You get caught up in trends. You spy the sleek cover countless times, that which is gripped firmly by the hands of commuters and perused intensely by slightly weary yet focused eyes, and your interest is piqued – naturally – because this is a trilogy that literally millions are reading at a particular time. Therefore, this is a book that you must read, because everyone is reading it. These are my thoughts before I tentatively purchase the trilogy on Amazon, egged on by my own curiosity – by colleagues and friends. Just what are they reading?
I read a variety of literature. That means that what I read ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. So we have the classics: Shakespeare, Blake, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Dickens, & company. We have the Romantics, the Victorians, the modernists and the post-modernists. And then there is…EL James – and her trilogy Fifty Shades.
James’ inspiration, the source for Fifty Shades, was Meyers’ Twilight series (2005) – a world-famous romance trilogy and film, featuring rather drab acting from American actress Kristen Stewart, numerous scenes of embellished pouting, countless moments of overacting – (and under-acting in parts), in addition to strangely vacant expressions (intended for looks of intense love). You get the point: the films are indeed let down by Stewart. Yet they are loved by millions. Why? Because teenagers are obsessed with Robert Pattinson; because love is a paradigm that is universal; because, above all, the plot-line nuances Stoker’s Dracula (which is an absolute classic).
So I suppose it should go without saying that some sort of love figures in the relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. This is largely apparent by the denouement of some 1500 pages (give or take a few) – pages that are otherwise dominated by scenes of, well, sex (specifically BDSM), carnal desire, lust, titillation and eroticism. That, too, is another reason why Fifty Shades is so popular of course: sex sells.
James does satisfactorily in a tricky area. It is not easy to write sex, the subtleties of which are often destroyed or undermined by stereotypical notions of what sex is, as well as rather poor clichés which resemble Hollywood blockbuster films. And whilst we follow the rocky, sexually intense relationship between Christian and Ana with piqued interest, there are inherent issues with James’ work. Both the internal monologue of Anastasia Steele, as well as the stereotypical, Americanized interjections of sexual gratification, or dissatisfaction, or apprehension in general, make for a trilogy that is therefore paradoxical in its ability to satiate the reader.
At the same time there is, on the one hand, the perspective that James’ trilogy contains something largely unexplored, something that is innovative or unique. That its exploration of BDSM is daring, (even for the twenty-first century), is something of a literary dialectic – something that is debatable, perhaps amongst literary scholars. But we have indeed seen the plot-line before. In Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth, we’ve seen the same power play in the intense relationship between the eponymous protagonist and the wealthy Mr Bellingham. In Bellingham’s total domination of Ruth, in her gradual descent to the status of ‘fallen’ woman and in the juxtaposition between the powerful and the powerless, we find parallels with James’ Fifty Shades. To say, then, that James’ work is something entirely unique would be a major oversight.
So I suppose it should go without saying that some sort of love figures in the relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. This is largely apparent by the denouement of some 1500 pages (give or take a few) – pages that are otherwise dominated by scenes of, well, sex (specifically BDSM), carnal desire, lust, titillation and eroticism. That, too, is another reason why Fifty Shades is so popular of course: sex sells.
The film may do a better job of conveying James’ work, but by the trilogy itself I, personally, am not entirely sold. So saying that, its popularity is near unsurpassed in recent years: it must be some sort of tour de force in that respect.
