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Author of queer, wry sci fi/fantasy books. On Amazon.
Editor of all fiction genres.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

50 Shades Of Commentors: Abuse and Romance, Part 1

Hello hello!

So, longtime readers will know that I owe the Fifty Shades of Grey series a bit of a...debt of honour, I guess. The marathon read-along I published on Twitter, complete with a prologue and epilogue blog post for each, is what established my name. The authors I've met, my editing career...none of it would have been possible without a goofy and darkly disturbing trilogy of poorly written and imagined porn.

However, I've seen cries from across the internet over fifty shades of fatigue. So instead, I'm going to bring you a short series on dark romance and BDSM, and we're even going to talk about why the hell this series (and other dark romances) have been so popular. Clearly, the movie has touched a nerve, and it's too easy to hate on it. So we're going to do the hard thing, and examine why it works--as well as providing much better alternatives. I've even got an exclusive interview with the up-and-coming dark romance darling Katie de Long, a new author who's bringing a shadowy, diverse, intelligent angle to a much maligned genre. 


First, however, we're going to start this the easy way--I present to you, the comments section of every Fifty Shades of Grey article I've read so far.

  • A Middle-Aged Man ·  Top Commenter
    Oh, man, I can't believe my wife is dragging me to this. *barf*
    • A Middle-Aged Woman
      Read the books. Why hasn't anyone read the books? They're so much better!
      • Some Twentysomething Feminist
        Holy crap, these books are basically a manual on abuse! Why the hell aren't we talking about this? 
      • Another Feminist
        No kidding. I love BDSM, but this is driving me crazy. Let's have an intelligent and reasonable conversation about alternatives to this book!

        A Well-Meaning Devil's Advocate
        We don't really talk about crappy role models for men, though. What about the bad lessons young boys are learning?
      • A Middle-Aged Woman
        How did anyone survive these books? I laughed my ass off at the prose and her "inner goddess", way too hard to get my panties in a bunch.

    1 comment:

    1. Crappy fanfic has somehow become the manifesto for faux liberation via the same old shackles (no pun intended): I, woman, am nothing; you, man, are everything; teach me, O Great Brooding Dick.

      ReplyDelete

    As always, be excellent unto others, and don't be a dick.

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