TG loves publishing phenoms. Whenever a book sells a
gazillian copies, especially when the author is someone nobody ever heard of,
it warms the cockles of his misanthropic heart. Enough with the same five
authors getting all the publishing money, (you know who they are) bestowing it
on unknowns every once in awhile reinforces the basic principal that keeps so
many of us toiling away in this particularly wretched vineyard: It can happen to anyone! And you don’t even
have to be particularly good!
So when 50 Shades of
Grey hit the Interweb and racked up millions of sales, TG had a good laugh.
Especially when all the pious literary critics came stomping onto the stage
declaring it just a piece of porno shit.
TG will explain the publishing story, even though
most of the world has already heard it. British author E.L. James had written a piece
of fanfiction based on the Twilight
vampire series, itself a phenom book series written by Stephanie Meyers, who
also garnered who own share of terrible reviews. Fanfiction is when writers or
wannabe writers write short stories or novels based on characters in someone
else’s books, movies or TV shows that they love. After fans of the Twilight series books (on the Internet) opined
that they thought there was too much sex in the story to be about their beloved
characters, James removed it from the fan sites and put it up on her own
website under the title Masters of the
Universe. Here’s part of an article from Wikipedia: “This
reworked and extended version of Master of the Universe was split into
three parts. The first, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, was released as an
e-book and print-on-demand paperback in May 2011 by The Writers' Coffee Shop, a
virtual publisher based in Australia. The second volume, Fifty Shades Darker,
was released in September 2011; and, the third, Fifty Shades Freed,
followed in January 2012. The Writers' Coffee Shop had a restricted marketing
budget and relied largely on book blogs for early publicity, but sales of the
novel were boosted by word-of-mouth recommendation. The book's erotic nature
and perceived demographic of its fanbase as being composed largely of married
women over thirty led to the book being dubbed "Mommy Porn" by some
news agencies. The
book has also been reportedly popular among teenage girls and college women.”
Are
you still with me, Thriller Guy readers? Hang in there.
So
the book goes on to sell more than 35 million copies worldwide, at least. 35 million copies! Does this book deserve a read by Thriller Guy? Of course it does. So, even
though he’s got several books backed up waiting for reviews, TG spent a day
reading the first book in the trilogy.
And
found it not bad, not bad at all.
First,
the question of the quality of the writing. TG reads hundreds of books a year,
most of them by mainstream thriller writers, many of whom are raking in vast
profits on their books. TG would say that James writes just as well as most of
them. Her writing is what we in the business refer to as “workmanlike.” Meaning
she gets the job done. The same word has been applied to TG’s own novels by
reviewers at times, and he wears the label proudly. All you horrified pious
reviewers and authors out there, the woman is writing a particular sort of genre
story (erotic) for a particular audience (women) and she hits her own mark just
fine. Huffing and puffing in supposed agony about the style of the writing says
more about the reviewers (snooty dopes) than it does the folks who love these
books. And TG would also add that the writing is actually better than many books he reviews, and these are also by writers
who are commanding high advances and mega sales for their work.
The
plot. Many of the reviews slammed the book for being plotless, just a vehicle
to put in the naughty bits. TG would like to report that there is an extensive
plot, too extensive for his erotic tastes and, again, aimed at women young and
old. He’s not going to go into an outline of the story because it’s too much
trouble, but if book’s basic message seems to be all about snagging that
special someone and holding on to him, well that’s been the basis of much
highbrow literature in its more refined forms as well as much lowbrow fiction.
In fact, the entire Romance book industry is built on this solid platform and
haven’t we reached the point yet where critics of all varieties can stop
yammering on about how women should be interested in “better” fiction than
that? The market has spoken to these reviewers and it says shut the hell up.
The
sex. One would think that these books are loaded with sex like porn books used
to be, books that were aimed at male readers, classics that have been around
forever: The Story of O -- perhaps
the most famous and the sort of bondage and sadomasochism book that is most like
Grey. Other classics are Venus in Lace, Venus Unbound, Venus
Remembered, and The Diary of Mata
Hari, to name just a few. Usually by “Anonymous.” Unlike these books, which
start with sex scenes on page one, Grey doesn’t ease into a sex scene until
page 120, and then there are only five or six scenes in the rest of the book.
It is clear that this is porn for women, who are interested in the lead up to
sex and the let down from sex, rather than the male desire for descriptions of
the act itself, over and over in its many variations. TG’s point is, there’s
not really all that much sex in these books. But there is much more sex than
there is in most fiction aimed at women, so that’s what makes these stand out. These
are romance books with amped up sex. Which leads TG to the startling conclusion…
Women
like sex, and they like reading about sex.
Gasp!
On
the one hand you have the pious, nay-saying critics mewling on about how this
sort of book is beneath women, harmful to women, and degrading to women. And
then you have the 35 million women who have bought the book and just can’t wait
for the movie to come out.
Some
stats:
35
million books sold so far. The fastest selling paperback ever. E. L. James’ net
worth – 15 million, probably much more by now. The amount Universal paid for
the film rights, $5 million. The number of print copies Vintage sold in a month
– 5 million. 60+ printings to keep up with demand amounting to a 25% increase
in adult fiction sales.
But
there’s nothing new here in the treatment James is receiving from the nation’s
literati. They did it to Dan Brown, they did it to Stephan King, they did it to
Stephanie Meyer and the list goes on and on. What these folks hate, what they
really despise, is that someone who speaks to popular culture on its own terms
is making so much damn money at it.
Here’s
at least part of what these critics are missing. Sex sells. Ever heard that
little bromide? It beats out hunger, comfort, it beats out good sense, intelligence,
morality (General Petraeus anyone?) it beats out everything. And most people will sort of agree saying yeah, well,
but that’s just men. Men think with their dicks. Women are different.
Women don’t have these gross instincts, they like to be wooed, whispered to,
taken to dinner; yeah, well, everyone likes that sort of thing, but when it comes
down to the basics, women like to have sex just as much as men do. Science has
now shown conclusively that women are just as susceptible to the arousing
powers of pornography as men are. So why shouldn’t they like to read
pornography? Especially when it’s pretty tame stuff like Fifty Shades. So why shouldn’t they have their own writers to
supply it? And why shouldn’t they have the right to make these suppliers rich?
Why should the critics chastise their sisters, (even when the critics are men)
tsk tsking because their tastes don’t run to Don Delillo or David Foster
Wallace.
These
are genre books, people. Some of us like genre books. Be they thrillers,
romance, cozies or erotica. So mewl on, jealous critics, those of you who
pretend that the enjoyment of sex in all its varied forms is beneath the
intelligent, upper-class, intellectual beings you would have all of us, at
least the women among us, be.
Come
on. Take off those glasses. Let down your hair. Show us what you’ve got. You’ll
like it, I promise. Just give it a chance. Now hand me those handcuffs…
Both of these guys are military adventure thriller writers
separately and together. Their years of experience and original, ripped from
the headlines plots and excellent writing skills make them masters of the
genre. Here’s a summary (taken from Bond’s website) of the first book in the
series, Shadows of War: “In 2014, climate change
has pushed the world to the boiling point. China faces drought and famine; gas
costs $14.39 a gallon in the US; Europe has problems of its own. China sets her
sights on food-rich Vietnam and engineers a casus belli designed to justify
her aggression, but Josh McArthur, a climatologist doing field work near the
border, escapes the massacre of his research team and finds evidence of another
- evidence that would discredit Chinese claims and frustrate their plans. Josh
must not only escape the Chinese agents hunting him, but he's in the middle of
a fast-moving war that is swallowing the country. Josh needs help, and gets it
from several places, but he needs to get his information, and himself, if
possible, to safe hands.”
The
next three books are, Edge of War, Shock
of War, and Blood of War. While
the “hero” of the first book, Josh McArthur, remains a focal point in the
series, it is the other characters that are developed -- in particular Major
Zeus Murphy -- who are really the stars. Murphy is on loan to the Vietnamese
army, and his brilliant tactics against the Chinese lead to some of the best
military action scenes in the thriller genre. At this point these books aren’t
bundled, so to give someone a complete set you’re going to have to go to Amazon
and buy them individually. As a matter of fact, the fourth book that ends the series,
Blood of War, isn’t even slated to
hit the shelves until Jan. 23. But you could buy the first three, give them as
a present, and then add on the last one when it becomes available.
