Let me start this by saying how much I love books. I read them; lots of them. I belong to a Bookclub and I read literature and shit. I do philosophy and love a good long convo solving the problems of the world when the mood strikes me. In short: I’m no dummy.
Liking these books does not make me a dummy. And creating something that’s an easy read doesn’t make the writer a dummy. In fact, this woman is far from a dummy. She’s probably made more money out of these trashy little reads than some of those dudes over there rolling out their literature so credit where credit is due I say.
For what it’s worth, even though I might get hate mail for it, here are the reasons why I like the 50 Shades books (there are 3 in the series in case you didn’t know).
1. I’m not a wanker. See aforementioned comments on easy reads and being a dummy. Only wankers believe that the two are linked.
2. It was an easy read. Have you ever tried to write a book? Or even a short story? Was it shit? Did it make people’s eyes bleed trying to read it?
Writing something that is easy for people to read is exceptionally difficult. If you’ve ever tried to read Satanic Verses – the very definition of NOT an easy read – you will understand that not all books can be devoured in a day. They must flow to do that. They must provide a story that makes one want to keep reading. If it is boring as batshit people don’t read it. Full stop. Literature or not. It doesn’t matter if the sentence structures are simple as long as the story is keeping you going.
I, for one, love an easy read from time to time. Sometimes my brain has just come down from reading something far more taxing and it needs a wee rest before moving onto the next big philosophical life changing novel. I’m cool with that…because I’m not a wanker.
3. It got non readers reading. This is probably my most favorite thing about this book. It doesn’t need elaboration but I’m going to bang on about it a bit anyway. Reading is important. So so important. Why do we care if someone, who previously never read anything, chooses to only read trash because of this book? I’d rather someone read only Mill’s and Boon than not read at all. It is important for literacy and learning and articulation and imagination and…the list goes on. I know you see my point.
4. It got the sex happening in our bedrooms. Bored housewives all over the world were suddenly no longer too tired for the bedtime nooky. This book was saving relationships, EVERYWHERE! Enough said.
5. It deals with an issue we all have – navigating a relationship where there are competing desires and interests. If you’d actually read past the first book, which was pure sensationalism, you would have found out that this wasn’t really a story about a dude who was into S&M. It was about how two people, who had previously wanted different things, found a way to be together because their love was worth it. Pure sop, crap, rubbish. Typical romance. She just spiced it up in the beginning and good for her. It worked.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I get why people are up in arms about the book and burning their bras all over town (or at least they were; how quickly we forget…). There are issues for people with the whole men enforcing their will and power over women, yada yada (not to trivialise the issue but there is no point banging on about it too much here as we all know the details).
Anyway, I get why it freaked the hell out of people. I also think they were over reacting. Anastasia was not a weak character. Yes, she loved Christian Grey. Yes, she did some things she previously hadn’t considered being into because she loved him. BUT she did also have the opportunity to not do those things and in fact, they did stop doing them for quite some time because she didn’t want to. He didn’t leave her. He still loved her. They worked their shit out.
Point being, it is only negative if someone is being made to do something they have said they don’t want to do. Like this:
“Honey, I want to tie you up and spank you”.
“No thanks”.
“Too bad I’m going to do it anyway, bitch”.
See that? That’s bad. That’s not what happened in this book.
Anastasia was pretty strong and feisty, truth be told, and by book 3 Christian was such a lovesick sap it was almost pathetic which makes for quite a different story than most people would lead you to believe about these books.
So tell me, did you read the 50 Shades series? What do you think about my thoughts?
