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Fifty Shades of Grey - Have we discussed this and I missed it ?

edited June 2012 in - Reading
Seems I have had downloaded onto my Kindle for a number of weeks now "Mummy Porn" and it has shocked me, for a few minutes anyway.
After all I am not only a mummy but a Grand mummy too ! I'd never heard of this genre of fiction until reading a BBC online article by Will Gompertz. Have to say I 'd never heard of him either until yesterday.
So, what is this pornographic material that I have not only downloaded but paid for as well ?
It's Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James.

What do you think ? Have you read it ? Is it "porn" ? Is it a good read ? Is it even well written ?

I've blogged about it at
http://wwwrite-place.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/i-have-mummy-porn-on-my-kindle.html

Discussion welcome, here or/and there !
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Comments

  • Lots of discussion on this recently, under the 'What were you doing just then?' thread. :)
  • edited June 2012
    Sally Quilford has done some very amusing reviews of it on her blog here http://quillersplace.wordpress.com/blog/ (EDIT: that I now see Carol has already posted on the other thread anyway)

    Can't say it's the sort of thing I would read - I'm not really interested in erotica and I usually like my books at least reasonably well written (with the exception of the occasional thriller-type book which I will forgive if the story is good enough)
  • I think you can ignore the claims of it being erotic in book one, but I've heard two and three have a lot of bonking...
  • We can haz Mummy Porn.

    Let's do the LOL CATS version.

    We can haz Pussy Porn.

    Whoops! (Maybe not!) :)
  • edited June 2012
    None of this seems my cup of tea at all.

    *Exits to browse top shelf at newsagents.*
  • edited June 2012
    I do like erotica but couldn't get into this book at all. The writing isn't very good and going by the first sex scene, neither is the erotic element but James is obviously got something right. Most of the females I've worked with, love it. I gave up after the first sex scene.
    I found Sally's blog, that Heather mentions, far more enjoyable than the book.
  • In the past week the most repeated phrase I've heard re FSOG is 'everyone's talking about it on Facebook' and it seems to be they don't want to be excluded from the conversation.

    And how many of them actually have any idea of actual BDSM practises? I certainly don't, but even fluffy pink handcuffs doesn't appeal.

    In fact the most frequent term I've heard in relation to the sex in the books is 'vanilla' and I had to Google it to find out exactly what it meant...
  • I am extremely happy to say none of my friends are talking about it on Facebook.
  • Some of my female friends on facebook are talking about it, and a few male friends are beginning to wonder what it is all about.
  • Tell them they're not missing much...:)
  • I have. Some of them think "the women are hiding something." lol
  • eh... the beeb article made me choke on my cornflakes the other day, but PBW your LOL CATS version had me in stitches.
    Mummy Porn dear me .. anyone would think it was something new. Anne Rice's take on Sleeping Beauty is preferable if one must read such.
    (I have many a mummy on facebook discussing it... )
  • [quote=Carol]I think you can ignore the claims of it being erotic in book one[/quote]

    Really? It's very steamy indeed!

    I have to say that EVERYONE I know is talking about this book, either reading it, read it or just about to read it. My eyes have been opened to a different world; I think it's fascinating. It lead me on to a wikipedia trail that had my eyes popping out of my head!

    It is written in a clunky way but I think the emotional side is very well done. It's extremely explicit with every detail described intimately. I have read the first book and will shortly be downloading the other two, as I want to see whether Anastacia manages to convince Christian to have a normal relationship and come to terms with the traumas of his past.

    I've never known a book so much talked about or widely read - that's an amazing achievement in itself. It would not have been possible before the iPod, iPad and Kindle.
  • Gives a whole new meaning to purple prose...
  • Haven't read it, but I would say it has never been hard to sell sex and quality has never been a priority, just as long as you don't leave the audience empty-handed, as it were.

    Come to think of it, reading porn on an ereader should be less hazardous than print - no chance of the pages getting stuck together.
  • FT is quite right. Sex sells. Always has. Always will.

    And thankfully I don't do erotica/romance/shmaltz-porn/mommy-porn or any other badly written tosh/porn. So I'm safe.
  • edited June 2012
    Have just popped over to Sally quilford's blog and Sally's view, this:


    I don’t personally think this book is about female liberation through sex. It’s about a girl with no self-esteem who’s willing to do practically anything to hold onto her boyfriend, because she truly believes that he’s her only chance to be happy


    means I definitely won't be reading it. Sounds like a load of crap to me and that's putting it mildly.





    Edited to say: This also from Sally:

    Odd times I’ve really wondered if the sex was written by someone who’d never actually had sex.

    Makes me wonder if this James person is actually really simply nowt but a thirteen year old boy and you've all been fooled. Lol.
  • I think we have to remember the story was originally Twilight fanfiction- so the characters have been renamed and other adjustments to make it different.
  • [quote=dora]It’s about a girl with no self-esteem who’s willing to do practically anything to hold onto her boyfriend, because she truly believes that he’s her only chance to be happy[/quote]

    I wouldn't say Anastasia has no self esteem; she's quite sparky. And she was happy anyway, just hadn't found the right person. She doesn't want to fall for him but she does. I can't believe I'm defending this book! The sex scenes were pretty convincing. I'd say the writer has had to have been involved in that scene to give that amount of detail. That's what makes it fascinating to me; the way that people's minds work and why they are attracted to different things (remember that woman who married the Eiffel Tower the other year?).

    [quote=Red]So I'm safe. [/quote]

    Safe from what?
  • I read the first four chapters and I got the distinct impression of Christian as a stalker- he was luring Ana in but he was a great big cat with sharp claws hiding behind the guise of being a harmless tabby, and she was the young mouse who shouldn't have been let out alone...
  • It is a bit like that at the start, but he falls under her spell as he is desperate for her to enter his world.
  • If the book had had a decent editing applied it might have worked for me, but there were so many things wrong in those four chapters that set my editing buzzer off, I just wouldn't buy it.
  • Yes, it could definitely have done with some major improvements! A guilty pleasure (I have already downloaded book 2)!
  • [quote=Carol]I think we have to remember the story was originally Twilight fanfiction- so the characters have been renamed and other adjustments to make it different.[/quote]

    That's the thing, and it's giving a bad name to fanfiction writers, because I read and write fanfiction (It's what I've been doing in my spare time to keep writing) and there are some excellent writers of fanfiction which make you question how they haven't written something new that would get published in a heartbeat.

    Also, there are some really good stories out there, with sexual scenes written in them out there, much better than from what I've read of 50 shades. Some fanfictions are better than the scriptwriters of some of the shows I watch, so really this is just tainting the reputation fanfiction has and I don't like it.
  • [quote=Pixie J]That's the thing, and it's giving a bad name to fanfiction writers, because I read and write fanfiction (It's what I've been doing in my spare time to keep writing) and there are some excellent writers of fanfiction which make you question how they haven't written something new that would get published in a heartbeat.Also, there are some really good stories out there, with sexual scenes written in them out there, much better than from what I've read of 50 shades. Some fanfictions are better than the scriptwriters of some of the shows I watch, so really this is just tainting the reputation fanfiction has and I don't like it.
    [/quote]

    Agree completely, Pixie.
    I have two friends at the writers club who do a lot of it, and the standards are very high in the UK written stuff.
  • edited June 2012
    [quote= Pixie J]That's the thing, and it's giving a bad name to fanfiction writers, because I read and write fanfiction (It's what I've been doing in my spare time to keep writing) and there are some excellent writers of fanfiction which make you question how they haven't written something new that would get published in a heartbeat.

    Also, there are some really good stories out there, with sexual scenes written in them out there, much better than from what I've read of 50 shades. Some fanfictions are better than the scriptwriters of some of the shows I watch, so really this is just tainting the reputation fanfiction has and I don't like it.[/quote]

    The first story I wrote four years ago was a fanfiction, (a Doctor Who story) and I did begin a follow up to it, but got no further than four chapters in before I began writing my own original stories, but I would like to finish the follow up at some point. There is definitely no sex in my stories, either fanfiction or original, and never will be, as like others here it is just not my thing.
  • This is my two-pennyworth.

    http://fiona-maddock.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/fifty-shades-of-bonkbuster.html

    I can understand why it is successful, and then I read the comments by you guys, and I can't understand it. In any case, I've just bought myself Anne Rice's The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy to cheer myself up. At least I know I will get the quality of writing. Add exquisite writing to sexy bits and it should be a really good read. :) (with no "holy crap" in it).
  • edited June 2012
    I've written quite a bit of fanfiction, some of it better than others, some more explicit than others but it's practice for when I can't really get my head round my own characters. I really must stop with the inter-species sex though it gets a bit messy, what with fangs and wings and tails and things.

    As for 50 shades, got halfway through the second page and gave up.
  • That far/little... ;)
  • edited June 2012
    PBW ... Anne Rice - it's not anything like 50 Shades.
    She writes goth/vampire/werewolf for a reason.

    Fan-fict can help develop writing characters/vocab. Though like you Neph.. the teeth/fur...and such can get messy >:)
  • [quote=Lou Treleaven] I can't believe I'm defending this book![/quote]


    Neither can I.

    I haven't read it, but after reading Sally Q's blog post (today I think it is) I'm definitely not interested in reading about some bloke who has been abused in a previous life and takes what he has learnt from that experience forward to use others. She also describes one "sex" scene which to me does seem as if the person who wrote it is clueless.
  • [quote=SilverLinings] Anne Rice - it's not anything like 50 Shades.
    She writes goth/vampire/werewolf for a reason.[/quote]

    That will be another I won't be reading then. Aside from the original Dracula, and the related Dracula "B" movies from the 1930s-50s, anything of the modern ilk in vampires does nothing for me. Any book/film/tv programme of the Buffy/Angel type of thing, is automatically ignored by me. I appreciate that many people do like them, but I just can't get into them at all. As for werewolves, I don't so much mind those, indeed there have been some good stories of them, particularly in recent years in Doctor Who and Harry Potter.
  • [quote=Neph]I really must stop with the inter-species sex though it gets a bit messy, what with fangs and wings and tails and things.[/quote]

    Perhaps just leave it to your characters, Neph! ;)
  • [quote=SilverLinings]PBW ... Anne Rice - it's not anything like 50 Shades.
    She writes goth/vampire/werewolf for a reason.
    [/quote]

    Yes, indeed. Don't worry, I'm a huge fan of Anne Rice. The Sleeping Beauty series - in the blurb it says it's her erotica, written under her pen name of A.N. Roquelaure.
    I read her Interview With A Vampire series a few years ago, and I must read them again. Lestat captured my heart (so to speak).
  • Oh, I didn't know she wrote erotica. I also enjoyed the Vampire series.
  • Quite a lot of the top ten kindle paid and unpaid books are erotica at the moment.
  • [quote=JohnWho63]There is definitely no sex in my stories, either fanfiction or original, and never will be, as like others here it is just not my thing.[/quote]

    There's not in mine John, and I doubt there will be. I might suggest it or allude to it, but actually write it? Nah, I can't do that. I've read stories with it done tastefully but otherwise it's not in mine.

    I do like writing fanfiction though. It's a nice break from everything. Yeah, it's probably taking a step back in terms of progressing but at least I can practice writing romantic stuff I wouldn't normally write.
  • [quote=JohnWho63]anything of the modern ilk in vampires does nothing for me. [/quote]

    You ever watched 'Daybreakers' or the German vampire flick, 'We Are the Night' John?
  • edited June 2012
    [quote= Pixie J]I do like writing fanfiction though. It's a nice break from everything. Yeah, it's probably taking a step back in terms of progressing but at least I can practice writing romantic stuff I wouldn't normally write.[/quote]

    I would like to write more fanfiction, as I think it is good practice anyway, and I really enjoyed doing the first one. I intended it to be a short story at the outset, but it ended up a tad over 30,000 words long.
  • [quote=Carol]If the book had had a decent editing applied it might have worked for me, but there were so many things wrong in those four chapters that set my editing buzzer off, I just wouldn't buy it.[/quote]

    Couldn't put it better myself. Can turn a blind eye to some shoddy editing but this book takes the biscuit. As for the sex scenes, I read till the first one and thought, what a bore. I've been told it gets better but the bad writing, the wishy washy characters, just put me off.
  • I did my voluntary stint at the library today and not one person borrowed it, despite it being in a prominent postion with the cover facing outwards and in a line with its brother and sister.
  • [quote=Lou Treleaven]Perhaps just leave it to your characters, Neph! [/quote]

    I do, although a couple of them manage to get themselves into some interesting positions that might be fun.
  • [quote=Lou Treleaven]Red wrote: So I'm safe. [/quote]
    [quote=Lou Treleaven]Safe from what? [/quote]

    Erotica/romancey stuff. Really not my thing.
  • [quote=Tiny Nell]I did my voluntary stint at the library today and not one person borrowed it, despite it being in a prominent postion with the cover facing outwards and in a line with its brother and sister. [/quote]

    I reckon they were too embarrassed!
  • do you think that mabe this book will finally make me like my kindle...???
  • If 50 Shades was the only book you could download onto Kindle, I would put the hammer through it.
  • I started reading this last night , so far there is a lot of gathering up of satchells going on.
    I used to have a satchell for school :)
  • I'm enjoying book 2... quite restrained so far. But I'm sure that will change. The quality of the writing is better (less 'holy crap!'s).
  • The men in my office are trying to buy it on Amazon under the premise it's for the 'wife'...LMAO!
  • I'm trying to convince my boyfriend to let me tie him up but he's having none of it. He says he likes being in control. Total Christian Grey! haha. Without the abuse....
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