Are you a fan of 50 shades of Grey?

Yire

I really liked the trilogy. I'd like to talk to people who share this love of reading this type. Twilight Saga .... in short love stories.

Infinitejester

No I'm really not.

Yire

haha Well I want someone write who likesit . Indeed...What do you like to you? ...

jazz101

You a DFW fan InfiniteJester?

I've always wondered how these things sell so well. Seems raunchy sex novels tied together with very little plot are the order of the day in books now.

Yire

You a DFW fan InfiniteJester?




What does it mean?

Infinitejester

Yire wrote: »

You a DFW fan InfiniteJester?




What does it mean?

They are asking if I'm a fan of David foster Wallace, an author who wrote the book "infinite jest". And I absolutely am!

There are a large number of spin off 50 shades of grey books out now. You can find them pretty easily in most book shops, or ask around. You'd probably like them if you liked 50 shades.

Yire

I´ll read these book,thanks!!and we will discuss

thefasteriwalk

Ugh. No. You should try the Marquis De Sade, though - at least there may be some merit there.

ViveLaVie

No. They are terrible books.

Yire

What types of books do you like?
That sincertiry...oh my god...."terrible books"

--Kaiser--

Yire wrote: »

What types of books do you like?
That sincertiry...oh my god...."terrible books"

Why are you getting upset? If you enjoy them, fine. But both the Twilight 'saga' and the Grey books are world renowned as being terrible books so you should get used to people disparaging them

Yire

Is that why you are so successful? are beautiful stories. Original and entertaining. I also like mystery books.Regards

lazeedaisy

Not my thing, I much prefer Lee Child, or any thrillers

Its mommy porn really

In your question - you ask if anyone is a fan and when someone says no you critisize them??

LOL

You should be more specific in your question, if you only want to talk to people who like them

28064212

lazeedaisy wrote: »

You should be more specific in your question, if you only want to talk to people who like them

In fairness:

Yire wrote: »

I'd like to talk to people who share this love of reading this type.

They are quite explicit about what they wanted.

OP, you're not likely to get much of a discussion about them, because by most metrics (that don't include popularity), they are bad books. They're not well-written, the characters are one-dimensional, the plot is absurd and the setting is bland. By a curious quirk of fate, they happened to fill a gap in the public consciousness, and came along at exactly the right time in exactly the right place, and so became extremely popular. They are practically the definition of a guilty pleasure. Like Justin Bieber, Wayans brother's movies and the X-factor, they have no artistic merit. Despite managing to garner a huge following, they will never be considered "quality", and will be forgotten after the next fad comes along

Yire

It's ok. I have to accept the criticism. Maybe I expected more fans, I haven´t written any person. I have registered to this page for me to improve my English and meet people. Although I have chosen the wrong topic hahahaha. It may be a fad but entertaining books or movies are good for people. People are happy

lazeedaisy

28064212 wrote: »

In fairness:

They are quite explicit about what they wanted.

Are you a fan of 50 shades of Grey?

I think its says it all!!!!!

Cavehill Red

lazeedaisy wrote: »

In fairness:

They are quite explicit about what they wanted.

Are you a fan of 50 shades of Grey?

I think its says it all!!!!!

Except they asked in the Literature forum. That's like asking in the non-drinkers forum are there any fans of Carlsberg.

Yire

ok

Dibble

Yire wrote: »

I really liked the trilogy. I'd like to talk to people who share this love of reading this type. Twilight Saga .... in short love stories.

Indirectly yes, big fan of the 50 Shades of Grey series. My wife read the trilogy and I have been reaping the rewards since .

Yire, keep reading what you enjoy!

Aenaes

To be fair, there's plenty of worse books out there. It seems to be a victim of it's own success and gets derided for being popular, like Twilight, The Da Vinci Code, Nickelback, etc.

What other forum is there for them to ask though?

Yire, I hope you get to chat to someone about the books if you enjoy them, but I'm not sure I'd call 50 Shades a love story!

Cavehill Red

Candie wrote: »

What other forum is there for them to ask though?

Good point. Perhaps the OP might consider requesting a Porn/Erotica discussion forum?

Harry Angstrom

Candie wrote: »

What other forum is there for them to ask though?

Ladies Lounge?

RDM_83 again

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Except they asked in the Literature forum. That's like asking in the non-drinkers forum are there any fans of Carlsberg.

No its like asking in the Beer Wine and Spirits forum are there any fans of Carlsberg

Harry Angstrom

RDM_83 again wrote: »

No its like asking in the Beer Wine and Spirits forum are there any fans of Carlsberg

I was thinking that myself

Nody

Aenaes wrote: »

To be fair, there's plenty of worse books out there. It seems to be a victim of it's own success and gets derided for being popular, like Twilight, The Da Vinci Code, Nickelback, etc.

Was such a poor rip off from Foucault's pendulum it deserves all it gets thrown at it...

Im_That_Girl

Oh god I hate those books. I read the first book to see what all the hype was about. It's bloody awful. I hated that Christian Grey character. He was such a prick. I kept wishing I could reach into the book so I could give him a good hard kick between the legs. Whenever I hear women going on about how they wish they had a boyfriend 'just like Christian', I think they're mentally defective.

brilliantboy

Jesus, the elitism on display in this thread is something else.
No doubt many of the people who pan 50 Shades etc. for not having 'literary merit' (which is nothing more than a buzzword created for parroting in discussions like this) regularly read garbage like A Song of Ice and Fire and Robert Jordan.
At least 50 Shades of Grey deals with real-world relationships and themes (however peculiar), and isn't simply an infantile escape into a world of dragons, and magic, and whatever other perversion the author fancies.
EL James is to be respected greatly for turning her passion into a successful enterprise, despite all the snide and hurtful remarks she must have gotten along the way.
Her work is getting people who never even thought of picking up a book before interested in reading, and thankfully a few bitter comments from pseudo-intellectuals on an internet forum isn't going to be enough to undo that.

--Kaiser--

brilliantboy wrote: »

Jesus, the elitism on display in this thread is something else.
No doubt many of the people who pan 50 Shades etc. for not having 'literary merit' (which is nothing more than a buzzword created for parroting in discussions like this) regularly read garbage like A Song of Ice and Fire and Robert Jordan.
At least 50 Shades of Grey deals with real-world relationships and themes (however peculiar), and isn't simply an infantile escape into a world of dragons, and magic, and whatever other perversion the author fancies.
EL James is to be respected greatly for turning her passion into a successful enterprise, despite all the snide and hurtful remarks she must have gotten along the way.
Her work is getting people who never even thought of picking up a book before interested in reading, and thankfully a few bitter comments from pseudo-intellectuals on an internet forum isn't going to be enough to undo that.

Tell me, what's infantile about well written books with multi-dimensional characters, timeless themes and byzantine plots? I'm guessing you've never actually read A Song of Ice and Fire. Your use of the word 'perversion' here is quite ironic, as is your use of 'pseudo-intellectual'. Pot ,meet kettle

Queen-Mise

I haven't read Fifty Shades but I read a lot of Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy (amidst other stuff). I stumbled on the erotica part of it my accident really - some of the PR is really erotica.
Series like Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse Series (from TV True Blood) can also be classed as Paranormal Romance amongst other stuff; but they are definitely not erotica. And then other stuff in the PR genre is straight out erotica surrounded by a story. Whereas Fifty Shades is definitely erotica

I could give you suggestions of stuff to read that might be in a similar vein, but it would have a supernatural element to it. I come across this stuff by accident really whilst looking for good Urban Fantasy Series. [Now if it is Urban Fantasy stuff you are looking to read I can give you some great suggestions - they are some fantastic authors writing at the moment].

I am just after finishing Joey W. Hills Vampire Series - they definitely fall into the erotica genre. They are generally well written books with some good plots and character development. One of the books in particular is very dark, actually quite harrowing at times to read.


And ignore the critics of Fifty Shades/Twilight etc etc. The sh*te you hear being said about these books and the mental capacity of the people who read them is shocking sometimes.. It is not their area of interest - fine, but if you know nothing about them or have no interest in them then shut the fcuk up about it. And I have to laugh at adults spending so much time bitching about books for teenagers (the Twilight books)? And then giving about Fifty Shades being mommy porn; again what is the problem with that? Personally I would prefer if Fifty Shades had better quality writing to it - otherwise it is absolutely fine.
/Rant over.

jazz101

brilliantboy wrote: »

Jesus, the elitism on display in this thread is something else.
No doubt many of the people who pan 50 Shades etc. for not having 'literary merit' (which is nothing more than a buzzword created for parroting in discussions like this) regularly read garbage like A Song of Ice and Fire and Robert Jordan.
At least 50 Shades of Grey deals with real-world relationships and themes (however peculiar), and isn't simply an infantile escape into a world of dragons, and magic, and whatever other perversion the author fancies.
EL James is to be respected greatly for turning her passion into a successful enterprise, despite all the snide and hurtful remarks she must have gotten along the way.
Her work is getting people who never even thought of picking up a book before interested in reading, and thankfully a few bitter comments from pseudo-intellectuals on an internet forum isn't going to be enough to undo that.

I find it funny how you deride ASOIAF as "infantile" for its supernatural elements seeing as Fifty Shades sprang from Twilight as a sexual piece of fan fiction. Twilight, of course, being about vampires, werewolves and vampire babies. Oh, and abusive relationships. I've never even read ASOIAF but the hypocrisy in that statement is hilarious.

Fifty Shades essentially is ****e drawn from more ****e, it's Twilight being wrung for every last cent. Why there's a market for this type of thing I'll never know. It exemplified what made Twilight successful - the pretty disgusting and cringeworthy relationship between the two main characters based on submission to abuse and awful sentimentalism, and added a bit more sex to satisfy Twilight's core audience.

supackofidiots

brilliantboy wrote: »

garbage like A Song of Ice and Fire .

oh God.

Face meet Palm.

Best of luck in your Applied Leaving Cert Brilliant Boy.

ViveLaVie

brilliantboy wrote: »

Jesus, the elitism on display in this thread is something else.
No doubt many of the people who pan 50 Shades etc. for not having 'literary merit' (which is nothing more than a buzzword created for parroting in discussions like this) regularly read garbage like A Song of Ice and Fire and Robert Jordan.
At least 50 Shades of Grey deals with real-world relationships and themes (however peculiar), and isn't simply an infantile escape into a world of dragons, and magic, and whatever other perversion the author fancies.
EL James is to be respected greatly for turning her passion into a successful enterprise, despite all the snide and hurtful remarks she must have gotten along the way.
Her work is getting people who never even thought of picking up a book before interested in reading, and thankfully a few bitter comments from pseudo-intellectuals on an internet forum isn't going to be enough to undo that.

Only someone who hasn't a clue about 'literary merit' would refer to fantasy as a genre as infantile. Good fantasy seeks to critique reality. E.L. James' writing is cliched, one dimensional and an insult to erotic literature. There is very little actual plot and the character development is appalling. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it is good.

brilliantboy

I see I hit on a few nerves, I suspected I would.

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Tell me, what's infantile about well written books with multi-dimensional characters, timeless themes and byzantine plots? I'm guessing you've never actually read A Song of Ice and Fire. Your use of the word 'perversion' here is quite ironic, as is your use of 'pseudo-intellectual'. Pot ,meet kettle

Nothing, nothing whatsoever. What's infantile is thinking that the mere presence or absence of these things is what determines good literature from bad.
It's the height of hypocrisy to criticize someones reading for not having 'literary merit' when your own has precisely the same amount, not that there's anything wrong with reading for this type of vapid enjoyment of course. I'm sure you're not also in the habit of insulting peoples intelligence when they don't watch the same TV shows, listen to the same music, or play the same video games as you.
The themes explored in fantasy are rarely analogous to the real world because the circumstances of the actors and the environment is so different and deus ex machinas abound.
Sex too is a fairly timeless theme last I checked btw, and the kind of perversions depicted in 50 Shades are relatively vanilla compared to the rape, torture and general misogyny widespread in the ASOIAF universe.
And 'Byzantine plots'. Is that another way of saying unwieldy, convoluted plots that plod along for a few decades until the author dies or simply gets bored and moves on to new endeavours?
Have I read all 5, and counting, volumes of ASOIAF? No
But I did read about as much of Game of Thrones as I could before throwing up. It's the same tripe full of well-worn clichés we've seen a dozen times in various media; ancient evil separated from civilization by some artificial construct, feudal lords, epic battles, lawlessness and blood and gore galore, and regular helpings of sex to titillate the teenage boys. Not to mention the nauseating archaisms that litter the work.
I think George Martin is a distinctly average writer, but then he doesn't need to be Fitzgerald to reach his audience, nor does EL James.

jazz101 wrote: »

Fifty Shades essentially is ****e drawn from more ****e, it's Twilight being wrung for every last cent. Why there's a market for this type of thing I'll never know

I really don't see how it's 'being wrung for every last cent'. Like you mentioned, it originated as Twilight fanfiction so presumably the woman would have been writing it even if she never had a hope of making a cent from it. But now that she's turned her hobby into a nice profit, the snakes are out and spitting vitriol.
But it's funny you bring up that point because that's exactly how I feel about the fantasy genre as a whole, it's Tolkien (and others) being wrung for every last cent. Isn't it funny how fantasy epics are always works in progress? "Here, buy this and I'll tell you the next part of the story in a few years"

supackofidiots wrote: »

oh God.

Face meet Palm.

Best of luck in your Applied Leaving Cert Brilliant Boy.

Face palm, there's a blast from the past. I remember when that was a big thing on the internet.
I believe I was doing my Leaving Cert at the time.

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Only someone who hasn't a clue about 'literary merit' would refer to fantasy as a genre as infantile. Good fantasy seeks to critique reality. E.L. James' writing is cliched, one dimensional and an insult to erotic literature. There is very little actual plot and the character development is appalling. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it is good.

I don't believe I said any such thing. There's nothing wrong with the genre inherently, but I think state it's currently in is appalling.
George R Martin is a long way from Tolkien, Peake, Dunsany, Wolfe etc.
In any case, that's not the issue here. The issue is whether everything one reads must have 'literary merit', and must we insult those who read what is, according to us, less meritorious material? I say no, let people read whatever they want, 50 Shades, Twilight, ASOIAF. Is it so difficult to just move on when you see a thread discussing a book you don't like?

judgefudge

In fairness the title of the thread is "are you a fan of 50 shades of Grey?"

It's kind of inviting people to air their opinions on the book. I don't see how someone saying they didn't enjoy the book and don't understand why it is so popular is "elitism"?

--Kaiser--

brilliantboy wrote: »

Nothing, nothing whatsoever. What's infantile is thinking that the mere presence or absence of these things is what determines good literature from bad.
It's the height of hypocrisy to criticize someones reading for not having 'literary merit' when your own has precisely the same amount, not that there's anything wrong with reading for this type of vapid enjoyment of course. I'm sure you're not also in the habit of insulting peoples intelligence when they don't watch the same TV shows, listen to the same music, or play the same video games as you.
The themes explored in fantasy are rarely analogous to the real world because the circumstances of the actors and the environment is so different and deus ex machinas abound.
Sex too is a fairly timeless theme last I checked btw, and the kind of perversions depicted in 50 Shades are relatively vanilla compared to the rape, torture and general misogyny widespread in the ASOIAF universe.
And 'Byzantine plots'. Is that another way of saying unwieldy, convoluted plots that plod along for a few decades until the author dies or simply gets bored and moves on to new endeavours?
Have I read all 5, and counting, volumes of ASOIAF? No
But I did read about as much of Game of Thrones as I could before throwing up. It's the same tripe full of well-worn clichés we've seen a dozen times in various media; ancient evil separated from civilization by some artificial construct, feudal lords, epic battles, lawlessness and blood and gore galore, and regular helpings of sex to titillate the teenage boys. Not to mention the nauseating archaisms that litter the work.
I think George Martin is a distinctly average writer, but then he doesn't need to be Fitzgerald to reach his audience, nor does EL James.

So we agree, nothing infantile about A Song of Ice and Fire. Quite a roundabout way of saying though

Queen-Mise

brilliantboy wrote: »

The issue is whether everything one reads must have 'literary merit', and must we insult those who read what is, according to us, less meritorious material? I say no, let people read whatever they want, 50 Shades, Twilight, ASOIAF. Is it so difficult to just move on when you see a thread discussing a book you don't like?

I like you :D:D:D


And I am not in the slightest bit jealous at how well you put your arguments across there:rolleyes: You have just dealt with one of my pet hates brilliantly.

danslevent

I read the first book and got half way through the second one before my "inner goddess" gave up. :P

I think the book is great in the sense that people that would not normally read are reading, which is always good. It has also helped to improve peoples sex lives and become more open.

In a literary sense, I think it is appalling. The character, Christian Grey, is so unbelievable. He is a gorgeous billionaire (come on) that is Fluent in French and can also sail and pilot a plane. It is a character you would imagine a twelve year old girl making up. The book is also very disappointing in the erotic sense. At first I found it engaging but soon found myself skipping over the repetitive sex scenes, that all ended with her becoming "Undone in his words".

I am glad I read it, I like seeing the hype about certain books, but it really makes me sad that some amazingly written books can be overlooked and THIS has out sold them.

brilliantboy

danslevent wrote: »

a gorgeous billionaire (come on) that is Fluent in French and can also sail and pilot a plane. It is a character you would imagine a twelve year old girl making up.

You've just described Jay Gatsby

hponboard

DEPENDS ON IF YOUR A MAN OR WOMAN,
WOULD YOU THINK MANY MEN READ THESE BOOKS

clairefontaine

What is all the hullabaloo about? It's not as if there hasn't been plenty of other female erotica around bdsm written? How exactly did this one make it to the Tesco aisle?

PurpleBee

I don't see anyone here insulting people who read those books, over sensitivity perhaps brilliantboy