There's plenty bad to be said about the quality of writing in 50 Shades, and its depiction of BDSM, and on a higher level those conversations are worthwhile, but kind of miss a couple points. One is that romance novels, by and large, are terribly unrealistic, and purposefully so. Complaining about the ludicrousness of the sex (and it is ludicrous) is like complaining about Batman. I used to read a lot of romance novels when I was 12 and looking for something to masturbate to, and while it's certainly not GOOD, it's pretty par for the course, even for popular ones. (Sidenote: It IS a problem that people think it's at all realistic, and that it's being marketed as anything other than a fuck-superhero fantasy). The OTHER thing is that EL James didn't happen by accident. She didn't randomly write an awful fan-fic then land ass first in a moneypile. She shrewdly and deliberately leveraged a built in audience for a popular brand and in a very manipulative way, used that to launch her own success. She got massively lucky for a few reasons, but she wasn't some hayseed that happened to tumble into best-sellerdom. I wish I could find the article I read that broke it down.
Honestly, it comes up like any other fantasy. Gradually, then all at once. You might be shocked at the number of Nazi roleplayers there are. People will pretty much sexualize any awful thing they can, partially because that's just how some people process things.
I actually read a really interesting writeup on that topic earlier today on Reddit (It was featured in /r/depthhub) - Source - long but interesting for the insight into the market entry (quoted and spoilered for length below) Spoiler
I read a fantastic blog post from a person who's now taken them down and changed the name they write online under, or I'd link them and give credit - about how as a German native living in California, they like to dress up in SS uniforms, and then go and have really super gay sex with Jewish men while wearing it, as basically the biggest fuck you to the people who venerated that uniform they could imagine. I kind of love that idea. And I still can't think of much that would piss off the white hate dicks who do venerate those uniforms more.
I started reading adult romance novels when I was...I think 13. I was bored one night having read the same tween books over and over and grabbed a couple of my mom's bodice rippers. I definitely don't think good writing is a key element, it definitely has to be something that you connect with. Over the years, the realities of life has made me connect less and less with the traditional romance novels. I can still get into it if the initial concept hooks me enough and the characters are engaging enough. Just this past weekend I stayed up to the wee hours finishing a book that I'm sure would get ripped apart by any discerning reader. I did read three of the Twilight series. First one hooked me on the concept. Despite some bullshit that annoyed me I went into the second. Honestly, I don't know why I read the third. I usually try to finish what I start, I guess, plus the hype was fever pitch by then. I got maybe a chapter into the fourth and couldn't take it any more. It wasn't so much the writing was bad as it was the character development was just awful - others upthread have described the fucked up dynamics already. When FSoG came out and I heard the thing about it originating as Twilight fanfiction, I dismissed it immediately. Because of the Twilight, not the fanfiction. I've written fanfiction and I think it is a legitimate creative outlet. When some friends of mine started gushing about it, I read up on the plot and was underwhelmed. I asked them what drew them to the book other than the kinky sex. No one gave me an answer that made me want to give it a shot. I watched the trailer and it did nothing for me at all. I actually cringed at the two times that she put herself down (who knows how often it happens the rest of the movie). I have always had self-esteem issues and know that it is not something that is desirable to any mature person.
See, this is why I don't get as angry at the phenomenon as a whole as I think I probably should. Did I laugh out loud, then cry, then figure I should probably just give up on the idea of being a writer if this is the shit that gets published these days after reading a couple of quotes? Yes. Did I always roll my eyes at girls teeheeing about how naughty they were for reading it because I'm so much cooler than them? Obviously. Was I concerned about the celebration of the fucked up relationship dynamics and misrepresentation of BDSM? Indeed. But anything that gets sex talked about in the mainstream to continue to chip away at the fucked up pearl-clutchy attitudes about sex in this country that have awful, wide-ranging consequences, and allows women to embrace/expand/normalize their sexuality rather than being ashamed or secretive about it is not something that's going to get a whole lot of scorn from me.
But what about the rape stuff? Or is that included in the "fucked up relationship dynamics"? I had no idea about the "disregarding the safe word" scenes before this thread, and I don't understand why that hasn't been a bigger deal in the media. Furthermore, I'm now more confused as to why the books are so popular. Women don't like getting raped, correct? So why is this Dorian guy so appealing? He's just so attractive that women want to be sort-of-raped by him? Uh... what? I don't mean to sound crass, I just sincerely don't understand.
I have also called reffered to him as "Dorian" instead of "Christian". As Aetius said early in the thread, Christian Grey is a hybrid of everything women become attracted to in the mainstream: handsome, insanely rich, athletic, musically talented, forceful, brooding, intelligent, blah blah blah. He is a person that cannot-- WILL not ever exist. Women who liked the books are so blindly turned on by this sci-fi apparition that they honestly don't care that he "breaks the rules." The attraction towards him goes deeper than that though. It's not just because he's that ridiculous concoction of talents: its also because he's the only young super-rich person in history to not hand-pick a trophy wife and instead chooses Anastasia Steele (fuck everybody in this shit trilogy has a name like an 80's TV cop) a mousey, shy and incredibly naive nobody. It's easier for women to fantasize about being her since she's such an utterly average personality.
My guess is there is sort a combination of things. To preface I haven't read the books just going off what people have said here and the general feel of the book from pop culture. First the whole DBSM thing is kind of an unknown area for the vast majority of readers, the intricacies of what is and isn't over the line might be vague since it's not well known subculture and doesn't translate to the more clearly defined types of assaults (such as the frank and open talk these days of college date rapes). Two, and book readers correct me, the girl doesn't view them as assaults even though they might technically cross the lines of that specific DBSM community. This is the part that isn't computing in your mind and since rape and sexual assaults on women are getting much more attention in the media these days.
I went to visit a girlfriend a few years ago and her mom had her copy of 50 Shades sitting out on the kitchen table and the spine was clearly cracked in a few um... well-read places. We also had a homely librarian at my old job who read that book on her lunch break (AND HER BATHROOM BREAKS. EW.) for weeks in the office. She made the most awful lip-smacking sounds during those lunches.
I really think the psychology of being so utterly 'wanted' by a man, who's 'consumed' with the idea of a woman is what appeals to the frumps like that.
I was thinking about that last night. I've read many romance novels with that concept, although it's more of "The One" concept and so is somewhat less creepy I guess. One of my favorite romance pulp authors is Jayne Ann Krentz. It doesn't have the mousy girl trope, her female leads are usually just as strong as the male leads. But it does feature a lot of the "I can't stop thinking about her, no one has ever made me feel this way, holy shit that was the best sex I've ever had," sort of stuff. The only thing really that sets FSoG apart from thousands of other romance novels is the inclusion of kink, and I think that and clever marketing is the major reason it is so popular.
That and that the character isn't written as this beautiful women. The author goes out of her way to say how mousy the female lead is, how frumpy and unattractive, how clumsy and self conscious she is. The author goes out of her way - with the exception of the lead being a brunette with blue eyes - to make her the plain jane every woman. And generally, the romance novels I've seen DON'T do that.
Whatever. I've got 2 years until I'm 27. I just need to found a multi-billion dollar company and learn how to fly. How hard could it be?
How many languages do you speak? Btw - my brother and husband are linguists. Learning languages as teens moving into 20s, after your primary language is developed, is insanely difficult. Learning MULTIPLE complex languages is....yeah. And, once the languages are learned, in order to prevent your brain from reverting to its previous patterns, they have to be spoken. Regularly. Because even for a fluent linguist, they're really easy to forget. That was the part of the books that was most absurd to me...weird, I know.
The only multi-linguists I can think of are Nikola Tesla, Viggo Mortensen (fluent in six languages!) and Diane Kruger. I think Viggo ought to be more appealing to women than Grey, since he wouldn't make you sign a rape contract. And he's in a band.