Fifty Shades - "We Deserve Better"

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Some people get turned on by the very idea of sex, I think...even very "tame" scenes (not sure how BDSM is tame, but I have yet to read these books).

i understand, but he was always the type of person who brags about his sexual exploits, which were far from tame ;p

but i wonder if there isn't a positive outcome from 50's popularity in the whole scheme of things

[ProfCrash]

Trust me, there is tame BDSM. There are some folks who think using a blindfold is kinky BDSM and others who think that some type of wussy restraint is BDSM. The stuff I like to read goes well beyond that.

Then there is bondage just for sex, which is boring, and BDSM that involves little bondage but is based more on psychological factors, which is really interesting. I actually read and entire erotica novel where the vast majority of sex was based on psychological factors and it was not until the end that any type of bondage was involved. The book could have safely made it without that last chapter or two but I rather liked them...

[applesauce]

this is very very tame BDSM. A little spank bot bot and tie up and do nice things. Yawn in a word. Erotic to me is more Anne Rice writting as herself. Her walk into BDSM under other names beyond lame tho.

applesauce

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

The success of books like this simply demonstrate that success has as much--and often more--to do with popularity than quality. Its link to the Twilight books was all the PR push it needed to make it big.

If I, or my works, could somehow become strongly linked to the reading preferences of a famous media personality, movie producer (even better) or model/singer/starlet sex scandal (best yet!), they'd probably fly off the digital shelves too.

And hopefully be better spoken of.

[Fbone]

Many years ago a co-worker gave me a book written by Beatrice Small claiming it was "historical fiction." I gave it a try since we shared books ... ...

She was in hysterics when I handed it back to her the next day with my face beet red.

[Joykins]

Yeah, Bertrice Small--still not tame by today's standards.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

The success of books like this simply demonstrate that success has as much--and often more--to do with popularity than quality.

If by "success" you mean sales, then it has 100% to do with popularity.
(OK, I guess one rich admirer could buy a million copies for himself, but that's more like patronage...and very unlikely.)

The question is why is or isn't it popular? Is it popular because it's great and anyone who happens to read it tells 100 friends how wonderful it is?

Or is it hooked, as you say, to another popular phenomenon, and gets curiosity or fan-loyalty sales, regardless of the content?

If it is NOT successful, is it because no on has heard of it--bad distribution and marketing? No buzz?
Or does it just suck, and anyone who reads it warns 100 friends not waste their time and money?

By the way, while popularity does not equal quality, it is often a good sign.
I think in most cases, if someone has written what they think is a 'high quality' book that no one likes, they may need to reconsider what 'quality' means.

Similarly, those that bash writers like Stephen King or JK Rowling or ...um...whoever wrote Twilight as low quality also may want to reevaluate the meaning of the word, that is if they can get their noses out of the air and come down off their pedestals long enough.....

In other words, if a novel speaks to so many people that they spend enough to make it "successful", if they sing it's praises to their friends, and want to buy and read the author's next book, then those self-stylized Nobel Prize Panel wannabes who say "Oh the writing is so low quality....." need to accept that they have missed the point of novels by defining "quality" as some very narrow set of academic or personal preferences.

There are exceptions of course. Like the vast majority of the poll respondents in this thread, I have not read 50 Shades, and yet here I am contributing to the buzz, perhaps prompting folks to go get to see what all the talk is about. So yes, 50 Shades might be selling with nothing more in it's favor than hype and buzz. But I bet most popular books have more going for them than just that.

ApK

[QuantumIguana]

Popular books are popular. A book might not be great literature, but if it is selling, the author must have done something right.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

...the author must have done something right.

Yes, marketing.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Popular books are popular. A book might not be great literature, but if it is selling, the author must have done something right.

Often, that "something" is getting a good seat on the bandwagon. Though, it must be said that there have been perfectly good books that were not accepted by publishers, due to a perceived lack of a market; then, when someone else's book made it big, the publishers, in their scramble to make that bandwagon, remembered the book they passed on not long ago... and made some quick phone calls.

How many vampire and zombie books sat around, waiting for the recent resurgence of those genres to be picked up the second time around? I'd bet the number is huge.

[xg4bx]

i wonder how many women reading the book would slap your face off for suggesting that you give some of the things in the book a try for real?

'i wanna tie you up and.....' SLAP!

from the sounds of this book it reminds me a lot of the movie Secretary-

'Lee Holloway is a smart, quirky woman in her twenties who returns to her hometown in Florida after a brief stay in a mental hospital. In search of relief from herself and her oppressive childhood environment, she starts to date a nerdy friend from high school and takes a job as a secretary in a local law firm, soon developing an obsessive crush on her older boss, Mr. Grey. Through their increasingly bizarre relationship, Lee follows her deepest longings to the heights of masochism and finally to a place of self-affirmation.'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274812/

(its actually a pretty sexy movie lol. its kind of a dark comedy)

[Rizla]

I know three women who read the books and all enjoyed them. They must have some appeal. It is not simply marketing.

I still know people who have not read Harry Potter because they have an elevated opinion of themselves. Are we seeing the same phenomena here?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I know three women who read the books and all enjoyed them. They must have some appeal. It is not simply marketing.

I still know people who have not read Harry Potter because they have an elevated opinion of themselves. Are we seeing the same phenomena here?

I read the first (and fifth, I think) books in the Potter series... and I was bored to tears. I'm not into Vampires, so I have no interest in reading 50 Shades, any more than I wanted to read the Twilight books. Whoever they appeal to, they just don't appeal to me.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I read the first (and fifth, I think) books in the Potter series... and I was bored to tears. I'm not into Vampires, so I have no interest in reading 50 Shades, any more than I wanted to read the Twilight books. Whoever they appeal to, they just don't appeal to me.

I read the first Harry Potter and didn't especially like or dislike it, but I had no desire to read more of them. My wife enjoyed them all. I did like the movies, so I would occasionally go back and read particular scenes in the books to compare them to the movies.

I don't think there are any vampires or anything paranormal in 50 Shades, is there? It's just uses some names and settings from Twilight, or so I'm told.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ApK

I read the first Harry Potter and didn't especially like or dislike it, but I had no desire to read more of them. My wife enjoyed them all. I did like the movies, so I would occasionally go back and read particular scenes in the books to compare them to the movies.

I don't think there are any vampires or anything paranormal in 50 Shades, is there? It's just uses some names and settings from Twilight, or so I'm told.

No vampires. All twilight stuff has been removed from the story. It's not paranormal in anyway.

I will always love Harry Potter. It was the first fiction books I ever got my husband to read and we read them together out loud. We enjoyed the movies too but the books are better IMO.

My husband thinks reading fiction is a waste of time. He rather watch his Bonanza and TV land reruns.