Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James



Harold Robbins meets Stephanie Meyers---that's what I thought of E.L. James' novel Fifty Shades of Grey.  

Harold Robbins' book The Pirate gave me my first experience in terms of erotic novels but that book pales in comparison to what E.L. James had in her novel.  

Originally an offshoot of a Twilight fan fiction story that James wrote, the relationship between Anastacia Steele and Christian Grey is unmistakably Twilight-ish in intensity.  But instead of the supernatural nature of Twilight's romance between a vampire and a human, James' book dwells on the relationship between a Dominant and a reluctant Submissive.  It's a BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism) book all the way.

The topic of BDSM is not mainstream; hence, the book received mixed reviews.  It becomes a commercial success nonetheless and surpasses Harry Potter as the fastest selling paperback of all time.

Personally I'm happy for E.L. James (Erica Leonard in real life) but I'm rather disturbed that many of the book's followers are teenage girls.  In my opinion, this book should only be made available to mature readers and not openly sold to the public.  It may be reminiscent of Twilight but it's borderline PORN.  It's like promoting BDSM among our youth.  Something I do not subscribe to.

My 20 year old daughter asked me to buy her a copy and I oblige not having read it yet, but after 22 chapters I'm having my regrets.  

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