When I first heard about E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey it was about how this lone woman writing Twilight fanfic managed to rename Edward and Bella (Christian and Anastasia) without getting sued and that the book was full of BDSM. As someone who likes to read fantasy novels, I totally understand the appeal of just falling in love with characters and situations where the writing isn't great. However, what I was hearing was that the 50 Shades writing was poor. I had someone say to me, "I felt stupider after reading it." And I get that it's sort of Harlequin meets hard-core-sex, but could it be that bad? And how can all these seemingly intelligent women be interested in reading such drivel just for the sex?
My BFF Jessy picked up 50 Shades and she immediately said this to me, "I'm about to start 50 Shades of Grey. There is plenty of good porn on the internet. No need to spend $20 on a book. IT'S $20!" (via text) And that got me thinking—sure, there's LOADS (ha ha) of porn online (isn't that what the net was invented for?) and if you are into BDSM, I highly recommend checking out soon-to-be GQ cover boy, James Deen.
But there's something about this book—parodied by SNL and many others (anyone see Gilbert Gottfried reading excerpts?) that keeps drawing women in....but I completely don't get it. I don't understand how poorly written erotic fiction is turning so many of you on in a major way. I don't understand how you're not embarrassed by seeing every other mum wandering around with a copy of this or the other two books in the series. I don't understand why you don't just watch porn.
I just do not understand the appeal.
Although, Jessy may be sold. The day after the text above, I received this, also via text, "They just had their first kiss and I'm blushing! This is terrible!"
So, spill it! PLEASE explain to me why 50 Shades of Grey is more enticing than pornography?
PS, This handy dandy flow chart may come in handy for those of you still on the fence about reading the book!
PPS Watch this!
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