Has anyone else red 50 Shades of Grey?

That has always been my understanding. But a lot of people who claim to be in the BDSM community say that the Anne Rice books are a good representation of it. I expected something VERY different when I started that book.

I guess I've never heard any of my 'scene' friends hold out a novel. But to Mutant's point - yeah, Venus in Furs for people who hate books, when Venus in Furs was a pretty crummy novel itself :-)

You call them 'scene' friends? I call them the dirty perverts that I associate with. On fet and IRL on occasion. But nontheless, my dirty pervert friends. I hate the idea of the "BDSM scene".

Also, no clue about Anne Rice. But I'm also a big fan of either doing or watching. Real life and porn are enough for me. Literotica is kind of strange to me. I have a perfectly fine imagination on my own.

I really thought this was a joke thread at first considering "read" was misspelled. Anyway, that book is absolutely dreadful. Bdsm is not like that at all. Completely unrealistic. The author's grammar was terrible, and used the same words and phrases over and over throughout the book. I must have read the word "inner goddess" at least twenty times by the time I got to the twentieth page. Horrible book. I'd rate it a 0 out of 10.

I really thought this was a joke thread at first considering "read" was misspelled. Anyway, that book is absolutely dreadful. Bdsm is not like that at all. Completely unrealistic. The author's grammar was terrible, and used the same words and phrases over and over throughout the book. I must have read the word "inner goddess" at least twenty times by the time I got to the twentieth page. Horrible book. I'd rate it a 0 out of 10.

It is a joke thread. The "red" was completely accidental, but a pretty funny typo, considering.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! You can never, never let on!!!! NOOOOO!

OK, serious question here (and for the record, if there is a typo it's because for some reason on my work computer, the keyboard is way ahead of the screen and I end up skipping letters and don't always notice, thus the happy but accidental typo in the thread title):

I see a lot of people criticize 50 Shades for things like abusive/controlling behavior and then they recommend Anne Rice. Well, on those recommendations, I bought The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and I have to say, while the writing is certainly better, the theme of the book is pretty awful. I mean, it opens with a RAPE of a 15-year-old, unconscious girl. And she doesn't exactly give her consent to anything that happens.

I got about 100 pages in and had to stop reading. It's a pretty horrifying story and if that is what "real" BDSM is about, I have to wonder why anyone would be involved in it if you have any self-respect???

The Sleeping Beauty trilogy is a fantasy, not a representation of a real D/s relationship. I pointed it out earlier as a better written form of erotica, but fantasy by its definition is going to dissolve some barriers/limitations that for the most part aren't going to happen in real life. The culture it envisions isn't exactly one you could create with your partner - I mean, in book 3, the pony-boys stay in their getup the entire. That's not even physically feasible, haha.

I think the reason the trilogy gets pointed to so often is that it's a fairly mainstream author writing about it, and yet, it's not totally softened either.

But I will also point that while you say it begins with the rape of a minor - and that in a sense that is true, as by our definitions Beauty is 15 and thus a minor - keep in mind this is set in a different time period, and that after her few months in the Queen's employ is up, she is expected to marry a king/prince/whatever. It isn't a modern day fantasy. As for the aspect of consent - I think that's a little more questionable throughout the novel, particularly as she sobs and begs not to leave, but I think that's also part of the fantasy element of the novel rather than a guidebook of "here's how to have a BDSM relationship, yo."