Fifty Shades of Snow
Feb. 9th, 2015 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicPreviously, on "![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bironic Reads the Fifty Shades Trilogy":
Book two: Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 3
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 2
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 1
Now, I did read Fifty Shades Freed right after finishing book two, but then I didn't post about it. It was going to take more effort than I had available to make sense of the final characterizations and explain my disappointments about the conclusion.
That was almost two years ago. Checking Wikipedia confirms that I have forgotten pretty much the entire plot. What I did do before returning the book to the library was type up some passages I'd flagged. They've been sitting in a Word doc. Even though the details of the story have fled my brain, I wanted to share these notes as we gear up for the release of the film adaptation.
You see, because I continue to want to dip into particular canons firsthand instead of relying on other people's often polarized and non-nuanced opinions, and perhaps because I am living out the saying that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" with this series, I have this kernel of hope that the movie will do something right. Even if that something is not "distill this bloated 1,500-page narrative into two hours."
What I do remember about the third book is that, as feared, therapy and love cure Christian of the "worst" of his predilections for dominance and sadism, Ana has their baby, he buys them a giant house on the coast, and they live happily ever nuclear-family after with the occasional spanking session.
Er -- I think that's what I remember? It definitely wasn't Ana and Christian negotiating a mutually thrilling BDSM-heavy lifestyle.
Well. Let's turn to the textual evidence.
Ana experienced some moments of real joy and relaxation during/after kinky sex with Christian. (I think this was after kinky sex. Maybe it was just a bath. Sigh.) (Okay, no, the second excerpt was definitely after kinky sex.)
The anxiety, the bad mood, the thrill, fear, and excitement, of the car chase have all gone. I'm relaxed—finally sated and calm. As we enter our bathroom, I yawn loudly and stretch… at ease with myself for a change.
"What is it?" Christian asks as he turns on the faucet.
I shake my head.
"Tell me," he asks softly. […]
I flush. "I just feel better."
Images of us together, in the playroom; the Tallis, the table, on the cross, shackled to the bed… I love his kinky fuckery—our kinky fuckery. Yes. I can do that stuff. I can do that for him, with him. I can do that for me. My skin tingles as I remember the riding crop. (528)
But just as often, she felt overwhelmed and conflicted.
He groans loudly and thrusts deep, again and again, over and over, and I am lost, trying to absorb the pleasure. It's mind-blowing … body blowing… I long to straighten my legs, to control my imminent orgasm, but I can't… I'm helpless. I'm his, just his, to do with as he wills… Tears spring to my eyes. This is too intense. I can't stop him. I don't want to stop him… I want… I want… oh no, oh no… this is too… (39)
Sometimes Christian acted like a decent human being.
"You didn't promise to obey," he told her on page 14. Probably in the context of how she is encouraged to talk back to him outside the sex room.
Other times, stuff he said edged into the uncomfortable.
"I want your world to begin and end with me," he says, his expression raw. (146)
One time, Ana called him out on his BS. It was most welcome.
"I will take your silence as an admission that you did indeed return to Seattle because I CHANGED MY MIND. I am an adult female and went for a drink with my friend. I did not understand the security ramifications of CHANGING MY MIND because YOU NEVER TELL ME ANYTHING." (229)
There was more kink shaming/boundary policing/equating of kinkiness with brokenness.
"I know you're not going to beat the shit out of me."
"I wanted to."
"No you didn't. You just thought you did." (235)
"You are one kinky son of a bitch. Out. I don't want you to watch me pee. That's a step too far." (309)
There were some enjoyable-to-this-reader kink scenes.
My notes say: "entire page of noncon play! (314-5)"
And: "Ties her legs apart on the couch (396)"
When Ana got pregnant, her first thought wasn't about whether she wanted to keep the child. It wasn't about seeking counseling for the turmoil in her head and heart. It was about what Christian's reaction would be. Soon after breaking the news, she focused on comforting him about his insecurities about being a father. On the bright side, this exchange happened:
"I know the timing's not very good."
"Not very good!" he shouts. "We've known each other five fucking minutes." (419)
I don't know if I bookmarked this for being cute or for being another example of how much more experienced Christian was than Ana and therefore how much more carefully he should have been negotiating with her. Let's go with "cute," since it's implied the reader knows what he's talking about even if Ana doesn't:
"You know, you're topping from the bottom," he murmurs against my lips.
"What?" I don't understand what he's talking about.
"Don't worry. I'll live with it," he whispers, amused. (531)
It seemed like each cute moment was undercut by a gross one.*
"And you're making money in these difficult times," Christian adds, his voice reflecting his pride. "But… I like you barefoot and in my kitchen." […]
"I like that too," I murmur, and he kisses me, his hands still spread across my bump. (541)
*Okay, okay, no, that's not exactly fair; as at least one critic argued while comparing Bella from Twilight to Katniss from The Hunger Games, feminism should celebrate women who decide what they want regardless of the patriarchy and then go and get it, even if what they want is a "traditional" feminine role.
Still. Stuff like this discomfited me even as it made me snort. Ana compares her baby's mood swings to her husband's:
My mercurial little boy, just like his dad. Well, at least he has an excuse—he's two. (542)
The appendix was the best part of the book and possibly of the series. There was an epilogue, similar to the Harry Potter epilogue, in which everyone was paired off and child-rearing and generally happy in the sunshine. Then there was this addendum, in which EL James reimagined Christian and Ana's first meeting from Christian's point of view. It was kind of great. He displayed the sort of wry, testosterone-soaked, predatory perspective you suspected was in his head. If only the books had been consistent enough that you could imagine he'd been like this the whole time. If only we'd been gifted with alternating POV chapters or something. Here is the part I excerpted for posterity:
Clear, bright-blue, embarrassed eyes meet mine and halt me in my tracks. They are the most extraordinary color—guileless, powder-blue—and for one awful moment, I think she can see right through me. I feel… exposed. The thought is unnerving. She has a small, sweet face that is blushing now, an innocent pale rose. I wonder briefly if all her skin is like that—flawless—and what it would look like pink and warmed from the bite of a cane. Fuck. I stop my wayward thoughts, alarmed at their direction. What the fuck are you thinking, Grey? This girl is much too young. She gapes at me, and I almost roll my eyes again. Yeah, yeah, baby, it's just a face, and the beauty is only skin deep. […]
In command once more, I study her. She's quite attractive, in a gauche way […]
As she grows more and more flustered, it occurs to me that I could refine her motor skills with the aid of a riding crop. Adeptly it can be used to bring even the most skittish to heel. The errant thought makes me shift in my chair. She peeks up at me and bites down on her full bottom lip. Fuck me! How did I not notice that mouth before?
"Sorry, I'm not used to this."
I can tell, baby […] but right now I don't give a fuck, because I can't take my eyes off your mouth. (558-60)
And probably some other stuff as well.
Like, what is this note? "(somewhere, the orgasm denial freakout)"
Alas. Lost to time.Like tears in rain.
Sorry, that wasn't very funny. Have this GoodReads review I just found. It's great, except for the part between the Boy Meets World and jumping Jensen Ackles gifs, wherein she says not-nice things about EL James herself.
We'll see what the movie brings.
In the meantime, snow. How much is on the ground, you didn't ask? I will tell you anyway. There is so much snow on the ground that I cannot gauge how much new snow has fallen. Like yesterday I woke up and things looked exactly the same as Saturday but it turned out we got 3 inches overnight. It has been snowing since then, and it is supposed to continue to snow until the wee hours of the night. The Globe says we've gotten 12 inches in the last 24 hours?That's what Ana Steele said. I seriously can't tell. The picnic table and chairs in the backyard have been buried. The snow banks are taller than the cars wedged between and alongside them I am. More predicted for Thursday. Boston has already blown through its historical 7- and 30-day snowfall records. Wahoo.
bironic Reads the Fifty Shades Trilogy":Book two: Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 3
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 2
Fifty Shades of Grey, part 1
Now, I did read Fifty Shades Freed right after finishing book two, but then I didn't post about it. It was going to take more effort than I had available to make sense of the final characterizations and explain my disappointments about the conclusion.
That was almost two years ago. Checking Wikipedia confirms that I have forgotten pretty much the entire plot. What I did do before returning the book to the library was type up some passages I'd flagged. They've been sitting in a Word doc. Even though the details of the story have fled my brain, I wanted to share these notes as we gear up for the release of the film adaptation.
You see, because I continue to want to dip into particular canons firsthand instead of relying on other people's often polarized and non-nuanced opinions, and perhaps because I am living out the saying that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" with this series, I have this kernel of hope that the movie will do something right. Even if that something is not "distill this bloated 1,500-page narrative into two hours."
What I do remember about the third book is that, as feared, therapy and love cure Christian of the "worst" of his predilections for dominance and sadism, Ana has their baby, he buys them a giant house on the coast, and they live happily ever nuclear-family after with the occasional spanking session.
Er -- I think that's what I remember? It definitely wasn't Ana and Christian negotiating a mutually thrilling BDSM-heavy lifestyle.
Well. Let's turn to the textual evidence.
Ana experienced some moments of real joy and relaxation during/after kinky sex with Christian. (I think this was after kinky sex. Maybe it was just a bath. Sigh.) (Okay, no, the second excerpt was definitely after kinky sex.)
The anxiety, the bad mood, the thrill, fear, and excitement, of the car chase have all gone. I'm relaxed—finally sated and calm. As we enter our bathroom, I yawn loudly and stretch… at ease with myself for a change.
"What is it?" Christian asks as he turns on the faucet.
I shake my head.
"Tell me," he asks softly. […]
I flush. "I just feel better."
Images of us together, in the playroom; the Tallis, the table, on the cross, shackled to the bed… I love his kinky fuckery—our kinky fuckery. Yes. I can do that stuff. I can do that for him, with him. I can do that for me. My skin tingles as I remember the riding crop. (528)
But just as often, she felt overwhelmed and conflicted.
He groans loudly and thrusts deep, again and again, over and over, and I am lost, trying to absorb the pleasure. It's mind-blowing … body blowing… I long to straighten my legs, to control my imminent orgasm, but I can't… I'm helpless. I'm his, just his, to do with as he wills… Tears spring to my eyes. This is too intense. I can't stop him. I don't want to stop him… I want… I want… oh no, oh no… this is too… (39)
Sometimes Christian acted like a decent human being.
"You didn't promise to obey," he told her on page 14. Probably in the context of how she is encouraged to talk back to him outside the sex room.
Other times, stuff he said edged into the uncomfortable.
"I want your world to begin and end with me," he says, his expression raw. (146)
One time, Ana called him out on his BS. It was most welcome.
"I will take your silence as an admission that you did indeed return to Seattle because I CHANGED MY MIND. I am an adult female and went for a drink with my friend. I did not understand the security ramifications of CHANGING MY MIND because YOU NEVER TELL ME ANYTHING." (229)
There was more kink shaming/boundary policing/equating of kinkiness with brokenness.
"I know you're not going to beat the shit out of me."
"I wanted to."
"No you didn't. You just thought you did." (235)
"You are one kinky son of a bitch. Out. I don't want you to watch me pee. That's a step too far." (309)
There were some enjoyable-to-this-reader kink scenes.
My notes say: "entire page of noncon play! (314-5)"
And: "Ties her legs apart on the couch (396)"
When Ana got pregnant, her first thought wasn't about whether she wanted to keep the child. It wasn't about seeking counseling for the turmoil in her head and heart. It was about what Christian's reaction would be. Soon after breaking the news, she focused on comforting him about his insecurities about being a father. On the bright side, this exchange happened:
"I know the timing's not very good."
"Not very good!" he shouts. "We've known each other five fucking minutes." (419)
I don't know if I bookmarked this for being cute or for being another example of how much more experienced Christian was than Ana and therefore how much more carefully he should have been negotiating with her. Let's go with "cute," since it's implied the reader knows what he's talking about even if Ana doesn't:
"You know, you're topping from the bottom," he murmurs against my lips.
"What?" I don't understand what he's talking about.
"Don't worry. I'll live with it," he whispers, amused. (531)
It seemed like each cute moment was undercut by a gross one.*
"And you're making money in these difficult times," Christian adds, his voice reflecting his pride. "But… I like you barefoot and in my kitchen." […]
"I like that too," I murmur, and he kisses me, his hands still spread across my bump. (541)
*Okay, okay, no, that's not exactly fair; as at least one critic argued while comparing Bella from Twilight to Katniss from The Hunger Games, feminism should celebrate women who decide what they want regardless of the patriarchy and then go and get it, even if what they want is a "traditional" feminine role.
Still. Stuff like this discomfited me even as it made me snort. Ana compares her baby's mood swings to her husband's:
My mercurial little boy, just like his dad. Well, at least he has an excuse—he's two. (542)
The appendix was the best part of the book and possibly of the series. There was an epilogue, similar to the Harry Potter epilogue, in which everyone was paired off and child-rearing and generally happy in the sunshine. Then there was this addendum, in which EL James reimagined Christian and Ana's first meeting from Christian's point of view. It was kind of great. He displayed the sort of wry, testosterone-soaked, predatory perspective you suspected was in his head. If only the books had been consistent enough that you could imagine he'd been like this the whole time. If only we'd been gifted with alternating POV chapters or something. Here is the part I excerpted for posterity:
Clear, bright-blue, embarrassed eyes meet mine and halt me in my tracks. They are the most extraordinary color—guileless, powder-blue—and for one awful moment, I think she can see right through me. I feel… exposed. The thought is unnerving. She has a small, sweet face that is blushing now, an innocent pale rose. I wonder briefly if all her skin is like that—flawless—and what it would look like pink and warmed from the bite of a cane. Fuck. I stop my wayward thoughts, alarmed at their direction. What the fuck are you thinking, Grey? This girl is much too young. She gapes at me, and I almost roll my eyes again. Yeah, yeah, baby, it's just a face, and the beauty is only skin deep. […]
In command once more, I study her. She's quite attractive, in a gauche way […]
As she grows more and more flustered, it occurs to me that I could refine her motor skills with the aid of a riding crop. Adeptly it can be used to bring even the most skittish to heel. The errant thought makes me shift in my chair. She peeks up at me and bites down on her full bottom lip. Fuck me! How did I not notice that mouth before?
"Sorry, I'm not used to this."
I can tell, baby […] but right now I don't give a fuck, because I can't take my eyes off your mouth. (558-60)
And probably some other stuff as well.
Like, what is this note? "(somewhere, the orgasm denial freakout)"
Alas. Lost to time.
Sorry, that wasn't very funny. Have this GoodReads review I just found. It's great, except for the part between the Boy Meets World and jumping Jensen Ackles gifs, wherein she says not-nice things about EL James herself.
We'll see what the movie brings.
In the meantime, snow. How much is on the ground, you didn't ask? I will tell you anyway. There is so much snow on the ground that I cannot gauge how much new snow has fallen. Like yesterday I woke up and things looked exactly the same as Saturday but it turned out we got 3 inches overnight. It has been snowing since then, and it is supposed to continue to snow until the wee hours of the night. The Globe says we've gotten 12 inches in the last 24 hours?
