Same story - different perspectives
My friend, Denise, posted something on my facebook wall. It said:
"Fifty Shades of Grey is romantic only because the guy is a billionaire. If he was living in a trailer, it would be a Criminal Minds episode."
It is pretty obvious why she thought this statement would be something that I wanted to explore. No, I am not into Submission and Domination, but I am in exploring how there are always different perspectives to every story.
We usually say in every story there are atleast three sides to the story; her side, his side, and the truth. Usually both sides are telling "their truth" and they do believe it because it the truth from their perspective.
It is perplexing to many why Fifty Shades of Grey was such the run-away best seller that it was. One of the reasons why it was such a hit was that it actually was a good piece of literature. It was extremely well written. It the days when we are so busy that a complicated news story needs to be condensed down to two paragraphs so that people actually read it online, it is nice to get back to being lost in a book. It is nice to have a page-turner that you can't put down. It is also nice to talk about a book with your friends and neighbours; to have a discussion about ideas.
Probably a lot of people who bought the book never thought they would be buying a book about kinky and degrading sex. However, it was a fantasy. I recently watched a interview of a morning news anchor. She said it was a really hard job and it wasn't hard because she had to get up every morning at 3:20 am. It was really difficult because she actually had to read the news. We struggle to find good news. There seems there is tragedy everywhere. We are also worried about our future. Some of us also have personal problems that we are dealing with; financial instability; health concerns, etc. Fifty Shades of Grey came along at the time that we were needing a little escapism in our lives. It is nice just to drift away in fantasy as a way to avoid dealing with reality every now and then.
Plus, it did indulge in almost every little girl's fantasy; being rescued by a handsome Prince or a millionaire. (I guess now it is a billionaire; when I was a girl, it was a millionaire.) You can't grow up watching Snow White and Cinderella to condition us that we need a man to rescue us. It is not true, but, there is a large part of all of us who secretly want someone to ask them to join them in their famous lifestyle. A lot of women say that they would drop everything if George Clooney came and asked. Most of them aren't kidding.
So, that is why Fifty Shades was so popular. But, if Christian Grey was not the successful entrepreneur that he was, it likely never would not have had the cult following that it did. It would have been the object of disgust.
Unfortunately, the success of Fifty Shades made the sequels poorer pieces of literature. E.L James and her team became under pressure to churn out the books because the movie rights had already been sold. That is why I call Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Meh. I refer to the last one as Fifty Shades of Blah.
Regardless, I don't think Fifty Shades of Grey's legacy is sex tips. I think its legacy is that it has shown all of us that we still need literature in our lives. Not, a short article on the internet, but actual books. We always used to be curious about what was on influential people's night table as we used to want to make sure we read that novel. Not anymore, now we want to follow them on instagram.
Great literature helps us in more ways than to give us an escape. It helps us develop critical thinking skills. It helps us to understand other perspectives.
We spend a lot of time at the gym trying to improve our bodies. (Ok, well not me, but most people do !!) We should try to as much time improving our minds. It seems common sense that one of the best ways of doing this is by reading books !!
Feel free to comment here on what is on your night-table. I'm always looking for a good book !!
"Fifty Shades of Grey is romantic only because the guy is a billionaire. If he was living in a trailer, it would be a Criminal Minds episode."
It is pretty obvious why she thought this statement would be something that I wanted to explore. No, I am not into Submission and Domination, but I am in exploring how there are always different perspectives to every story.
We usually say in every story there are atleast three sides to the story; her side, his side, and the truth. Usually both sides are telling "their truth" and they do believe it because it the truth from their perspective.
It is perplexing to many why Fifty Shades of Grey was such the run-away best seller that it was. One of the reasons why it was such a hit was that it actually was a good piece of literature. It was extremely well written. It the days when we are so busy that a complicated news story needs to be condensed down to two paragraphs so that people actually read it online, it is nice to get back to being lost in a book. It is nice to have a page-turner that you can't put down. It is also nice to talk about a book with your friends and neighbours; to have a discussion about ideas.
Probably a lot of people who bought the book never thought they would be buying a book about kinky and degrading sex. However, it was a fantasy. I recently watched a interview of a morning news anchor. She said it was a really hard job and it wasn't hard because she had to get up every morning at 3:20 am. It was really difficult because she actually had to read the news. We struggle to find good news. There seems there is tragedy everywhere. We are also worried about our future. Some of us also have personal problems that we are dealing with; financial instability; health concerns, etc. Fifty Shades of Grey came along at the time that we were needing a little escapism in our lives. It is nice just to drift away in fantasy as a way to avoid dealing with reality every now and then.
Plus, it did indulge in almost every little girl's fantasy; being rescued by a handsome Prince or a millionaire. (I guess now it is a billionaire; when I was a girl, it was a millionaire.) You can't grow up watching Snow White and Cinderella to condition us that we need a man to rescue us. It is not true, but, there is a large part of all of us who secretly want someone to ask them to join them in their famous lifestyle. A lot of women say that they would drop everything if George Clooney came and asked. Most of them aren't kidding.
So, that is why Fifty Shades was so popular. But, if Christian Grey was not the successful entrepreneur that he was, it likely never would not have had the cult following that it did. It would have been the object of disgust.
Unfortunately, the success of Fifty Shades made the sequels poorer pieces of literature. E.L James and her team became under pressure to churn out the books because the movie rights had already been sold. That is why I call Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Meh. I refer to the last one as Fifty Shades of Blah.
Regardless, I don't think Fifty Shades of Grey's legacy is sex tips. I think its legacy is that it has shown all of us that we still need literature in our lives. Not, a short article on the internet, but actual books. We always used to be curious about what was on influential people's night table as we used to want to make sure we read that novel. Not anymore, now we want to follow them on instagram.
Great literature helps us in more ways than to give us an escape. It helps us develop critical thinking skills. It helps us to understand other perspectives.
We spend a lot of time at the gym trying to improve our bodies. (Ok, well not me, but most people do !!) We should try to as much time improving our minds. It seems common sense that one of the best ways of doing this is by reading books !!
Feel free to comment here on what is on your night-table. I'm always looking for a good book !!
Comments
Post a Comment