Read Online Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey by Lori Perkins - Free Book Online
Authors: Lori Perkins
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they shout it from the rooftops. When Christian pays $100,000 for a dance with Ana at the Coping Together benefit, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a similar scene in
Gone with the Wind
when Rhett exclaims, “Mrs. Charles Hamilton—one hundred and fifty dollars … in gold.” How could you not fall for these rebels who will sweep you off your feet at any cost regardless of who they shock in the process?
In addition to being natural-born romantics, Byronic heroes are great listeners and are attentive to their lady’s needs. They recognize that women want someone to take care of them. From the beginning, despite his stalker-esque tendencies, Christian makes Ana feel safe and protected. These guys pay attention. After one coffee date, Christian knows how Ana takes her tea, what size she wears, and that the key to her heart lies in a first edition of
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
. When she is hung over, heis there waiting with orange juice and two Advil. She’s feeling naughty; he’s got Ben Wa balls for her to wear to a black tie charity gala at his parents’ home. Job security? He buys her a publishing company. Clothes? Personal shopper. Unsafe car? Have this Audi. Your Audi got trashed by my psycho ex? Here’s a Saab. Like to read? How about the entire British Library on an iPad? Her wish is his command.
These characters give their women all they ever wanted and expose them to things they never even knew existed. Ana says, “It makes me feel powerful, strong, desired, and loved—loved by this captivating, complicated man whom I love in return with all my heart.” Isn’t that what we, as women, long for? To be pursued and desired? To find someone to love and cherish us? Women have always wanted honest, trusting, and committed relationships, and now we are thinking we would also like a playroom with a “soft-boudoir Elizabethan-torture setup.” What better testament of trust than letting your boyfriend tie you up when you know his butt plug collection is vast enough to encompass an entire bureau? Implicit trust, giving yourself over—mind, body, and soul—to someone else … well, it doesn’t get much hotter than that. We crave that level of ultimate intimacy; the mind-blowing, kinky sex is just an added bonus.
Romance, undivided attention, and being desired beyond our wildest dreams are all known to get our juices flowing, but there is one more thing that makes the Byronic hero irresistible: he resonates with the female fantasy of bad boy reformation. Ana’s dilemma is age old: “He’s not a hero; he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark. Can I not guide him into the light?” Ah yes, the thoughts of every girl in love with every bad boy since the beginning of time. What makes Christian different from that tattooed guy with the motorcycle you dated senior year of high school just to piss off your parents is that this beautiful and broken man is flawed but willing to change. His admission that he is “fifty shades of fucked up” gives us hope that, with a little faith andsome patience, any flawed man can be saved. By nature, it is his very brokenness that makes this otherwise “unobtainable” man attainable. The fact that this ridiculously handsome, powerful, wealthy, and kind man could fall for any one of us if we took the time to care, took the time to save him, is appealing on multiple levels. Christian Grey is perfect in his imperfections because we want to save him and be saved in the process. Ana says, “There’s nothing I can teach him. I have no special skills,” but ends up teaching him the most valuable lesson of all: how to love and be loved in return. She becomes his lifeline; in the end love saves the day.
It is a beautiful thought that love really can conquer all, and it is obvious that Fifty Shades is an erotic, modern fairy tale complete with happy ending (no pun intended). However, merely establishing that Christian Grey is a Byronic
Gone with the Wind
when Rhett exclaims, “Mrs. Charles Hamilton—one hundred and fifty dollars … in gold.” How could you not fall for these rebels who will sweep you off your feet at any cost regardless of who they shock in the process?
In addition to being natural-born romantics, Byronic heroes are great listeners and are attentive to their lady’s needs. They recognize that women want someone to take care of them. From the beginning, despite his stalker-esque tendencies, Christian makes Ana feel safe and protected. These guys pay attention. After one coffee date, Christian knows how Ana takes her tea, what size she wears, and that the key to her heart lies in a first edition of
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
. When she is hung over, heis there waiting with orange juice and two Advil. She’s feeling naughty; he’s got Ben Wa balls for her to wear to a black tie charity gala at his parents’ home. Job security? He buys her a publishing company. Clothes? Personal shopper. Unsafe car? Have this Audi. Your Audi got trashed by my psycho ex? Here’s a Saab. Like to read? How about the entire British Library on an iPad? Her wish is his command.
These characters give their women all they ever wanted and expose them to things they never even knew existed. Ana says, “It makes me feel powerful, strong, desired, and loved—loved by this captivating, complicated man whom I love in return with all my heart.” Isn’t that what we, as women, long for? To be pursued and desired? To find someone to love and cherish us? Women have always wanted honest, trusting, and committed relationships, and now we are thinking we would also like a playroom with a “soft-boudoir Elizabethan-torture setup.” What better testament of trust than letting your boyfriend tie you up when you know his butt plug collection is vast enough to encompass an entire bureau? Implicit trust, giving yourself over—mind, body, and soul—to someone else … well, it doesn’t get much hotter than that. We crave that level of ultimate intimacy; the mind-blowing, kinky sex is just an added bonus.
Romance, undivided attention, and being desired beyond our wildest dreams are all known to get our juices flowing, but there is one more thing that makes the Byronic hero irresistible: he resonates with the female fantasy of bad boy reformation. Ana’s dilemma is age old: “He’s not a hero; he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark. Can I not guide him into the light?” Ah yes, the thoughts of every girl in love with every bad boy since the beginning of time. What makes Christian different from that tattooed guy with the motorcycle you dated senior year of high school just to piss off your parents is that this beautiful and broken man is flawed but willing to change. His admission that he is “fifty shades of fucked up” gives us hope that, with a little faith andsome patience, any flawed man can be saved. By nature, it is his very brokenness that makes this otherwise “unobtainable” man attainable. The fact that this ridiculously handsome, powerful, wealthy, and kind man could fall for any one of us if we took the time to care, took the time to save him, is appealing on multiple levels. Christian Grey is perfect in his imperfections because we want to save him and be saved in the process. Ana says, “There’s nothing I can teach him. I have no special skills,” but ends up teaching him the most valuable lesson of all: how to love and be loved in return. She becomes his lifeline; in the end love saves the day.
It is a beautiful thought that love really can conquer all, and it is obvious that Fifty Shades is an erotic, modern fairy tale complete with happy ending (no pun intended). However, merely establishing that Christian Grey is a Byronic
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