#Grey
Sex sells, there’s no question about
that. People’s appetite for sex—be it good sex, bad sex, hilarious sex, or bondage
sex, etc, in words and in video—is huge. The success of the Fifty Shades of
Grey trilogy by E. L. James is an ample attestation. Since the publication of
the original novel, the trilogy has sold over 125 million copies globally, with
the film adaptation of the first book grossing over $569 million.
And success, like alcohol, intoxicates.
In the case of E. L. James, that’s not exactly a bad thing. She decided to take
advantage of the huge success of her books as well as people’s appetite for a
kinky sex saga, to propose a ‘rewrite’, entitled “Grey”, this time, told from
Christian Grey’s perspective. Not surprisingly, it has been the top Kindle
pre-order book of 2015 on Amazon.
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| Steele & Grey (pictured in the film adaptation) |
Now, the reviews are in and some of
them are not flattering. “It’s full of recycling,” wrote Jim Dandy on Amazon.
“Recycled plot, recycled characters, recycled dialogues—James must’ve had a
breeze, not having to come up with new things to write. But reading it was no
breeze.” Many people commented on the
review, agreeing with him.
The Economist’s view was not flattering either.
“Considering such commercial savvy, it is disappointing that the author and her
publishers are so bereft of ambition. The events covered in “Grey” are an exact
facsimile of those in the first novel…”
Reviews in the Daily Mail
by Libby Purves expressed the same disappointment. “With crafty economy of
effort, Ms James has simply shadowed the whole plot of Book One, reproducing
the clunky polystyrene dialogue word for word, and inserting italicised
thoughts by Christian himself… James also reproduces all the tediously samey
sexual encounters, from the couple's first tryst, in which Grey refrains from
hitting Anastasia, to the final flogging which makes her — very temporarily —
leave him, on the bizarre pretext that she cannot be 'what he really wants’.”
And Bryony Gordon, reviewing the book for The Telegraph, didn’t like it either. “This, then, is the best the
21st century can come up with in terms of romantic literary heroes –
a cut-price Mr. Darcy in nipple clamps,” he wrote. “It is as sexy as a misery
memoir and as arousing as the diary of a sex offender.”
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| Fabrizio Ristori & Elisa (pictured in the TV series) |
Now, let me tell you a story. In 2003, Italy’s Channel 5 aired a
television series called “Elisa of Rivombrosa,” which became unexpectedly
successful. Inspired by the 1740 novel, Pamela,
or Virtue Rewarded, the series, set in the Piedmont region of Italy, was
about a love story in 17th century Italy between a young Italian
Count, Fabrizio Ristori, and his mother’s maid, Elisa. The series aired 26
episodes spanning two seasons and ended with a bang, making television history
in Italy. Though the story had effectively run its course, the producers, seemingly
intoxicated by their success, became emotional during the closing ceremony, promising
to return with another season.
They did, this time, with “The Daughter of Elisa—A return to
Rivombrosa.” But the surprise element that catapulted the original series to
success was no longer there. “The Daughter of Elisa…” compared to the first,
was a resounding flop. In fact, in no other instance had the Italian saying, “A
reheated soup is never good,” been truer.
There is a little similarity between this event and E. L. James’
decision to release “Grey,” not in economic terms but in terms of appeal and
novelty. No matter, the reviews of “Grey,” in a way, are as disappointing as
they make the book out to be. Writing in The
Guardian, Jenny Colgan, said, “In some ways, Grey, the follow-up to EL
James's bestseller, is almost the same book. It is as if every line of
dialogue, every legal contract that sets out Christian Grey's sub-dom
relationship with Anastasia Steele, every email from the first volume has been
cut and pasted in. We follow each scene in the same order, except this
time we see it from Christian's point of view.”
Exactly! And therein lies the triteness of the reviews.
The author hadn’t promised to write a new story. Indeed, based on
that alone, “Grey” is neither a disappointment nor a literary failure. It was
simply proposed as a ‘rewrite’ of the original story to make readers “see the
world of Fifty Shades of Grey anew through the eyes of Christian Grey.”
Now, this is my view. After being wowed by the story in three
original Fifty Shades books, if people, unable to curb their craving for a
bondage saga and kinky sex, wanted to ‘hear’ the same story told from a
different perspective, then every attempt to demean the effort, is
hypocritical.
