Though Fifty Shades of Grey seems to have left the Censor Board’s panties in a twist and we may not even get to watch it in India, I’m glad I reread E.L. James’s erotic trilogy in the run-up to the film’s worldwide release on February 13. Because these three books merit a revisit. On the first read, one is so overwhelmed (read shocked, titillated, aroused, embarrassed and intrigued) by all that’s happening to Ana that one fails to appreciate the series for what it really is — a manual on pleasure.
When the books came out in 2012, many people, including some of us at t2, had said that whips and walloping aside, this is a sweet love story. I would like to revise that assessment after my second read. The Christian Grey-Anastasia Steele story is not something that inspires romance in me. If I ever dated a billionaire and he dared to buy up the company I worked for “to keep me safe”, I’d give him a taste of my very own version of the Red Room of Pain and there would be nothing erotic about it!
And Christian may look like a Greek god with pants hanging sexily off toned hips, but he’s a nag of nuclear proportions. Have you eaten? Are you safe? Don’t talk to other men, don’t work, don’t drive, don’t drink except with me, that skirt’s too short, you are only mine… arrgh!
What these books really do is make you think about pleasure. Your own pleasure, your partner’s pleasure, the pursuit of pleasure and pleasure as the purpose of sex. Once the shock value wanes, and you stop laughing at the antics of Ana’s inner goddess and rolling your eyes at Christian’s control freakery (sorry, the bad language rubs off!), you can actually get down to some serious BDSM business.
One of the biggest points the Fifty Shades pleasure manual makes is that BDSM is consensual and meant for the pleasure of both. “We aim to please” is a two-way traffic and that is something couples, especially those in long-term relationships, often forget.
The Fifty Shades pleasure manual lays bare — albeit in rather poor prose — the myth that sex is either about making sweet love or about loveless humping, when in fact it is more often than not something in between.
Concepts aside, this is also a manual on all kinds of kinky toys that big boys and girls can play with. Not just whips, handcuffs and chains, there are plugs, balls, beads, clamps, spreader bars and more and a handy guide on how to use them and what is likely to happen to you when you do.
The reason why I feel Fifty Shades has sold over 100 million copies is because it reminded married and harried mommies that sex is fun, not a chore to be completed in between soccer practice and vacuuming.
Well, the movie may or may not release in India, and the sex may or may not survive the Censor Board’s morality clamps, but let’s use this renewed interest in Fifty Shades to crack open those books and embrace our inner sexual selves with open arms… and legs.
Fifty Shades has not only hotted up the bedroom but also the book rack. All city bookstores agree that erotica sales have picked up after the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey. “This genre is growing at approximately 12 per cent per year, which is above par with other genres. At Oxford Bookstore, we have a section on sexology and erotica. Erotica is a comparatively new addition but is easily the most growing and well-stocked part, owing to its demand,” said a spokesperson for the Park Street bookstore.
Sidharth Pansari of Story bookstore said the same. “Books like Fifty Shades have somehow helped bring a lot of non-readers into reading books, especially soft erotica. The genre has greatly appealed to middle-aged women. After the release and popularity of this trilogy, a lot of people have been candid in reading and discussing such a subject. The introduction of authors like Sylvia Day and Portia Da Costa has also helped,” he said. Sidharth, in fact, rued how demand was outstripping supply in this genre, both internationally and in India. “This category has good scope and potential. If good original content and writing is available, there will be good takers.”
POPULAR TITLES IN EROTICA
- The Crossfire Trilogy by Sylvia Day
- A Pleasant Kind of Heavy and Other Erotic Stories by Aranyani
- Blue: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories from Sri Lanka edited by Ameena Hussein
- Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories edited by Ruchir Joshi
- Eighteen Plus: Bed Time Stories For Grown-ups by Apurv Nagpal
- Wicked Pleasure by Lora Leigh
- After by Anna Todd
- Sita’s Curse by Sreemoyee Piu Kundu
- The Company of Women by Khushwant Singh
- Play With Me by Ananth
- The Pleasures of Summer by Evie Hunter
- Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture by Sylvain Reynard
- In Too Deep by Portia Da Costa
(Source: Oxford Bookstore, Story, Starmark & Flipkart)
