Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 July 2012 12:32:40
So yesterday I explained why I decided to buy 50 Shades of Grey and entitled that post "50 Shades to Far" referring to the explicit sexual content of the novel. Having continued to the end of the book something interesting happened....I managed to skim over the disturbing sexual content - (and for me it was disturbing when put in the wider context of the book)- and get into the deeper storyline. Now I've finished the book I'm sharing this review.
The female main character of the book is a young woman called Ana, and this book is set in the weeks surrounding and immediately after her graduation. She is a character who up until the point she meets Christian Grey, (the main male character), seems to have been A Sexual. That is up until that point she has apparently met nobody who has aroused sexual feeling in her and as we find out during the course of the book has not engaged in masturbation. This lack of sexual interest is not a problem to her, but within the book there is an undercurrent that it is something others have noted. There are the potential boyfriends who have been frustrated at the platonic nature of her friendships with them. Her best friend and room-mate Kate is quoted as teasing her that she is "missing the need-a-boyfriend gene" and her parents note that she has not found anybody yet. This A-Sexuality, (for want of a better term and I know it is slightly inaccurate, but it best describes the character at the beginning of the book), is something that is frustrating on one level for her because she wants, as she puts it "the fabled trembling knees...." but sets her apart in another way from others. As the book moves on and she meets Grey it becomes apparent that she is not A Sexual.
This moves the book on from an exploration of celibacy and the expectations of others onto a discussion about "first love" and the discovery of sexuality and sexual desire. A main theme throughout the book revolves around what is "healthy" sex and in what context should it be practiced? For me one element was missing in the discussion, and perhaps distinguishes my faith based approach to the issue from more secular ones; how long should somebody be with somebody and what stage should the relationship be at before you have sex?
Christian Grey is a CEO of a corporation based in Seattle. We never find out what the business he is involved in is but there are clues within the book that he may well be a venture capitalist. The ambiguity around him is a clear literary device being used by the author to keep you guessing whether Grey is based upon a real person, and if so whom. There is the Seattle link to Gates and Howard Schultz but also the character has been adopted which ties in with Jobs (although unlike Jobs whose adoption was not linked to an abusive mother Grey's is). My own view is that Grey is not based on any real character, but E L James has used a composite of these people to base him upon.
Grey it emerges was seduced by an older "Mrs Robinson" style character when he was 15. He remains friends and business partners with the seducer, who he is no longer in a relationship with. This woman introduced him to BDSM - (see here for Wiki definition but be aware there are images and descriptions which may disturb). He was in that relationship a submissive but has since become the dominant partner in such relationships. He has always been involved in this culture and has no experience up to that point of vanilla sex - that is sex which does not involve bondage and domination/ submission.
The book provides a fascinating insight into BDSM culture not through the explicit scenes but through the contract which Grey seeks to get Ana to sign. The contract sets down a set of rules and conditions for the relationship between the two parties involved which is up to negotiation. The nature of this contract and the way the boundaries were being drawn was one of the most fascinating bits of the book for me. There was, it seemed, something dark about this - but also within it something positive which mainstream culture could learn from. By that I mean the way control and ownership and so forth were built in - together with some of the activities involved - repulsed me, but the way that two partners discussed exactly what they were and weren't happy doing within the bedroom and way trust was encouraged was something positive. Communication and trust in all areas of a relationship are vitally important for anybody, not just those indulging in this type of activity.
Throughout the book there was a sense of ambiguity about Grey; on one level he knew that he had major issues of control and abuse which were unhealthy but on another he was trying to deal with these and initially seeks to warn Ana away from him. He was outwardly successful but inwardly broken. This brokenness cannot be seen as an excuse for him though, his behaviour which Ana identifies as "weird" and "stalkerish" is that of the classic abuser and reading through the description of his acts I was reminded of the voices and words of the women from the Derwentside Domestic Abuse Service I'd heard (see here).
The thing is though and this is the real difficulty through meeting Ana Christian sees another way of life might be possible. He meets this woman whom he has fallen in love rather than lust with and is himself introduced to the possibility of a normal relationship. The complexity of him facing his own emotions and experiences which comes through as well as Ana having to handle hers is interesting, although because it is written from Ana's perspective these feelings are never fully explored by the author.
A final theme running throughout the book relates to wealth, class and relationships between those who do and don't have it. Issues relating to consumption, life experiences and choice all come through and these relate not only to Ana's relationship with Grey but also to her relationship with Kate, her affluent housemate.
Early on in the book great play is made of Ana's love of classic English Literature, including Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbevilles - as this is a book I have never managed to get through - (again finding some of the content too disturbing) - I don't know how much the plot of this book is influenced by the Hardy novel - I suspect that those familiar with that text may be able to read this text with a greater understanding than the rest of us.
As indicated earlier I did find the detailed sexually explicit nature of the book unnecessary and was appalled by it - many writers manage quite well to set the scene and indicate what happened without going into graphic detail. In fact I think what turned out to be a good novel in many ways lost something through the way the sex scenes were written in such a detailed way.
Will I move on to the other books? Yes.....I am unexpectedly hooked on finding out what happens to the characters.