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Busting bad dish!

Fifty Shades of Grey Author E.L. James on Today Show: “This Is My Midlife Crisis”

VIDEO

(NBC)

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is the erotic publishing phenomenon that’s captivated Hollywood and pushed Barbara Walters to the edge.

Author E.L. James has mostly stayed out of the public eye, but she appeared on Tuesday’s “Today Show” to talk about her stunning, out-of-nowhere literary success.

VIDEO BELOW

“This is my midlife crisis, writ large,” explains James. “All my fantasies out there.”

Asked if there’s anything “revolutionary” about “Fifty Shades of Grey,” James laughs and says, “Absolutely not.”

She describes being “obsessed” with writing the material for two years but “stunned” by its enormous popularity.

As for the appeal of the dominant-submissive sexual relationship outlined in the pages of “Grey,” James says, “Once you’re in charge of your job, your house, your children, getting the food on the table, doing all of this, all of the time… it’d be nice for someone else to be in charge for a bit maybe.”

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  • Brian

    She looks like she would be a Twilight fan

  • Anonymous

    Funny thing is I think is a fan of the books

  • Anonymous

    my best friend’s mother brought in $19791 a month ago. she has been making cash on the internet and got a $349700 home. All she did was get blessed and set to work the clues explained on this web page… http://cashathom.blogspot.in

  • Regina1180

    FSoG was Twilight fanfiction first.

  • Sheelly

    Icy needs to back to her bunker and leave us all alone. She’s a untalented hack who compulsively lies. Look at her body language, eye blinking, etc. MotU sucked. Oh, sorry…FSoG sucked.

  • Wendy

    Untalented? No. When’s the last time you got a book published?

  • lisa

    I was watching the previews before The Hunger Games the other day when something about these books came on screen and I almost had a nervous breakdown trying to figure out from where I knew the name “fifty shades”. Then it hit me: MotU. I only remember reading a few chapters from it, because that Edward completely freaked me out, but congratulations to the author for turning ff into such a successful book series!

  • Emily

    I want to read it

  • Peaceoutalyssa

    she kind of icky looking

  • Lola

    And since when getting published means being talented? It means being lucky and/or, in her case, controversial. Hah.

  • wrong

    big flippin deal all i see is a bunch of jealous hags that are upset that Icy got the pure COJONES to publish her stuff , it may be shit to you (but i bet u both Lola and Shelley where those original fans of the fic that talked abt thier inner goddess all the damn time) but its popular , women love the sexual fantasy you are just upset that the fanfic world is known more now its not the twihards dirty little secret it used to be

  • Susanbirchall51

    The inspiration is Twilight but the story is definitely way off It is not particularily eloquent but is a book that is not easily put down once you have started and its addictive To call it Mommy porn is very insulting but this is why it is selling Deal With it Ladies like to read smut too but this smut has heart and a lot of laughs and tears too

  • http://twitter.com/Rhysdux Rhysdux

    BDSM fiction has been published for quite some time. Some women writers started doing so in the 1930s. It’s been a category for most romance publishers for, depending on the press, ten to thirty years. What James published was not shocking or extreme; the only “BDSM” in the first book involved spankings and mild bondage. There are far edgier acts.

    What James was very good at was marketing. Three times, she managed to sell the story of a young woman who spends most of the book scared and intimidated by a partner who stalks her, hits her for the terrible crime of rolling her eyes at him, calls her offer to pay for breakfast “completely emasculating” and carries her into his parents’ boathouse for, in his words, “a punishment fuck”, when she doesn’t allow him to finger-fuck her in front of her parents…as a love story. It’s not…but she doesn’t want to accept that what she actually wrote was a story of abuse and Stockholm syndrome, despite the fact that hundreds of rape and domestic violence survivors have told her that she has conflated BDSM with abuse.

    If James had written a story about a person who found they enjoyed being ordered around in the bedroom by a person that they knew, understood, loved and trusted, and if both of them knew what they were getting into, fine. More power to them! I would hope that they would enjoy themselves.

    But that’s not what she wrote. She wrote about a shallow young woman who “loves” a man because he’s handsome, rich, smells great and gives her great orgasms, and who says in the text that she’s going along with sexual things that she doesn’t like because she’s afraid that he’ll dump her otherwise. And the handsome man likes having Ana around because, in his words, she’s “got a great body and a smart mouth.” The first for sex, and the second to give him an excuse to hit her. Truly, a love story for the ages, this.

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