50 Shades - Great, or the Greatest?

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  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    r u for real? btw the trailer looks like a higher budget skinemax movie.

    Please note I haven't seen the film. If it's half as thorough as the texts, it will likely become a classic; perhaps studied in college courses devoted to the subject matter.
    It is the greatest love story of our time! It's a lesson in character development and growth. It's a masterful work of beautiful words strung together by a woman who probably walks on water and flies on angel wings, she's so perfect in her writing.

    Every college-level English lit class should teach these books. ALL OF THEM.

    Thank God I'm not alone here. Also thank you for the link from that columnist. Some choice exerpts for the naysayers:
    "In short, Anastasia is a totally believable and realistic depiction of a normal twenty-one-year-old female American college student[...]"
    "This is why the immense popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey is actually great news for men. It’s a signal from the female gender—not unlike the one broadcast by Shawna—transmitting an exciting and encouraging message to men everywhere[.]"
    "If Jane Austen (another bestselling female British author) came back to life and read this book, she would kill herself." (The implication I think is out of shame that Austen's work would not be up-to-par.)
    The problem with 50 Shades is that it tells me when to be horny, it doesn't make every cell in my body just know what's up. Good writing puts me in the scene, crappy writing puts a narrator on my shoulder.
  • rebeccalee1986
    rebeccalee1986 Posts: 338
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    Absolute awful book, I am not even talking about the BDSM component as I will admit I know nothing about this. The actual literature content is awful. I read the first out of curiosity then the second about half way through I realised it was a chore and I spent most of the time shaking my head in disbelief of the immaturity of the author. "My sex" to describe genitalia really????!!!!!
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
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    r u for real? btw the trailer looks like a higher budget skinemax movie.

    Please note I haven't seen the film. If it's half as thorough as the texts, it will likely become a classic; perhaps studied in college courses devoted to the subject matter.
    It is the greatest love story of our time! It's a lesson in character development and growth. It's a masterful work of beautiful words strung together by a woman who probably walks on water and flies on angel wings, she's so perfect in her writing.

    Every college-level English lit class should teach these books. ALL OF THEM.

    Thank God I'm not alone here. Also thank you for the link from that columnist. Some choice exerpts for the naysayers:
    "In short, Anastasia is a totally believable and realistic depiction of a normal twenty-one-year-old female American college student[...]"
    "This is why the immense popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey is actually great news for men. It’s a signal from the female gender—not unlike the one broadcast by Shawna—transmitting an exciting and encouraging message to men everywhere[.]"
    "If Jane Austen (another bestselling female British author) came back to life and read this book, she would kill herself." (The implication I think is out of shame that Austen's work would not be up-to-par.)

    :huh: :huh: :huh: :huh:

    It shocks me how much people enjoyed these terribly written books.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
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    Am I the only one who enjoys violence in a book? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had two violent scenes, one of which was very satisfying.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    Am I the only one who enjoys violence in a book? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had two violent scenes, one of which was very satisfying.
    Depends on what kind of violence.
  • Kitten2629
    Kitten2629 Posts: 1,359 Member
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    Am I the only one who enjoys violence in a book? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had two violent scenes, one of which was very satisfying.

    I just finished reading that one a few weeks ago, looking forward to reading the other two in the series.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    Okay, so if we're talking BDSM novels, because I guess that's what 50 Shades tries to be, check out reader lists on goodreads.com and you'll find something much much better out there.

    There's a lightyear difference and I'm truly bothered that the 50 Shades author writes like she never did any field studies, because in the real BDSM books it's clear that the authors know what they are talking about. If she was that interested, she should have explored the topic. Yes, she should have. And she should have gained first-hand experience. If she was too much of a sissy for that, then at least do some serious interviewing of people into the thing.
  • jescamp9481
    jescamp9481 Posts: 126 Member
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    if it requires a "safe word" I am so out!!!

    there is no way I would walk around with sex toys in my lady parts
    maybe I am naive but I dont see this being something for the majority of women

    to me 50 shade is just a modern romance novel without Fabio on the front
    we all know how spectacularly written romance novels are
  • yellowlemoned
    yellowlemoned Posts: 335 Member
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    Fairly simple question. I've never seen a work of fiction so thoroughly explore women's issues. Can't believe they're making it into a film, considering Hollywood's penchant for populist pandering. Hard to believe that they'll tackle the hard issues like identity and sexual politics, and womens liberation -- all themes masterfully explored in the series.

    I'm not looking forward to it. The book has done enough damage as is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some staunch conservative that doesn't think sex should be talked about. My beef with it is that 50 shades did BDSM all wrong and moved into the realm of abusive and non consensual. Normally that would be okay, so long as everyone took it as the fiction that it is. The problem is women and men took 50 shades as a 101 beginners guide to BDSM and thousands of "50 shades bondage kits" hit the market. I can almost guarantee the people who bought these didn't bother to learn anything about BDSM, safe words, or really discuss what they wanted and didn't want to try before giving them a spin. It gives BDSM a bad name, not to mention it can lead to a lot of potential risks and getting seriously hurt if they take it too far without knowing what they are doing.
  • Yurippe
    Yurippe Posts: 850 Member
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    Very important question. Is this the book that mentions body wash 53 times? I'm actually serious this time. It was very annoying.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    Fairly simple question. I've never seen a work of fiction so thoroughly explore women's issues. Can't believe they're making it into a film, considering Hollywood's penchant for populist pandering. Hard to believe that they'll tackle the hard issues like identity and sexual politics, and womens liberation -- all themes masterfully explored in the series.

    I'm not looking forward to it. The book has done enough damage as is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some staunch conservative that doesn't think sex should be talked about. My beef with it is that 50 shades did BDSM all wrong and moved into the realm of abusive and non consensual. Normally that would be okay, so long as everyone took it as the fiction that it is. The problem is women and men took 50 shades as a 101 beginners guide to BDSM and thousands of "50 shades bondage kits" hit the market. I can almost guarantee the people who bought these didn't bother to learn anything about BDSM, safe words, or really discuss what they wanted and didn't want to try before giving them a spin. It gives BDSM a bad name, not to mention it can lead to a lot of potential risks and getting seriously hurt if they take it too far without knowing what they are doing.
    Just putting this nice little book in here: The Ultimate Guide to Kink by Tristan Taormino. It's actually written by different people to make it as accurate and safe as possible.
  • JeriAnne84
    JeriAnne84 Posts: 543 Member
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    The safe word is "pickles".

    The books were crap. The writing was terrible. I know nothing of BDSM, but the way it was written was awful. It was a Twilight rip off and it annoys me that women who write about women in books as the main character make them weak and need a man and cling to an abusive relationship. Hello he told her that she had to work out and what she could and couldn't eat, where she would get her hair done and all sorts of crap. Control much? Why can't the women who wrote Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey make the main character a powerful female? Or just a female who isn't a complete dumb@$$?

    Her biting her lip got annoying real fast. So did her inner goddess.

    If these books became classics to be read in a college course then our society and future is doomed.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
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    Am I the only one who enjoys violence in a book? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had two violent scenes, one of which was very satisfying.

    Actually I loved that series.
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
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    Very important question. Is this the book that mentions body wash 53 times? I'm actually serious this time. It was very annoying.

    Don't use bodywash on your sex. You'll get an infection.
  • delicious_cocktail
    delicious_cocktail Posts: 5,797 Member
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    Very important question. Is this the book that mentions body wash 53 times? I'm actually serious this time. It was very annoying.

    Don't use bodywash on your sex. You'll get an infection.

    uh oh.

    When?
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    The safe word is "pickles".

    ....

    If these books became classics to be read in a college course then our society and future is doomed.
    That's ridiculous, it rhymes with tickles. Dorky choice and potentially very unsafe, too.

    And I agree with your opinion on "doomed".
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    Ah, yes. S&M for people who don't know anything about S&M.
    Way to take someone else's preference, stereotype it, and then claim it's wrong for not fitting the stereotype you just tried to apply to it.
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,932 Member
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    if it requires a "safe word" I am so out!!!

    there is no way I would walk around with sex toys in my lady parts
    maybe I am naive but I dont see this being something for the majority of women

    to me 50 shade is just a modern romance novel without Fabio on the front
    we all know how spectacularly written romance novels are

    Agreed. Safe words are for quitters.
  • Tara_238
    Tara_238 Posts: 70 Member
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    I read the books because all my female friends said it was the greatest thing ever. lol. It wasn't. The plots were ridiculous and the writing was crap, oh crap, double crap, and even triple crap. Not to mention that even the dirty scenes in the book were a bit vanilla.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    if it requires a "safe word" I am so out!!!

    there is no way I would walk around with sex toys in my lady parts
    maybe I am naive but I dont see this being something for the majority of women

    to me 50 shade is just a modern romance novel without Fabio on the front
    we all know how spectacularly written romance novels are
    Agreed. Safe words are for quitters.
    :laugh:

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