50 Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Christian Grey. 

People on twitter have posted musings about how awesome or atrocious, lame it is. Clearly, this trilogy have generated so much buzz that in an unprecedented event in the publishing world, it has been digitally published first before the presses have churned on millions of paper copies. 

Its critics say it doesn't warrant literally praise or non-praise because it's just a fan fiction. That it is badly written. And that it is just but mommy-porn. 

Intrigued, I sought out a copy. In a twist of fate, I got a hold of its paperback edition. Ironic, eh? I read it with trepidation. I didn't like to jump on the bandwagon. And I also don't like to get started because from experience I've never put down a book, unfinished. I have a stubborn streak in my body. I read, no matter how badly it appeals to me, if I had already started. I think I adhere to the notion that I shouldn't be a quitter... in reading. Hahaha.

The first in the trilogy that made me lose so much sleep.

Nica, a colleague and a friend, told me that she had a copy of all three. I asked if I could borrow. The rest is as they say history, written all over my dark-ringed under eye.

I think the pull of the book(s) is not just on its superfluous employ of erotic scenes. What it lacks in literary style, makes up for the author's vivid use of words that painted out of this world description of its male protagonist, Christian Grey. 

A hopeless romantic, spinster or otherwise, would surely pine for a man like him. Almost perfect in its description whose only fault is the desire to deeply care and lavish his woman with desirable material things, ordinary beings are just wont to imagine and have them in their fantasy. Never mind that he is extremely good looking, too with a penchant for sexual adventures not accepted in the "normal" world. 

It has a lot of parallelisms to the Twilight saga. Given that its premise spawned from the fan base of the saga, there's no surprise there. 

But what makes it more exciting than Twilight is its ability to engage a wide-range of readers because for one all characters are human or as human, as one could get. Secondly, the readership centers on the upwardly mobile young professionals who enjoy the perks of being young with earning potential beyond the average person. 

In my love affair with the written word, I have not been selective with my reading. I'd devour anything printed, recommended or otherwise. As long as it's available, am game. Hence, my genre, I think is broader. 

I've read the likes of Mills and Boon, Harlequin when I was but a young girl. The stories written there are more provocative back then. Shocking and scandalous. The male leads were depicted as the Adonis's of the mortal world. In fact, Fabio as a perpetual paperback cover had attained a status unto itself. 

So, I'd say the E L James trilogy isn't really something new that should shock the sternest aunt or the extremely shy maiden. What it offers is a fresh take into what the modern world consider as shocking and delectably provocative. 

Cheesy, yes. Beneath the veneer of sophistication, women like their cheese. Especially, if it's served on a silver platter.