Fifty Shades of Grey.
Unless you’ve spent your summer under a rock, I’m going to assume you’ve heard
of it, though not as an astounding work of literature. If the average person
was presented with the first page of the James’ novel, it would be easy (I
hope, in an incredibly optimistic view of our national literacy rate) for said
reader to immediately grasp a single fact about E.L. James’ work: its genesis
has not done it any favors. Which is to say, of course, that a novel first
published online and even now in published in print hasn’t been graced with the
skills of a professional editor. Perhaps, under the criticism and therefore
tutelage of any editorial giant, James would have ameliorated what are the easily
spotted as the greatest (technical) errors of her work:
The woefully thinly
veiled reference to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight:
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| "I'm not afraid. Thankfully, my character isn't developed enough." |
And, even worse than
that of the Twilight series itself, the E. L. James appears to have written the next bloody chapter in the war on
grammar and syntax.
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| Seriously, how can anyone concentrate on the sex scenes with all that bad grammar? |
However, it is those
things that make E.L. James’ work a target. And you know what? That’s not the
target I’m going for. Like it or not (and I most definitely do not) Fifty Shades
of Grey is a novel that has already made an impact on our national psyche. Deny
it all you want, but I know it’s certainly scarred my psyche; I have at long last lost all respect for the New York
Times bestseller list. At this point in time, every sign indicates that Fifty Shades of Grey is here to stay, and it’s at this very stage that we should find
it in ourselves to cease criticizing James’ torture of the English language.
Instead, it’s we should analyze whether the effect of James’ work perpetuates
negative or positive messages by proxy of its characters – if for nothing else,
to prove that we can be mature readers even if there’s a significant lack of
mature writers. To criticize those already obvious errors that riddle Fifty Shades
of Grey is a distraction from the greater purpose and depth of James’ intent,
and (come on, people) gives us an easy way out. Challenge yourself to ask: What does James’ Fifty Shades of Grey tell the
reader? And once we have determined
that: What is gained (or lost) by
reception of James’ perceived viewpoint?
Here are some
(brief) summarizations of James’ intent as characterized by her main character,
Anastasia Steele. You’ll notice, I hope, that I said “main character” instead
of “heroine.” There’s a reason for that, which leads us to our first
summarization of What Fifty Shades of Grey Tells Us:
1)
Emotional and Physical Dependency is a key
aspect of any relationship, especially relationships between men and women
Any way you slice
it, Anastasia’s supposed romance with Christian is bound (har har har) to her
dependency on him. Anastasia doesn’t just want Christian Grey sexually. She
needs him emotionally, and is constantly, brutally rebuffed. It is this very
combination of neediness from Anastasia and emotional/sexual distance from
Christian which means that Anastasia’s relationship with Christian is emotionally abusive.
Adrenaline has spiked through my body, from my near miss with the
cyclist to the heady proximity to Christian, leaving me wired and weak. NO! my
psyche screams as he pulls away, leaving me bereft. He has his hands on my
shoulders, holding me at arm’s length, carefully watching my reactions. And the
only thing I can thinks it that I wanted to be kissed, made it pretty damned
obvious, and he didn’t do it. He doesn’t want me. He really doesn’t want me. I
have royally screwed up the coffee morning (50).
A few pages later,
we find Ana crying in a parking garage because of this incident, as she wished
to be kissed by Christian and he did not take the masculine initiative to do
so. Take a note, James’ BDSM material hasn’t even entered into this equation
(whether it should or should not is another, more complex argument). With Anastasia as a main
character, James attempts to “normalize” behavior, indicating that
Anastasia’s dependency on Christian, her emotional responses (crying, anxiety,
outpourings of sorrow) and psychological responses (guilt, self-blame) make
sense and are to be expected in a relationship, especially if one is lucky to
have a relationship with Christian Grey.
Damaging themes run
throughout Fifty Shades of Grey, and to call them out without justification feels
like yet another cop-out. Fifty Shades of Grey is not a complex book, but it
presents themes that call for an incredibly complex analysis of both James’
intent and the readers’ assumption. Thus, simply choosing a fact that to the
seasoned reader should appear fairly obvious (James seeks to normalize the
emotionally abusive relationship) is positively childs-play. But critically
examining that fact (what is gained (or
lost) by James’ viewpoint?) is much more nebulous.
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| Is this a gain? Women looking for men who act like Christian Grey? |
As a result, I was not
challenged by reading Fifty Shades of Grey, yet I have been challenged here by
what damaging theme to push to the forefront of analysis. The normalization of emotionally
abusive relationships eventually was the dubious winner of the contest, perhaps
because it is the most visible of the issues, but I’m not sure that prioritizing
it is fair. After all, how to choose between that theme and the themes of homophobia,
physical abuse, emphasis on purity/corruption, and antifeminism? There is,
unfortunately, no right answer, as James' characters of Fifty Shades of Grey seek to systematically legitimize each.
Thoughts? Requests for the next theme for analysis? Post them in the comments section below.
