Viv Groskop - The Independent - Thursday 05 July 2012
- Where do you stand on Fifty Shades of Grey? Apart from aggressively on the head of the person you would most like to have sex with, obviously, whilst wearing a gimp mask and with flowing silk ties around your wrists. That is a given. Where, though, do you stand in terms of the publishing industry? Do you or do you not approve or disapprove of the phenomenon that is Fifty Shades of Grey?
It's impossible not to hold an opinion about this "mommy porn"
for the 21st century, in which the rakishly handsome millionaire Christian Grey
converts the glowingly virginal Ana into a sex slave. And a completely unknown
author of fan fiction – EL James – becomes the supposed saviour of the
publishing industry overnight.
The book has become the fastest adult paperback novel to sell
one million print copies. Now Amazon has confirmed that it's the first book to
sell over a million on kindle. However, scroll through the thousands of online
reviews for Fifty Shades and the bad reviews easily outnumber the praise by 20
to one.
Is the popularity of their love affair great news, luring
non-book-buyers into the fray and reinvigorating a confused, newly unpredictable
market? Or is it a terrible indictment of the direction the industry is heading
in, proving that digital hype, kinky sex (or, really, any sex) and the merest
mention of "the red room of pain" are set to consign proper novels to the
dustbin of history?
What Fifty Shades most proves is that there is nothing better
for a book than bad publicity. The more the critics pan it, the more the
industry wrings its hands, the more people want to read it to decide for
themselves. The Amazon reviews say it all: "How on earth this book ever got
published is beyond me." "My first thought was that this must be a spoof." "I am
embarrassed to say that I bought this book to see what all the hype was about."
"Unintentionally hilarious." "Unadulterated tosh." "Oh, my, what a pile of
discarded panties."
At £3.99 in paperback and £2.99 on Kindle, we've now entered an
age where it's easier and cheaper than ever to make up your own mind. And
there's no holding back misplaced curiosity. "My husband bought this for me.
Thankfully, he got it cheap at Asda." "I shall go now and delete this stuff from
my kindle. Luckily, I didn't pay much for it."
No comments:
Post a Comment