtrout

Memnoch wrote: »

It's funny the number of people on this thread alone who, 'just happened to read it,' but sure didn't they find it 'crap/nothing special,' and it was 'just to satisfy a curiosity really.'

'But no, I didn't read it because I wanted to, or because a part of it appealed to me. No... I'm not one of THOSE women, you know, the kind that would want to read this book. Twilight yes... but NOT THIS!'

Then we all look at each other quizzically and ask - 'but how is it so popular?!?!'

And the world goes round and round.

TLDR: We are the proletariat.

Madam_X wrote: »

That always happens all right on discussions relating to stuff like this, The X Factor, Facebook etc - comments about how "people are stupid sheep".
That's not to say I don't think The X Factor is shyte, and this book seems shyte too, but it's a bit unfair to feel superior to all who enjoy them.
I will say it's a bit off-putting to hear people say 50 Shades is a lovely love story etc, but reading it for a bit of escapism and a turn-on but nothing more... that's just a way of unwinding and switching off.

It's not about feeling superior to people who actually like the book. I couldn't care less what people read in their spare time, and if they want to read romance novels or stuff about dominant and submissive relationships or mills and boon type stuff so be it. But I'm genuinely wondering how people can read it (for whatever reason) and think that it's romantic when it's a story about an abusive relationship? That coupled with the fact that its incredibly poorly written, and that's not even a slight on the content of the book, just the English. The author has an extremely limited vocabulary, and as anyone can see from the post by LittleBook she re-uses the same phrases over and over again. It's like she made a list of stock phrases and cut and paste them for every single chapter.

Most parts of the book which involve Christian and Ana having sex go something like this

C: 'I want to do something to you that you may not like but would make me very happy'
A: Bites bottom lip. 'It would make you happy?'
C: 'Very happy baby. You'll have to close your eyes and let me tie you up' Christian glances over to the shelf of nipple clamps.
A: 'Will it hurt?'. Looks nervously at clamps.
C: A little bit, but it will be fun (for me).
A: (In her head- 'My inner goddess gasps') OK, what do I have to do?'

cut and paste for every second page of the book..... :mad:

Curiosity is also a perfectly valid reason for reading a book. I've read loads of books out of curiosity, often because they're popular and I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. Some were good, some were bad, and this one falls into the truly awful category.

panda100

I have to admit I am enjoying everyones funny reviews on here, far more than I enjoyed the actual book!

_Bella_

Article about in the Irish Times, touches on a lot of the points raised on here.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0905/1224323609958.html?via=mr

Monty Burnz

Why did Harry Potter become so popular, when there are many better books for children that adults could read? Why did the Da Vinci Code become a phenomenon when there are far better thrillers out there?

People seem to love following a crowd. If they perceive a bandwagon forming, they want to get on it. Why exactly, I don't know. I suffer from the opposite tendency - if something is what I (fairly arbitrarily) deem 'too popular', I'll ignore it for all I'm worth regardless of its actual merit. I probably would have shunned the Beatles had I been around.

Hillmanhunter1

Monty Burnz wrote: »

Why did Harry Potter become so popular, when there are many better books for children that adults could read? Why did the Da Vinci Code become a phenomenon when there are far better thrillers out there?

People seem to love following a crowd. If they perceive a bandwagon forming, they want to get on it. Why exactly, I don't know. I suffer from the opposite tendency - if something is what I (fairly arbitrarily) deem 'too popular', I'll ignore it for all I'm worth regardless of its actual merit. I probably would have shunned the Beatles had I been around.

The Harry Potter books and the Da Vinci Code became best sellers because they are great stories. It may be unlikely that Dan Brown (or EL James for that matter) will receive a phone call from the Nobel committee, but he found a story that interested people, who told their firends, who in turn told their friends.

I find it odd that so many posters seek unlikely explanations as to why a book has sold 40m copies. We get reasons such as people are sheep and follow the crowd, it was heavily hyped, people just thought it was vanilla porn etc.

Everyone I've spoken to, and who has not yet read the book, knows that this book is about a dominant/submissive sexual relationship. I suspect that the vast majority of people who bought it knew exactly what it was about (just like a previous generation knew exactly what Deep Throat was about!) and they bought it because they wanted to read it.

Is that such an appalling vista that it must be denied?