THE 50 SHADES OF EL JAMES

El James, for those of you who’ve been living under a rock this past year or so, is the author of the widely-popular “erotic” book series 50 Shades Of Grey. What started out as “fan fiction” for the Twilight books published on the Web has become a nationwide and even a worldwide phenomenon. The, uh-hum, plot of the books is basically this: a rich guy engages in kinky sex games with a “virginal” woman. That’s pretty much it, yet, for some reason, these books have caught on with the--mostly female--book-buying audience. I admit, I have yet to read the books save for the excerpts in the--mostly negative--book reviews I’ve read about the book. Although this book has sold in the millions of copies, book critics by and large have pretty much panned the books (my own personal critique of the book came from an article in Playboy which called the book “mommy porn”). But, judging from what little I’ve read of the book, I can’t understand what the big deal is. I mean, this isn’t the first time this particular subject matter has been mined before in literature; like, for instance, Anne Rice wrote a series of similarly-themed “erotic” books years before written under the rather weird pen name of A.N. Roquelaure that were arguably better-written than the 50 Shades Of Grey books (and before Anne there was Judy Blume--yes, the children’s book author--who wrote about bored women seeking sexual adventure/fulfillment). I myself have written--and published--books with a similar “erotic” theme (and frustratingly weren‘t nearly as successful). So, again, the question remains why has the 50 Shades Of Grey books caught on so much? As for whether these books are “erotica” or hardcore porn, when Miss James was asked this very question by Barbra Walters, she responded, after laughing for a moment, that it was a “romance” story. Because, you know, nothing spells “romance” like whips & chains & anal beads! By the way, the word pornography, as defined in Webster’s dictionary, means anything--hence the word ANYTHING--that is intended to arouse sexual desire (and I believe the 50 Shades Of Grey books qualifies, don‘t you?). And, for me, the REAL difference between "erotica" and so-called porn is that "erotica" has a few more euphemisms for the naughty parts. Hope that clears THAT up for ya!