Althouse: It's the new "Harry Potter."

June 18, 2012

It's the new "Harry Potter."

For ladies.

31 comments:

MadisonMan said...: AlohaWhore-a.; 6/18/12, 11:03 AM
Seeing Red said...: That's what happens when you metrosexualize your alphas.; 6/18/12, 11:03 AM
Shanna said...: They make a big deal about it selling more in paperback, without noting that it never came out in hardback (like HP and some of the other books). So that's a stupid comparison.; 6/18/12, 11:04 AM
Unknown said...: I tried to read it but couldn't stick with it for long. I skipped ahead to a sex part and couldn't stick with that either. I'm glad it was a library download so I didn't pay. It makes me wonder whether this kind of payday is just sort of random luck. I can't imagine that it is but I can't see why it pays, either.; 6/18/12, 11:06 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: It's because women are finding their way to God in FSoG.

No, really, according to Sally Quinn at the WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/fifty-shades-of-god/2012/06/14/gJQAg6fccV_blog.html

(Sorry, not sure how to make a hyperlink.); 6/18/12, 11:10 AM
edutcher said...: Proof women are rejecting feminism.; 6/18/12, 11:15 AM
bagoh20 said...: The more open and exposed we get with our sexuality the more boring it gets.

I wonder how many previous generations felt that they are lucky to be leaving soon.; 6/18/12, 11:29 AM
Scott said...: I think it's interesting that there was a boom in e-book sales BEFORE the print book exploded. The acceptance of this pattern by the publishing industry could mean good things for both authors and publishers.

It's obviously cheaper to distribute an e-book than it is to publish a paper book. Publishers benefit from publishing the e-book first because they don't risk losing the cost of pulping the first edition if it doesn't sell.

Lower publishing risk means that publishers can afford to take more chances with signing new authors -- which is good for authors.

Now I've got to get my damn novel finished...; 6/18/12, 11:32 AM
Unknown said...: @Erika it goes:

linked words

Italics and one or two others are similar but simpler.; 6/18/12, 11:36 AM
Known Unknown said...: Chamber of Not-Secrets.; 6/18/12, 11:37 AM
Known Unknown said...: Erika -

(a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/fifty-shades-of-god/2012/06/14/gJQAg6fccV_blog.html")Link words(/a)

Replace the ( ) with < >.; 6/18/12, 11:38 AM
Wince said...: At first, most sales of The Fifty Shades series, about a depraved relationship between a young female virgin and her rich older lover, were of the more discreet ebook version.

I guess it's OK to call a relationship "depraved" if it's heterosexual.; 6/18/12, 11:40 AM
Unknown said...: Ha. And wouldn't you know that I got cute and messed it up trying to paste the example which executed it instead of pasting it.

This is the spot:
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_a.asp; 6/18/12, 11:41 AM
Scott M said...: I thought "Twilight" was Harry Potter for women. To borrow a meme, Pixar did a better love story in the opening eight minutes of "Up" than "Twilight" did in four entire movies.; 6/18/12, 11:47 AM
Hagar said...: Ladies?; 6/18/12, 11:49 AM
Michael K said...: "Proof women are rejecting feminism."

I don't know about that. "Fear of Flying" was the big hit about 30 years ago.

Sorry, Forty years ago. Time flies.; 6/18/12, 11:49 AM
Known Unknown said...: The Yeastly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2.; 6/18/12, 11:50 AM
TWM said...: "The Yeastly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2."

And we have a winner; 6/18/12, 11:54 AM
Anonymous said...: I haven't read it, sounds boring. Real life is ever so much more interesting.; 6/18/12, 12:15 PM
edutcher said...: Michael K said...

Proof women are rejecting feminism.

I don't know about that. "Fear of Flying" was the big hit about 30 years ago.

The man is in control this time.; 6/18/12, 12:21 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Gentlemen (I'm assuming), thanks; I know how to do it on Reddit, grin, but didn't think to google it for other places.; 6/18/12, 12:31 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: No, it's evidence of a clever press agent.; 6/18/12, 12:37 PM
bgates said...: The new "Harry Potter" for ladies?

That's like saying ultimate fighting is the new football for gentlemen.; 6/18/12, 12:39 PM
Synova said...: "...the more discreet ebook version."

I'm thrilled that my copy of "Ghost" by John Ringo exists only on the Baen Books web-site. I'm not particularly sorry I read it, but I'm very glad it isn't on my Nook or computer disk drive or, especially, not a book laying about the house.

I don't intend to read FSoG.

"I guess it's OK to call a relationship "depraved" if it's heterosexual."

Oh the big thing now, in heterosexual sex fiction (ie. Romances) is how nothing is wrong if it gets you turned on. Those sorts of books used to have a great deal of, well, dominance in them, where the lady/girl was powerless and got all excited about having kisses forced on her. Now the books are self-conscious. The dominance is explicitly presented as sex play with safe words and everything.

And it's pretty much like the criticism of dreams in books or movies Althouse linked to the other day. The book or movie is *already* not real. The romantic fiction is already a fantasy sex-game so introducing a sex-game within a sex-game ruins the make-believe. It becomes as interesting as reading any other manual.

Also, it's one thing to be secretly fond of being dominated, and another to be asked to buy into the "no wrong way" theory, when it seems pretty clear that needing to fantasize about hurting someone in order to become aroused means that something is wrong with your brain triggers. And that, yes, some things are depraved.; 6/18/12, 2:23 PM
Triangle Man said...: @Erika

Here is the form for making a link. Perhaps Althouse might consider including it in the "Leave your comment" text, but she would need to look up the escape codes for greater than and less than symbols to show the text rather than interpreting it as a link itself.

<a href="url">Link text</a>; 6/18/12, 2:30 PM
Revenant said...: I thought "Twilight" was Harry Potter for women.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" was originally erotic Twilight fan-fiction before the author changed the characters' names and rewrote it.

I'm serious. You can still find the original version online.; 6/18/12, 2:51 PM
Scott M said...: I'm serious. You can still find the original version online.

I'm going to be querying down the doors of agents while also looking at the various self-publishing options later this year. As such, I run in many circles that know the story of FSoG by way, way too much detail. In those circles, FSoG is the equivalent of hitting the author lottery.; 6/18/12, 3:02 PM
Anna said...: I think Synova and Scott pretty much hit all I was going to say.

'Ghost' by Ringo had the dom game in it but as sub-plot. FSoG that's the whole plot.

I wish I could hit the author lottery like FSoG did. Guess I better finish up my short stories, edit them, collate, and put out as a Kindle e-book. See what happens. Maybe Lulu also.; 6/18/12, 5:03 PM
Michael Haz said...: When I saw that Mrs. Haz had downloaded 50 Shades onto her Kindle and was most of the way through it I asked: "What are you reading??"

She answered: "Umm..sorta like Jane Eyre with a happy ending. Several times, in fact. Say...got a few minutes just now?"; 6/18/12, 7:44 PM
Synova said...: Ghost is probably a really good example. There are three stories, essentially.

In the first the guy is a monster, really, a broken person, who knows he is broken, and "gets off" on the terror of women. (He also gets to behead Bin Laden.)

In the second part he's just a guy who plays very safe sex-games.

In the third he turns unsafe again.

Reading the first part is way way more interesting than reading the second part, the broken person's violations are vicariously fascinating but always you know that it's entirely evil.

The second part you get to vicariously "enjoy" watching people enact safe fantasies.

Whoo hoo.

It's still naughty, but as interesting as any other how-to manual, and in my opinion loses something by presenting it all as *not* broken, and *not* evil.; 6/18/12, 7:44 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Perhaps Althouse might consider including it in the "Leave your comment" text,"

That's a great idea. Althouse?; 6/18/12, 8:59 PM