Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty
Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author
E.
L. James.[1] It became the first instalment in the Fifty Shades novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college
graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It is
notable for its explicitly erotic
scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving BDSM (bondage/discipline,
dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism). Originally self-published as an ebook
and print-on-demand
in June 2011, the publishing rights to the novel were acquired by Vintage
Books in March 2012.
Fifty
Shades of Grey has topped best-seller
lists around the world, selling over 125
million copies worldwide by June 2015[citation needed]. It has
been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as
the fastest-selling paperback of all time. Critical reception of the book,
however, has tended towards the negative, with the quality of its prose
generally seen as poor, while its portrayal of BDSM has been targeted for
criticism from a variety of perspectives. Universal Pictures
and Focus Features
produced an American film adaptation, which was released on 13 February 2015,[2]
and also received unfavourable reviews even though it was a box office success.
The
second and third volumes of the original trilogy,
Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, were published in 2012. A version of the novel from
Christian's point of view, Grey:
Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian,
was published in June 2015 as the fourth book. Darker:
Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian,
published in November 2017, is the fifth book in the series.
Plot
Anastasia
"Ana" Steele is a 21-year-old college senior attending Washington State
University in Vancouver, Washington. Her best friend is Katherine "Kate" Kavanagh,
who writes for the college newspaper. Due to an illness, Kate is unable to
interview 27-year-old Christian Grey, a successful and wealthy Seattle entrepreneur, and asks Ana to take her place. Ana finds
Christian attractive as well as intimidating. As a result, she stumbles through
the interview and leaves Christian's office believing it went poorly. Ana does
not expect to meet Christian again, but he appears at the hardware store where
she works. While he purchases various items including cable ties, masking tape,
and rope, Ana informs Christian that Kate would like some photographs to
illustrate her article about him. Christian gives Ana his phone number. Later,
Kate urges Ana to call Christian and arrange a photo shoot with their
photographer friend, José Rodriguez.
The
next day José, Kate, and Ana arrive for the photo shoot at the Heathman
Hotel, where Christian is staying.
Christian asks Ana out for coffee and asks if she is dating anyone,
specifically José. Ana replies that she is not dating anyone. During the
conversation, Ana learns that Christian is also single, but he says he is not
romantic. Ana is intrigued, but believes she is not attractive enough for
Christian. Later, Ana receives a package from Christian containing first
edition copies of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which stuns her. Later that night, Ana goes out drinking
with her friends and ends up drunk
dialing Christian, who informs her that he
will be coming to pick her up because of her inebriated state. Ana goes outside
to get some fresh air, and José attempts to kiss her, but he is stopped by
Christian's arrival. Ana leaves with Christian, but not before she discovers
that Kate has been flirting with Christian's brother, Elliot. Later, Ana wakes
to find herself in Christian's hotel room, where he scolds her for not taking
proper care of herself. Christian then reveals that he would like to have sex
with her. He initially says that Ana will first have to fill in paperwork, but
later goes back on this statement after making out with her in the elevator.
Ana
goes on a date with Christian, on which he takes her in his helicopter, Charlie
Tango, to his apartment. Once there, Christian insists that she sign a non-disclosure agreement forbidding her from discussing anything they do together,
which Ana agrees to sign. He also mentions other paperwork, but first takes her
to his playroom full of BDSM
toys and gear. There, Christian informs her that the second contract will be
one of dominance and submission, and there will be no romantic relationship, only a sexual
one. The contract even forbids Ana from touching Christian or making eye contact
with him. At this point, Christian realises that Ana is a virgin and takes her virginity without making her sign the
contract. The following morning, Ana and Christian again have sex. His mother
arrives moments after their sexual encounter and is surprised by the meeting,
having previously thought Christian was homosexual, because he was never seen with a woman. Christian later
takes Ana out to eat, and he reveals that he lost his virginity at age 15 to
one of his mother's friends, Elena Lincoln, and that his previous
dominant/submissive relationships failed due to incompatibility. Christian also
reveals that in his first dominant/submissive relationship he was the
submissive. Christian and Ana plan to meet again, and he takes Ana home, where
she discovers several job offers and admits to Kate that she and Christian had
sex.
Over
the next few days, Ana receives several packages from Christian. These include
a laptop to enable her to research the BDSM lifestyle in consideration of the
contract; to communicate with him, since she has never previously owned a
computer; and to receive a more detailed version of the dominant/submissive
contract. She and Christian email each other, with Ana teasing him and refusing
to honour parts of the contract, such as only eating foods from a specific
list. Ana later meets with Christian to discuss the contract and becomes
overwhelmed by the potential BDSM arrangement and the potential of having a
sexual relationship with Christian that is not romantic in nature. Because of
these feelings, Ana runs away from Christian and does not see him again until
her college graduation, where he is a guest speaker. During this time, Ana
agrees to sign the dominant/submissive contract. Ana and Christian once again
meet to further discuss the contract, and they go over Ana's hard
and soft limits. Christian spanks Ana for the first
time, and the experience leaves her both enticed and slightly confused. This
confusion is exacerbated by Christian's lavish gifts and the fact that he
brings her to meet his family. The two continue with the arrangement without
Ana's having yet signed the contract. After successfully landing a job with
Seattle Independent Publishing (SIP), Ana further bristles under the
restrictions of the non-disclosure agreement and her complex relationship with Christian.
The tension between Ana and Christian eventually comes to a head after Ana asks
Christian to punish her in order to show her how extreme a BDSM relationship
with him could be. Christian fulfils Ana's request, beating her with a belt,
and Ana realises they are incompatible. Devastated, she breaks up with
Christian and returns to the apartment she shares with Kate.
Background and publication
James in 2012
The
Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction
series originally titled Master of the Universe and published by James
episodically on fan-fiction websites under the pen name "Snowqueen's
Icedragon". The piece featured characters named after Twilight author Stephenie
Meyer's characters in Twilight, Edward
Cullen and Bella
Swan. After comments concerning the
sexual nature of the material, James removed the story and published it on her
own website, FiftyShades.com. Later she rewrote Master of the Universe
as an original piece, with the principal characters renamed Christian Grey and
Anastasia Steele and removed it from her website before publication.[3] Meyer commented on the series, saying "that's really
not my genre, not my thing... Good on her—she's doing well. That's great!"[4]
This
reworked and extended version of Master of the Universe was split into
three parts. The first, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, was released as an
e-book and a print on demand
paperback in May 2011 by The Writers' Coffee Shop, a virtual publisher based in
Australia.[5][6] The second volume, Fifty Shades Darker, was released in September 2011; and the third, Fifty Shades Freed, followed in January 2012. The Writers' Coffee Shop had a
restricted marketing budget and relied largely on book blogs for early publicity,
but sales of the novel were boosted by word-of-mouth recommendation. The book's
erotic nature and perceived demographic of its fan base as being composed
largely of married women over thirty led to the book being dubbed "Mommy
Porn" by some news agencies.[7][8] The book has also reportedly been popular among teenage
girls and college women.[8][9][10] By the release of the final volume in January 2012, news
networks in the United States had begun to report on the Fifty Shades
trilogy as an example of viral
marketing and of the rise in popularity of
female erotica, attributing its success to the discreet nature of e-reading
devices.[11] Due to the heightened interest in the series, the license
to the Fifty Shades trilogy was picked up by Vintage
Books for re-release in a new and revised
edition in April 2012.[12][13] The attention that the series has garnered has also helped
to spark a renewed interest in erotic
literature. Many other erotic works quickly
became best-sellers following Fifty Shades' success, while other popular
works, such as Anne Rice's
The Sleeping Beauty trilogy, have been reissued (this time without pseudonyms)
to meet the higher demand.[14]
On
1 August 2012, Amazon
UK announced that it had sold more copies of Fifty Shades of Grey than
it had any individual book in the Harry
Potter series, though worldwide the Harry
Potter series sold more than 450 million copies compared with Fifty
Shades of Grey's sales of 60 million copies.[15]
Reception
Fifty
Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around
the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States.[16][17] The series had sold over 125 million copies worldwide by
June 2015 and has been translated into 52 languages,[18][19] and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling
paperback of all time.[20]
Critical response
It
has received mixed to negative reviews, with most critics noting poor literary
qualities of the work. Salman
Rushdie said about the book: "I've
never read anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight
look like War and Peace."[21] Maureen Dowd
described the book in The New York Times as being written "like a Brontë devoid of talent," and said it was "dull and
poorly written."[22] Jesse Kornbluth of The Huffington Post said: "As a reading experience, Fifty Shades ...
is a sad joke, puny of plot".[23]
Princeton
professor April Alliston wrote, "Though no literary masterpiece, Fifty
Shades is more than parasitic fan fiction based on the recent Twilight
vampire series."[24] Entertainment Weekly writer Lisa
Schwarzbaum gave the book a "B+"
rating and praised it for being "in a class by itself."[25] British author Jenny
Colgan in The
Guardian wrote "It is jolly, eminently
readable and as sweet and safe as BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and
masochism) erotica can be without contravening the trade descriptions act" and also praised the book for being "more
enjoyable" than other "literary erotic books".[26] The Daily Telegraph noted that the book was "the definition of a
page-turner", noting that the book was both "troubling and
intriguing".[27] A reviewer for the Ledger-Enquirer described the book as guilty fun and escapism, and that it
"also touches on one aspect of female existence [female submission]. And
acknowledging that fact – maybe even appreciating it – shouldn't be a cause for
guilt."[28] The New Zealand Herald stated that the book "will win no prizes for its
prose" and that "there are some exceedingly awful descriptions,"
although it was also an easy read; "(If you only) can suspend your
disbelief and your desire to – if you'll pardon the expression – slap the
heroine for having so little self respect, you might enjoy it."[29] The Columbus Dispatch stated that, "Despite the clunky prose, James does
cause one to turn the page."[30] Metro News Canada wrote that "suffering through
500 pages of this heroine's inner dialogue was torturous, and not in the
intended, sexy kind of way".[31] Jessica Reaves, of the Chicago
Tribune, wrote that the "book's source
material isn't great literature", noting that the novel is "sprinkled
liberally and repeatedly with asinine phrases", and described it as
"depressing".[32]
The
book garnered some accolades. In December 2012, it won both "Popular
Fiction" and "Book of the Year" categories in the UK National Book Awards.[33][34] In that same month, Publishers
Weekly named E. L. James the 'Publishing
Person of the Year', a decision whose criticism in the LA
Times and the New York Daily News was referred to by and summarised in The Christian
Science Monitor.[35] Earlier, in April 2012, when E.
L. James was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the
World",[36] Richard Lawson of The
Atlantic Wire criticised her inclusion due to the
trilogy's fan fiction beginnings.[37]
Controversy
Fifty
Shades of Grey has attracted criticism due to its
depictions of BDSM, with some BDSM participants stating that the book confuses
the practice with abuse,
and presents it as a pathology to be overcome, as well as showing incorrect and
possibly dangerous BDSM techniques.[38][39]
Coinciding
with the release of the book and its surprising popularity, injuries related to
BDSM and sex
toy use spiked dramatically. In the
year after the novel's publishing in 2012, injuries requiring Emergency Room
visits increased by over 50% from 2010 (the year before the book was
published). This is speculated to be due to people unfamiliar with both the
proper use of these toys and the safe practice of bondage and other "kinky" sexual fetishes in attempting
to recreate what they had read.[40]
There
has also been criticism against the fact that BDSM is a part of the book.
Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati said in an early February 2015 letter,
"The story line is presented as a romance; however, the underlying theme
is that bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism are normal and pleasurable."[41] The feminist
anti-pornography organization Stop
Porn Culture called for a boycott of the movie
based on the book because of its sex scenes involving bondage and violence.[42] By contrast, Timothy Laurie and Jessica Kean argue that
"film fleshes out an otherwise legalistic concept like 'consent' into a
living, breathing, and at times, uncomfortable interpersonal experience,"
and "dramatises the dangers of unequal negotiation and the practical
complexity of identifying one's limits and having them respected."[43]
Several
critics and scientists have expressed concern that the nature of the main
couple's relationship is not BDSM
at all, but rather is characteristic of an abusive relationship. In 2013,
social scientist Professor Amy E. Bonomi published a study wherein multiple
professionals read and assessed the books for characteristics of intimate partner violence, or IPV, using the CDC's standards for emotional abuse and sexual violence. The
study found that nearly every interaction between Ana and Christian was
emotionally abusive in nature, including stalking, intimidation, and isolation.
The study group also observed pervasive sexual violence within the CDC's
definition, including Christian's use of alcohol to circumvent Ana's ability to
consent, and that Ana exhibits classic signs of an abused woman, including
constant perceived threat, stressful managing, and altered identity.[44][45]
A
second study in 2014 was conducted to examine the health of women who had read
the series, compared with a control group that had never read any part of the
novels. The results showed a correlation between having read at least the first
book and exhibiting signs of an eating
disorder, having romantic partners that were
emotionally abusive and/or engaged in stalking behavior, engaging in binge
drinking in the last month, and having 5 or
more sexual partners before age 24. The authors could not conclude whether
women already experiencing these "problems" were drawn to the series,
or if the series influenced these behaviours to occur after reading by creating
underlying context.[46] The study's lead researcher contends that the books
romanticise dangerous behaviour and "perpetuate dangerous abuse
standards."[47] The study was limited in that only women up to age 24 were
studied, and no distinction was made among the reader sample between women who
enjoyed the series and those that had a strong negative opinion of it, having
only read it out of curiosity due to the media hype or other obligation.[48]
At
the beginning of the media hype, Dr.
Drew and sexologist Logan Levkoff
discussed on The Today Show[49] whether the book perpetuated violence against women; Levkoff said that while that is an important subject, this
trilogy had nothing to do with it – this was a book about a consensual
relationship. Dr. Drew commented that the book was "horribly written"
in addition to being "disturbing" but stated that "if the book
enhances women's real-life sex lives and intimacy, so be it."[50]
Censorship
In
March 2012, branches of the public library in Brevard County, Florida, removed copies of Fifty Shades of Grey from their
shelves, with an official statement that it did not meet the selection criteria
for the library and that reviews for the book had been poor. A representative
for the library stated that it was due to the book's sexual content and that
other libraries had declined to purchase copies for their branches.[51] Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association commented that "If the only reason you don't select a
book is that you disapprove of its content, but there is demand for it, there's
a question of whether you're being fair. In a public library there is usually
very little that would prevent a book from being on the shelf if there is a
demand for the information."[51] Brevard County public libraries later made their copies
available to their patrons due to public demand.[52]
In
Macaé, Brazil, Judge Raphael Queiroz Campos ruled in January 2013
that bookstores throughout the city must either remove the series entirely from
their shelves or ensure that the books are wrapped and placed out of the reach
of minors.[53] The judge stated that he was prompted to make such an order
after seeing children reading them,[54]
basing his decision on a law stating that "magazines and publications
whose content is improper or inadequate for children and adolescents can only
be sold if sealed and with warnings regarding their content".[55]
In
February 2015, the Malaysian Home Ministry banned the Fifty Shades of Grey books shortly after
banning its film adaptation after permitting them for three years in local
bookstores, citing morality-related reasons.[56]
Media
Film adaptation
Main article: Fifty Shades of Grey (film)
A
film adaptation of the book was produced by Focus
Features,[57] Michael
De Luca Productions, and Trigger Street Productions,[58] with Universal
Pictures and Focus
Features securing the rights to the trilogy
in March 2012.[59] Universal is also the film's distributor. Charlie
Hunnam was originally cast in the role of
Christian Grey alongside Dakota
Johnson in the role of Anastasia Steele,[60][61] but Hunnam gave up the part in October 2013,[62] with Jamie
Dornan announced for the role on 23
October.[63]
The
film was released on 13 February 2015,[2]
and although popular at the box office, critical reactions were mixed to
negative.[64]
Film soundtrack
Main article: Fifty
Shades of Grey: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
E.
L. James announced the film's
soundtrack would be released on 10 February
2015.[65][66] Prior to the soundtrack's release, the first single, "Earned
It", by The
Weeknd, was released on 24 December 2014.[67] On 7 January 2015, the second single, "Love Me like You Do"
by Ellie Goulding
was released.[68] Australian singer Sia released the soundtrack's third single, "Salted
Wound", on 27 January 2015.[69]
Classical album
An
album of songs selected by E. L. James was released on 11 September 2012 by EMI
Classics under the title Fifty Shades of
Grey: The Classical Album, and reached number four on the US Billboard
classical music albums chart in October 2012.[70][71] A Seattle P-I reviewer favourably wrote that the album would appeal both
to fans of the series and to "those who have no intention of reading any
of the Grey Shades".[72]
Parodies
The
Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has inspired many parodies in print,[73][74] in film, online, and on stage. In November 2012, Universal
Studios attempted to prevent the release of Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX
Adaptation, a pornographic film based on the novel, citing copyright and
trademark infringement. Smash Pictures, the porn producer, later responded to
the lawsuit with a counterclaim that "much or all" of the Fifty
Shades material was placed in the public
domain in its original Twilight-based
form,[75] but later capitulated and stopped production of their film.[76]
In print
- Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Andrew Shaffer[77][78]
In film
- Scary Movie 5 (2013)
- Fifty Shades of Black (2016)
Online
- Parodying the fan fiction origins of Fifty Shades of Grey, Ivy league MBA students have created Erotic FinFiction, a blog containing steamy entries written in business jargon.[79]
On stage
Stage
productions include:
- 50 Shades! The Musical Parody[80]
- Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody
See also
- BDSM in culture and media
- Maestra, a 2016 novel sometimes compared to Fifty Shades of Grey
- Nine and a Half Weeks, a 1978 memoir
- Sadism and masochism in fiction
- Secretary (2002 film)
References
· Eakin, Marah. "Holy
crow! Fifty Shades Of Grey is crazy similar to its Twilight origin story". News. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
· · "Universal
Shifts '50 Shades' Release Date to February 2015". Variety. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
· · '50
Shades of Grey,' a Self-Published E-Book, Is the Future of Publishing. Lizzie Shurnick. The Daily Beast. 17 March 2012. Retrieved
8 March 2014.
· · Bestseller
Success Stories that Started Out as Self-Published Books. Ronald H. Balsom. 8 October 2013.
· · Bosman, Julie (20
March 2012). "Discreetly
Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz". The New York Times.
· · Goudreau, Jenna
(19 March 2012). "Will
Fifty Shades of Grey Make 'Mommy Porn' The Next Big Thing?". Forbes. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
·
"Fifty
Shades of Grey author EL James reveals real-life secrets to her readers".
The Belfast
Telegraph.
4 July 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
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