Author Topic: 50 Shades of Grey.  (Read 6770 times)

Offline Pugnate

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50 Shades of Grey.
« on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 02:27:11 AM »
http://tribune.com.pk/story/424271/book-review-fifty-shades-of-grey/

I am kinda stunned by how crazy well the book has sold. I have nothing against the author. I am happy for any writer. But it blows my mind how well this has sold.

Offline ScaryTooth

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #1 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 05:39:11 AM »
I read a little bit of it at the grocery store a couple weeks ago, and it's as if a 14 year old girl learned everything she knew about sex from her just as uninformed 14 year old friends, and wrote this book. It's horrible. 

Offline Xessive

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #2 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 06:13:47 AM »
Ok, now I have to read it! I have to see how bad this is!

Offline PyroMenace

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #3 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 06:21:06 AM »
Haha, its that idea that got that book as a best seller.

Offline Cools!

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #4 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 08:34:08 AM »
Quote
But things get out of control when they turn to BDSM.

Haha. Great review Pug!

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #5 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 11:52:54 AM »
You should have plenty against the author. Fucking twat is going to be rich as hell for the rest of her stupid life over an unoriginal and horrendously-executed idea which is currently being lauded by the ignorant as life-changing literature, demonstrating to impressionable young women that it's perfectly acceptable to pursue sociopaths with the hope of changing their behavior by giving them everything they want.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline PyroMenace

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #6 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 01:54:28 PM »
Well... at least people are still reading.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #7 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 02:01:21 PM »
They'd be better off shoving their ereaders into the garbage disposal.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline PyroMenace

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #8 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 02:05:01 PM »
E-Readers... will it blend?

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #9 on: Sunday, August 26, 2012, 02:13:44 PM »

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline scottws

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #10 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 06:26:32 AM »
I don't really get how this thing sold so well either.  It's not like it is the first erotic novel for women.  Maybe it is like some of the women I talked to said: it has sort of a Twilight-esque cover instead of an artist's rendering of Fabio.  Then as it gained more traction it gained the spotlight as a curiosity and by then there was no stopping this freight train.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #11 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 07:18:52 AM »
It sold so well because it was originally Twilight fan-fiction released on the Internet under the title Master of the Universe. They just swapped the character names to make it publishable. And when something gains enough momentum, it just keeps going, especially when it comes to easily-digestable shlock.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Xessive

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #12 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 07:55:03 AM »
It sold so well because it was originally Twilight fan-fiction released on the Internet under the title Master of the Universe. They just swapped the character names to make it publishable. And when something gains enough momentum, it just keeps going, especially when it comes to easily-digestable shlock.
Holy shit, that explains a lot!

Also, Master of The Universe? Could it not have been He-Man fan fiction?

Offline scottws

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #13 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 08:52:01 AM »
I did not know that and I agree that it explains quite a bit.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #14 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 09:17:55 AM »
It makes me wonder how many people actually even know how this shit came about. Women love Twilight, and women love 50Shits, but I honestly haven't read anything about how many people understand where the latter originated. It's basically creative plagiarism, cannibalizing someone else's characters, but this sort of thing is becoming increasingly common. Unfortunately, these are also what sell the most. If you look at a lot of what's "hot" on different sites, you've generally got a bunch of other series someone shat out in a weekend to capitalize on the craze, with covers almost exactly like the 50Shits books and similar "stories" (if you can call bestow that title on something without a plot).

In fact, a couple of comedians "wrote" a fake book by passing it around on the Internet and having random people write completely disjointed chapters that had no relationship to each other, compiled this into a book, took a picture that looked similar to 50Shits and crew, and then put it up for sale. I want to say it made it to #4 or #5 on iTunes for a while. According to this article on businessinsider.com, it was selling for a buck and made almost 20 grand in 3 days. God knows how much they've made in total. I'm too depressed to research it.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline scottws

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #15 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 10:16:16 AM »
It's not just the contents, it's the cover too.  Notice how all the new books targeting women have a cover that looks like Twilight.  All black with a picutre some object and either grayscale or just a single color.

But it's not just books.  It's everything.  When Survivor was big, everyone was trying to create a new reality show game in the hopes it would gain the same sort of popularity.  Maybe there is even something to say regarding how this concept might have been at play with Samsung trying to capture interest in the smartphone and tablet markets.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #16 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 12:04:45 PM »
Mob mentality. Most people refuse to have a legitimate opinion in favor of just picking up someone else's, which often goes for whatever is counter to the mob as well.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cools!

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #17 on: Monday, August 27, 2012, 12:17:23 PM »
Mob mentality. Most people refuse to have a legitimate opinion in favor of just picking up someone else's, which often goes for whatever is counter to the mob as well.

Pretty much.

Offline Pugnate

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Offline Pugnate

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #19 on: Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 06:06:07 AM »
Some of the comments from my review linked up top are hilarious.

Quote
I’m a men. and i really do love the book. It was so good!

He is a men.

Offline gpw11

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #20 on: Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 11:02:17 PM »
That American chick I was dating was all over these books.  A.) huge red flag.  B.) They sound like the worst shit ever. Seriously.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #21 on: Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 11:51:15 PM »
I used to read Hardy Boys as a kid. At the time I also glanced through some of my sister's teen books when bored. They were all written better than this book.

Que, I don't resent her because she wrote a book to the best of her ability. If anyone should be resented, it is the people who have made it such a success I suppose.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #22 on: Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 04:55:53 AM »
To each, his own.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cools!

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #23 on: Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 08:01:35 AM »
That American chick I was dating was all over these books.  A.) huge red flag.  B.) They sound like the worst shit ever. Seriously.

Please continue.


Offline gpw11

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Re: 50 Shades of Grey.
« Reply #24 on: Saturday, September 01, 2012, 08:26:13 PM »
Hahaha. That's all I have, sadly. The upside is it helped me realize that she's dumb as shit.  I mean, I've read some pretty light books (every Harry Potter and Hunger Games book), but it's kind of different.  Sort of.