The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 7, Part 1

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Jun 022012
 

“…But, my dearest Catherine, what have you been doing with yourself all this morning? Have you gone on with Udolpho?”

“Yes, I have been reading it ever since I woke; and I am got to the black veil.”

“Are you, indeed? How delightful! Oh! I would not tell you what is behind the black veil for the world! Are not you wild to know?”

“Oh! Yes, quite; what can it be? But do not tell me—I would not be told upon any account. I know it must be a skeleton, I am sure it is Laurentina’s skeleton. Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it….”

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Christian brings Ana into the playroom. Ana seems nonplussed.

This is something kinky people have to deal with sometimes: introducing a prospective partner to their kink, or to kink in general. A perennial topic in BDSM circles is whether you can convert a vanilla (I.e. non-kinky) person to kink. The consensus seems to be that it is possible, but the odds are maybe one in three.

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The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 6

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Jun 012012
 

Christian flies Ana in his private helicopter to his private building in Seattle. Christian keeps dangling his Gothic secret before Ana, who keeps batting at it like a not-terribly-bright cat pawing at a string.

They also talk about Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which is supposed to be familiar to both of them. Not only do I not think either of them have actually read it, I wonder if E.L. James the author has read it either.

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The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 5

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May 312012
 

Ana wakes up in Christian’s hotel suite the next morning. Christian not only had her undressed, but sent his bodyguard off to buy her a complete set of new clothes.

Um, wasn’t Ana’s friend and roommate Kate nearby when Ana passed out, and wouldn’t she have been a more natural choice to look after an unconscious Ana than a relative stranger like Christian?

Let me call process for a moment. I started thinking about the previous chapter’s commentary while I was still reading the text, and I was going to talk about how this wasn’t supposed to be a snarky commentary. That is, no cheap shots, no snobbishness, etc. Accept it for what it is, and understand how it fits into the world.

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The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 4

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May 302012
 

After saving Ana from the vicious bicyclist, Christian holds onto her tight. Ana practically has some kind of stroke at his touch, silently begging her to kiss him. She does ask him to kiss her, and certainly doesn’t move to kiss him herself. “Kiss me damn it! I implore him, but I can’t move.”

Christian Grey responds, or rather says, as she has neither done nor said anything to respond to:

“Anastasia, you should steer clear of me. I’m not the man for you,” he whispers.

He rejects her. And what does he do to make her go away? Mails her a set of vintage books that cost five figures. This kind of mixed messages indicates either a high level of manipulation or a moderate level of schizophrenia.

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The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 3

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May 292012
 

Ana’s internal exclamations of “Crap!” are becoming tiresome. She doesn’t even swear like an adult.

After the photo shoot (and why does Ana have to be present for that?), Christian asks her out for coffee. Maybe I’m paranoid, but Christian’s actions still seem a little suspicious. For example, he makes a point of separating Ana from her friends and being alone with her, instead of, say, meeting with all of them for a little post-session lunch.

Money changes things, particularly when one person in a relationship has a lot of it and the other has a lot less. A woman I know once told me about working as an interior designer, which involved lunch and dinner meetings with the men who owned deluxe offices and mansions. When you’re a woman having dinner with a guy who thinks nothing of $600 dinner-and-drinks bill, there’s a tension in the air, and sometimes there are… expectations.

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Visiting Scholar program at the Leather Archives & Museum

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May 292012
 

I got the “thin envelope” from the Leather Archives & Museum, after I applied for their Visiting Scholar program a while back. I didn’t get it.

However, they did say:

…the committee was impressed with your proposal, specifically the wide scope of sexuality study you will visit in the text. The LA&M is inspired by your work and its potential contributions to sexuality scholarship.

….

In the mean time, if the Archives can support your project from a distance, please feel free to contact me. The selection committee has authorized a $50 photocopy duplication fee / postage credit for your project to be used by the end of 2012.

That’s nice of them. Not even sure what I will do with the micro-grant.

The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 2

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May 292012
 

Chapter 2 goes into some exposition on Anastasia’s background, such as her field of study, English Lit. She’s doing a paper on Tess of the D’Urbervilles (I guess Wuthering Heights would have been too on-point). It also introduces Jose, Ana’s platonic friend, and I believe he’s supposed to be the Jacob analog in this parallel universe.

The sibling-like relationship between Ana and Jose is another reiteration of the theme of Ana’s (figurative and perhaps literal) virginity. Again, it’s so strongly emphasized that it becomes a little suspect.
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The Curious Kinky Person’s Guide to Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 1

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May 262012
 

It’s generally a bad sign when a book written in a female character’s first-person POV opens with her looking at herself in a mirror. In short order, I knew more about how Anastasia Steele looked and dressed than anything else about her. To be fair, this may be attributed to EL James’ background in television, in which visuals, dialogue and action tell the story, instead of introspection or exposition.
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Fifty Shades of Grey commentary: Introduction

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May 252012
 

So, why a read-through on EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey? And why should anybody listen to what I say about it?

I’ve been involved in the BDSM culture for twenty years. I’ve organized parties, served as communications coordinator for organizations, and was a founder of Metro Vancouver Kink, and then served on the board for three years.

I have a parallel career in studying the history of BDSM, since at least 2005. I also have a BA in History and a certificate in journalism. This blog is to document my research towards a finished book on the subject.

I’ve also been writing BDSM erotica for about the same time, including a story in the Circlet Press anthology S/M Futures, entries in several other Circlet anthologies, and a collection of steampunk erotica short stories, The Innocent’s Progress & Other Stories.

I’m writing this series because, first, this book is a matter of historical interest. This is a book that has bridged the gap between the mainstream and BDSM erotica.

Second, for better or for worse, this book will be a lot of people’s first exposure to BDSM, and past experience has taught me that people tend to “imprint” on whatever they encounter first, and retain those ideas later in their BDSM careers. Fifty Shades needs to be scrutinized and, if necessary, corrected in order to properly educate people new to BDSM.

I should also mention that I have not read any of the Twilight books, or seen any of the movies, or even read the Twilight fanfiction, “Master of the Universe”, upon which Fifty Shades of Grey is based.

So, come and join me as we walk through the story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

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