A month ago, I witnessed the new hype about this book which
talked about BDSM communities. So, I decided to give it a try. So I read
the first two books… “Fifty Shades Of Grey” and “Fifty Shades Darker”
by E. L. James. Here is what I felt while reading it.
With the latest hype about the book describing the kinky aspects of
the bedroom, I decided to try the FS series, as the subject caught my
attention. With what started off as a seemingly romance novel, I was
introduced with the world of a 21 year old undergraduate Anastasia Steel
who’s too beautiful, but too “innocent” and the 27 year old
disturbed(or so the book tries to portray), excessively handsome and
excessively wealthy Christian Grey, and their falling in love(and sex)
despite their dissimilar sexual tastes.
Towards the end of the book my soaring interests and expectations
were betrayed but I was hooked enough to go through the second book too
which turned out to be an even bigger disappointment. Needless to say,
it surely is entertaining, but for those looking to get a good
quality-read or those who are already familiar with the genre, the book
might come as a disappointment.
1. It makes the BDSM community look like sadists and psychologically disturbed.
The book’s main protagonist Grey is the one with the kinky interests
who introduces it to his too “innocent” to be true lady love Miss Steel,
which is a revelation to her. The problem here is not that after
discovering his unique tastes she assumes him to be disturbed, but the
problem is he actually has been shown to be disturbed, specifically by
his history of abuse and his phobia of being touched. So those not
familiar with BDSM might assume the same, which is actually far from the
truth. Esp. in the end of the first book, Grey is shown to have deeply
sadistic needs, which may add to the unfair treatment of the genre
because though Sadism is included in BDSM, not all BDSMers are as
sadistic or abusive as Grey. Not all BDSMers are disturbed or need
psychiatric help. In fact it is a proven fact that BDSMers on an average
have higher IQs than non-BDSMers.
2. The book gets repetitive after some time.
The book does not go beyond portraying more than 2-3 styles of
practicing BDSM into the bedroom(or as shown in the book, mandatorily in
a “play room”). BDSM is a very varied and vast genre in which many
styles can be accommodated. It includes role play, training, denial,
etc. but the book rarely tries to try something new. Though the second
book does try to experiment with new ways of practicing BDSM, it
eventually gets more soft(or should I say “Vanilla”) than the first one.
In fact the erotic writing got so ho-hum that I had lost all interest
in reading the third part.
3. It is not smartly written
With all the jargon about the “contract”, which self-contradictorily
is made irrelevant in the second book, the book seems to be childishly
written. It gets so silly that I started thinking that the writer is
trying to increase the word-count by just blabbering about irrelevant
things. In fact, the most funny, boring after a point and even
irritating after a later point is the mention of the “Inner Goddess” and
more so the personification of it . The logic of the whole concept
completely escapes me.
4. It borrows heavily from Twilight
Though this can’t be considered to be a relevant negative point, but
for readers, who are twi-hards, this book will come as an unsatisfactory
side version of “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. Though the book
originated as a fan fiction for Twilight, there is a difference between
writing for online fan-fiction and writing for an internationally
published book-trilogy. There are many similarities between the two,
like the low self-worth of the lead protagonists(like Bella and Ana
thinking they are not good enough for the glorious men), similar family
backround of the main characters, etc. This made me wonder if the writer
eventually gave any serious thought about “original” writing.
The FS series might work well for those who seek erotic
entertainment, but otherwise, it does little to the readers, weather a
BDSMer or non-BDSMer.
