Fifty Shades of Grey
After all the hype about E. L. James' Fifty Shades Trilogy, I thought I'll give it a go since I'm always up for a good book. Some book reviews call it 'mummy porn', some book reviews raved about how it is a liberating piece of erotic literature for feminists. The only time that I could remember such furor over a novel is Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code', rightly or wrongly so.
On a bright sunny afternoon, I sat down in a classy bar after lunch, and started reading the book on my iPad.
So, how did Fifty Shades fare?
The whole book is very moody, and it is written in first person, making the reading experience a lot more intimate.
What about the plot? Too predictable, I say. You get the mysterious powerful young man who falls for an innocent girl with a rebellious streak, and the innocent girl who is attracted to a handsome young man with a lot of money and hidden secrets. The whole story revolves around the girl trying to get the tortured young man to open up, and the young man trying to project his fantasies onto the girl. Oh, the drama.
Of course, the attraction in the entire trilogy is Christian Grey. You just keep wondering why he's so tortured, why he's so moody, what his motivations are, etc. He knows exactly what he wants, and he even prepares a contract for Ana Steele to sign before their 'relationship' progresses. Yet, he shows sensitivity and attention to detail. So does he really love Ana or not? That's the million dollar question that keeps readers enthralled.
The key to the popularity of the trilogy isn't because women identify with Ana Steele. It's because they want a man like Christian Grey.
The whole love-hate angle is a recurring theme in many romance novels, and many women (particularly STRONG WOMEN) fantasise about having a man who is dominant enough to tell them what to do i.e. having an alpha male in their lives. These women are used to go around telling what their male colleagues should do in the workplace, and similarly, many of these women wears the pants at home. Their husbands are relegated to being house-husbands simply because these women earn more than their husbands. It would make sense for them to be the breadwinner for the family whilst the men stay at home to take care of the kids and do the housework.
Now comes Fifty Shades. For a book which glorifies male domination and female submission, its popularity with womenfolk is paradoxical. Its appeal amongst young and well-educated women lies in the role reversal of their actual lives -- the secret wish to be dominated by a man who is not afraid to let a woman know what he wants. In each woman's heart lies a secret wish to be swept off their feet by a man who could kiss so passionately that their toes curl with anticipation. Instead of the highly-educated and financially independent woman saying 'I want this, I want that', we get a role reversal here.
Strong women do not want doormats. They want strong men in their lives.
At least I do, and Fifty Shades has hit the nail on the head.
However, if you really want to read a well-written trilogy with strong feminist themes, I would strongly recommend Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Now that's what I call a GOOD book.
Small print:
Execution-wise, the writing is bad. If I read another sentence with containing 'long slender index finger', I've going to hurl my iPad against the wall. Except for the fact that I can't seem to put the book down. It's like a train wreck -- it's so shockingly bad yet tantalising at the same time, so much so that I can't seem to scroll away from the book on my electronic device.
Astonishingly, this published novel reads like your typical run-of-the-mill fanfiction, and perhaps not so surprisingly, I found out that Fifty Shades is an incarnation of a popular Twilight fanfiction which was published on Fanfiction.net called 'Master of the Universe' (cue for He-Man jokes, menfolk). I have never been a Twilight fan myself although I'll admit here that I've been a huge Harry Potter fan during my late teens/early twenties. The Bella-Edward romance has never captivated me, and I do not see Christian as Edward and Ana as Bella because they seem to be very different characters. And yes, I have been read some really good fanfiction as well. On the scale of brilliant fanfiction which I've read, this piece of work is only above-average at best. I have certainly read better!
The trick is to delete the association between Twilight and Fifty Shades, and it makes everything more palatable! I imagine Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey and a younger Natalie Portman as Ana Steele. How's that?