Long time, no see. Yes, this post will be dealing with maturity, immaturity and is spawned by the new Fifty Shades of Grey trailer that was released recently. If you haven't seen the trailer, you can watch it here.
So in light of all the sharing on Facebook of the trailer and all of my friends blowing up my news feed with their own thoughts and opinions on this new movie, I wanted to come to my own forum and talk about this.
Now, I read Fifty Shades of Grey, clever title, written in first person present, good..... plot?
Let me start this way, and forgive my rambling on the subject, but this is a subject I am passionate about. Reading. There are so many different ways to read nowadays. You can read on a Nook or a Kindle. You can read paperback, hard cover, trade-back, and e-books on your computer. You can listen to audio-books through many different sites. You can read magazines, newspapers, both in electronic form and physical form. Blogs, online newspapers, and even comic strips are a form of reading. (Okay, so comics kind of break my rule because they have pictures, but maybe, just maybe, reading a bunch of comic books is still better than sitting in front of the TV for hours, or playing video games for hours? Just maybe. And if you want to know my stance on video games, click here.)
There are so many different ways that people can read, and yet, there is definitely still a separation within the bibliophile world. In my opinion, reading is reading. If you are actively exercising your brain by absorbing information, expanding your vocabulary, and creating images in your brain for the purposes of creating something that is not splayed out in front of you, it is constructive, vital and worthy. It is reading. We don't belittle children for reading their books filled with pictures and small words and bright colors. Why belittle me for reading romance books with their silly titles (I mean come on, "The Billionaire's baby"? It's silly. I know someone worked very hard on it, but when it comes down to it, whether you are reading a book called Narcissus in Chains, Wicked Nights or The Billionaire's Baby, most romance novels/erotic novels/historical romance/paranormal romance/fantasy romance/any other type of romance you can read has a title that draws a reader who wants to read about sex in. So, in my opinion, they are a little silly.) when I am still READING? Yes, maybe your book has a title like "Quantum Mechanics Throughout the Universe as Explained by a Quantum Physicist", but I am still reading. I am absorbing information quite rapidly through my eyes and processing it at an extraordinary rate through my brain in order to make a mental image so clear, it could be a movie. I don't look down on you with your big books and fancy works and complex plots with deep moral though-provoking insights. I think that as readers, you with your big book, and me with my small, silly book, are equals.
I don't ever remember a rule in school that said I had to read books that put me to sleep. I don't recall a teacher ever chastising me for reading. Do you know what was chastised in my school? Texting, iPods, cell phone usage, GameBoys, PSPs. Those where the things that helped distract students from learning. Not my little book.
And in the reading world, there are still those who think that their complex books trump my simple books, and that then makes them smarter than me. Maybe. It could be reasoned that if you are reading a book on Einstein's theory of relativity and how it interacts with string theory, that you might be more intelligent than I am. Or, it could be that I already know about that subject, and I've decided to do some light reading on the side. And in your eyes, anyone who reads the type of book that I currently am, couldn't possibly me interested in anything other than being a huge brain. But, you don't know. Why judge then?
I will tell you that reading about extraordinarily attractive men with rippling muscles and amazing smiles is sure a lot more fun than physics. But that is just my opinion.
See, the funny things about opinions is that the are unique to every individual. Now, it could be that multiple individuals share a common opinion, and that becomes a shared interest. But just because you like sitting in the Barnes and Noble Cafe, drinking Americanos, and talking loudly about how existentialist and amoral your current author is, while I sit in the children's area of the Barnes and noble, drinking my cream topped Double Chip frappacino (which I will have to pay for on the treadmill later), fervently whispering to my closest friend about muscles and giggling over erotic scenes, while my two year old runs around like I fed her a full carton of Chunky Monkey before we came to the store, doesn't mean we are unequal. It doesn't mean that one of us trumps the other. It means that we are similar in one facet: reading. A love of books. It unites us.
Now, I guess the reason I went into all of that was because I wanted you to know that I am able to judge a book. Another misconception about lovers (har har) of romance novels is that we will read and love anything because our books have no semblance of a plot, so we have nothing to judge. It's just a book about sex with small words and big hunks. Which isn't true. I have read Jane Eyre, and been captivated by the strength of Mr. Rochester. I have read The Things They Carried and mourned for Kiowa who died in the mud. I have read Animal Farm and 1984 more times than I care to count, and I know every depiction of imagery with those damn pigs you can toss my way. I have read the original Dracula and was so scared I had to sleep with the light on for a week, and I have read Frankenstein and wept at the inherent corruption that the creature suffered under the harsh reality of the world. I have a decent vocabulary and I can talk about every part of literature you could throw at me.
And as a side note, romance novels might have some of the best vocabulary in all of writing. Why? Because these books are full to the brim of one thing: sex. And there is only so many times you can call breasts, "breasts" before the reader gets really bored, really quickly. Romance authors have to stay on their toes. They can't slack off and write the same intimate scene over and over again. They need variety and the best way to give a reader variety is for the author to expand the vocabulary of the novel. There are so many words that I learned from romance novels because of this very fact. Yes, there will always be that line "velvet over steel" in pretty much every romance novel, even I make fun of this fact, but in all seriousness, romance authors must compete with so many amazing authors that they have one of the hardest jobs in the industry. Sex always sells, this is a fact, but novels centered around sex don't always sell because of that fact. We won't just read anything within the genre. We like plots, and plot twists. We like crying and laughing out loud and relating to the characters. We love watching these people and places come to life in our brains as much as you do.
In short, I know what I'm talking about when I say that I couldn't find a good plot about in this book. It was about interpersonal struggle and a relationship, yes. But some of the most boring romance novels I have ever read centered around a relationship that has almost no... complications. It was quite boring to me, because I have read books with better plots and better characters, even better sex.
I honestly don't think this book should have rose to the notoriety that it did, but that being said, I know why it did.
It appealed to the house wife, the college girl, the single woman, the nerd, the introvert, and the shy girl. There have been other books out there that have also have S*M play in them, this is not the first, and by no means do I think that Ms. James is a bad author, I simply believe that this book appealed to a mass audience of women by appealing to the insecurities in all women. She believes she is frumpy and she is shy and she isn't adventurous. Until she meets the right man. Isn't that the desire of all of the women I mentioned above? To meet a man who sweeps you off your feet, changes your life in ways you couldn't imagine, and rocks your world in the bedroom? I think so. So, the book had that going for it. It also had a very handsome leading man. I won't deny Christian Grey that, he sure had his looks going for him. But I think the main reason this book reached out to such a vast majority of women was the LIGHT S&M that was explored in the novel. Again, there have been other novels that feature S&M. Anne Rice wrote three VERY intense books in her Sleeping Beauty trilogy, and Elizabeth Amber delved into the world of S&M a little in her novel Nicholas. But those novels are "extreme" and are considered erotica, not romance. Man women don't know how to approach the subject of sadomachochism without feeling like sexual deviants, or even worse, freaks.
A large part of that is how morally based our society is and another part of that is the lack of reliable material out there to help women explore this facet of sexuality. Some women aren't comfortable with novelty shops and pornography, which is to be expected. It has just been within the past two or three years (five at the most) that these stores are starting to market to women. Most of the time, especially in low population areas, the stores are catered towards men, with women feeling out of place or even subjected to men while shopping, but more recently, large chains have stepped up their game to offer a safe, clean, and welcoming environment for women to shop in and even ask questions about the material they are perusing.
But enough about our society and such.
I think that this book is a perfect example of how a series can take off because of right place, right time, right content. Books of this sort have been out for years, but only in secret, wrapped in book covers and secreted away after husbands and boyfriends have gone to sleep. But this book was in book clubs and on TV and in the magazines. Housewives, moms, sisters, aunts, cousins, neighbors and even grandmas were reading this book and talking about it in groups, on public forums, and even to their significant others. And because of this, men started reading it, to get into the mind of their partners. And as the popularity of the book increased, the press it got increased too, and with that press more readers, and more advertising. It is very rare that a book gets a commercial that is aired on TV or on the internet. But not with this novel.
Women and men (who longed to find out Christian's secret to sexual success) clamored for this book, making it one of the best selling books of the year. The thought of putting yourself in Anastasia's position, was compelling and a LITTLE risque. It skirted that boundary between being a well kept secret and just another romance novel. In that respect Ms. James is a highly accomplished author. Ms. James made the world talk about being tied up on morning news and over the first cup of coffee. She brought to light the overwhelming need women have for this sort of sexual experience. It brought other forms of sexual experience into the light of day, and while it is a pity that it was THIS book that did that, ( again, I didn't find the book particularly interesting, not because the sex was bad, but because of the awkward writing and the lack of a solid plot) it still accomplished a great feat. And for that, E.L. James is one of the most accomplished authors of our generation.
Now the movie, I think I will laugh through. Because, from the trailer, they tried to make this movie much more intense than it is. And I'm wondering how many people will actually go and see this movie. If they make it an NC-17 rated movie, and thus stay true to the novel, I don't think that many people (even couples) will want to watch it. How many NC-17 rated movies have made a splash at the box office? Not many. Why? Because even though these people have read the book, and maybe even talked about it with friends and neighbors, they still aren't ready to pass that line between erotic material that they have read, and the high budget equivocation to pornography. They are still embarrassed is what I'm trying to say. You still have to walk into a theater that has lights in it and sit in a row of seats, only a few seats away from little Jimmy's music teacher and her hot boyfriend, and pretend that you are comfortable watching a couple interact sexually. What will your husband do at the end of the movie when the lights turn on? You better pack an extra bottle of ice cold Aquafina to help him out. \
And at the same time, if you make the movie rated R, you have to embellish a lot in order to fill the gaps that would be explicit sex. It will most likely show breasts, and intercourse, but no more than Eyes Wide Shut. And it looks like the film will be a lot like Eyes Wide Shut. A lot of odd :action" sequences, which are really just simple interpersonal interactions blown out of proportion, intermingled with sex scenes in which me see Christian Grey;s butt and Anastasia's breasts tot he point that they become boring. Also, a lot of gasping. And that weird thing that movies and TV shows do now where the man grabs and smooshes the woman's face.... I don't understand that. A lot of close faced heavy breathing too.
That being said, maybe I'm wrong, and maybe the box offices will be full on Valentine's Day of next year. Maybe couples will flow into the theaters with secret smiles and titillating laughs. I guess we will have to see.
For now, maybe communicate with your partner, instead of making your poor husband spend his lunch breaks in his car, reading Fifty Shades of Grey, in secret, so his friends, whom are doing the exact same thing, won't make fun of him. That's just my opinion though. You can form your own.
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