Shades of Gray - 5 reasons for success
If you want to read a book, you should not buy "Shades of Gray". The colleague Angela Wittmann has already stated in July in the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: "Just shit." Querlesen is enough. More than 20 adjectives seems to be the vocabulary of the author E.L. Not to include James. Sentences repeat themselves in the same way. The plot of the first part "Secret Desire" develops more slowly than most people get an orgasm. Erotic? Turgid.
So. And why, damn, were there already more than 1.3 million books sold in Germany at the beginning of August? There must be reasons! We searched the 608 pages of the first part? and found five.
The Harry Potter effect
This reason always starts with "actually". Actually, we know very well that when reading some books, the inner and / or middle maturity should be denied us. "Actually, I do not like fantasy books ..." - and still ordered every Harry Potter band on Amazon. "Sure, vampires are actually for teenies, but ..." - "Twilight" you have to read anyway.
Our social life has kindly found a construct to make the trash socially acceptable. It starts at the moment when "everyone" talks about it. The chief chef after a meeting. The (actually stupid) Facebook acquaintances from school times. "And how do you like 'Shades of Gray'?" Since we would rather have something to say than nothing, we do not go around the paperback in the station bookstore quite so far. The days when the "Shades of Gray" sold out as an e-book due to agony are over. Because the reading is just since the publication of the first volume in German justified with a quasi-scientific interest. What's wrong with the dime novel? With every new buyer, at least two other people feel compelled to say something about Mr Gray. 1.5 million print run = mathematics.
He is such an a **** hole!
The ambivalent relationship between women and assholes is not new. It is estimated that several thousand examples from soft cultural history can be used to substantiate this thesis. For example, we have Mr Darcy provoking Elizabeth's love-hate relationship with his rude arrogance. Mr. Big, of course - how can you just let Carry Bradshaw down? Or the top-man Marc Meier, who jumps in "Doctor's Diary" with Gretchen Hase, as if she is a lethargic 14-year-old.
Women can be as beautiful, as smart and prudent, emotionally capable and superior as they want to be - but many can be irritated by attractive, rich, self-confident men. Unfortunately! "Shades of" - Christian Gray has been so flattened by the author in this role that he appears as a new star in the sky of assholes. Not rich, very rich. Not nice, beautiful. Not conceited, arrogant as hell. Cold, jealous, a control freak. On the one hand we read thanks to Christian Gray - "Sir"! - how well female macho reflexes work. On the other hand, the (unbelievably) innocent Ana saves us from hating ourselves for the admiration of such punkies. Because despite all the evil she remains faithful to at least a part of herself and can not just like everything. But we will not thank her for that now. We would rather forego in real life, the next time by mistake an asshole adore.
The X-factor
Yes, it actually takes until the third reason to come to terms with what is commonly talked about first when it comes to "shades of gray": sex. The trilogy was called "Mommy Porn". We do not believe that the - quite flat - eroticism of the books only interests mothers. Most women like sex. And if they find a reasonable reason to leaf through a muggy giddy novel despite being graduated from high school (see Reason 1), they might do it with more enjoyment than they publicly admit. The sex in "Shades of Gray" is not described as sexy - but hot. In some passages one wants to drag the man from the book into his own bed, alone, because he knows how to satisfy a woman. Which woman is actually coming EVERY time? Let alone six times? Hot kisses in the elevator, blindfolded, interacting with the desk ... Yes, of course, clichés, clichés, clichés. But why should not they excite? So much more imaginative than male sex dreams are often not. At least not all. One girlfriend finds it hot when she is examined by a well-trained senior physician. The other one is about sex in the backyard. The next one wants to be tied up. Yes and? You do not always want to win a prize for the greatest possible creativity. That's why the "Shades of Gray" work. Because sex can be fun without imagination.
The first time
Let's continue right now.So average is the sex of Ana and Christian just not. "Another first", as it so often is called in the original version of the book, so for a first time, has been for many readers the description of the "Shade of Gray" sort of sex. Allegedly BDSM, in fact something half cooked in that direction. Sex is always a border crossing, just between bodies. The more boundaries that are crossed without shame, the more intimate and captivating it can be in bed or anywhere else. At "Shades of Gray", we can not only look into a bedroom behind makeshift hands, but also into a torture chamber. This can cause fear or pleasure, in any case, it already exceeds limits when reading. There are rows of such soft-core books on cheap paper. A mix of coincidence and marketing has put us but the mass seller "Shades of Gray" on our bedside table. Usually we do not consume such porn, that's why this sex irritates us, it's alien. Do we want that too? In real or just dreamed? Either way, we start thinking about the sex we want - no matter how many times and openly we've done it. That alone is enough to not put the book on the waste paper pile after fifty pages despite the minimal literary quality. And in the best case even makes more of the next orgasm.
In the end everything will be ...
Well? Intellectually challenging but clearly E.L. James divided the world into "good desire" and "evil". So far we can follow with only half a brain cell. The "50 Shades of Gray" between black and white do not appear in the so-called book. Of course, Ms. James also knows that goodness has to win over evil. It does so well in the first part, again and again, the lovely Ana manages to pull the evil Christian on the side of the light. Only, stupid and well-tried trick, which has already dredged a weekend in front of the television on the stupidest series: How is it now? The cliffhanger in part one is so dull that our sanity refuses to pursue the fate of Ana and Christian. But even a bad story needs an end. The second part of the trilogy should be even weaker than the first. We are afraid we will read it. We hereby apologize for any books that would be worth reading.
Join in the conversation - here you can discuss "Shades of Gray" in our community.
