The Revolutionary Erotica Phenomenon That Could Change Publication and Books As We Know Them – 50 Shades Of Grey

I appreciate that I’m a little late to the “mummy-porn” party, but, as this book has sky-rocketed to the top of almost all best-seller lists around the world, I feel it’s still worth a review.

            Before I can even address 50 Shades of Grey’s redeeming or damning features, the origin of how the entire trilogy came into existence is just as interesting. E.L James developed the concept from her own Twilight fan-fiction, starring Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, and after 3 redrafts, it was published on fiftyshades.com in three parts as the 50 Shades Of Grey, Darker and Freed we know now.  After astonishing success on its independent website, 50 Shades Of Grey was published in the Kindle store and then picked up by Vintage Books and published worldwide. This “cut-out-the-middle-man” style of self-publication is fast becoming the new model of publication, due it being quicker, easier and more profitable for large publishing companies such as Vintage Books; it allows them to see the demand for the book before publication, as opposed to taking a risk on a book, or series, which may not meet demand.

However, the fatal flaw in this model is its lack of editors and editing processes. Usually, erotic fiction, like almost all other books, are subjected to years of editing before publication because editors, not writers are instrumental in turning first draft novels into great pieces of literature. This is how we get superstar editors such as Maxwell Perkins, who edited The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises and The Yearling, and is generally held responsible for the development of these books due to his close and personal relationship with the authors of these books, and the books were received with critical acclaim because of this editorial relationship. When reading 50 Shades Of Grey, it doesn’t take long for it to become apparent that it hasn’t been externally edited or developed past its original concept of Twilight fan-fiction - Christian Grey’s Edward Cullen-esque secret is that he is into bondage, domination and sado-masochism, instead of being a sparkly, vampire-boy. Similarly, Anastasia Steele’s whole demeanour and mannerisms bear a sharp resemblance to Bella Swan’s; both are very rarely positive about anything that isn’t based on looks,   usually leading to over-sexualized appearances in 50 Shades Of Grey. Taking a closer look at the actual writing and writing style of James, the defining feature of 50 Shades Of Grey is its repetition of a few, very clichéd motifs. For example, judging by the sheer amount of times James’ protagonist bites her lip, “quivers”, “shakes”, “blushes or flushes throughout the book, poor Anastasia Steele must have a pretty abnormal facial appearance, and in the same way, if Ana truly believes as many things to be “exciting”, “exquisite” or “beguiling” as E.L James lets on, she must live her life in a constant haze of amazement.  Aside from the painful repetition, the characterization of Steele and Grey is, in many ways, simply contradictory.  We are led to believe that Christian Grey finds James’ female protagonist to be quick-witted and generally fascinating however all we really see of her is a disappointingly empty, tripping over her two left feet, teenage girl stereotype, very similar to Meyer’s depiction of Bella Swan.

The plot of 50 Shades of Grey doesn’t contribute much to the actual novel; it just provides some kind of framework for the sex scenes to occur in. In a nutshell, Christian is an unfeasibly young, sexy, businessman prone to ostentatious displays of wealth (what he actually does, we never actually find out as it is unimportant to his sex appeal) who Anastasia meets, unequivocally falls for before learning anything about him and then agrees to, not enter into a mutually loving relationship, but to become his submissive sex slave at weekends. In between sex scenes, Christian Grey insists on addressing Anastasia as “Miss Steele” as she meets his parents and at the anti-climax of the novel, the couple break up in a few pages of heated argument, so 50 Shades Of Grey can appear to have a cliff-hanger and 50 Shades Darker has an interesting starting point. 

And so now the question remains, how has this book sold so many millions of copies? The simple answer is a marketing and advertising mantra as old as time – sex sells, and this is the basis of all erotic literature, the secret of 50 Shades Of Grey is that it came along at just the right time and due to its new style of publishing and distribution, it was able to reach its core demographic quickly and effectively. E.L James owes a great chunk of her success to the rise of the e-reader. Despite however “liberal” our society may be, prior to the Amazon Kindle, reading a book which everyone knows to contain some pretty explicit sex scenes as the norm could gain you some odd looks on the tube, however due its publication initially on the internet, direct to people who were searching for it and then on the Kindle Store, there was a lot of discretion granted the readers. Also crucially for readers of 50 Shades Of Grey, the majority of which are women as statistics have shown, we get the entire story from Anastasia’s point of view, meaning that no matter how degrading or threatening the more graphic of the sex scenes become, Ana is never actually reduced to a mere sex object as she must carry on narrating. The far more interesting questions though, are what this new style of publishing means for the future of the traditional model; does this spell the end of the role of the traditional editors? Will erotic literature be the first of all genres to be discontinued in book form, switching to e-books for added discretion as people are still adverse to reading erotica in public?  

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