This 2700 word article juxtaposes both ends of polarized public opinion, one silently devouring the book and film, the other passionately vocal about its social worth while labeling it nothing more than pornography.
But from a storytelling perspective, the extraordinary success of "50 Shades of Grey" (the trilogy) is as much a strategic application of storytelling principles as it is simply pandering to a common denominator of reader fantasy. While far short of great literature, it is nothing short of a social phenomenon that demands closer artistic examination.
Written by bestselling author and writing teacher Larry Brooks, this essay does not seek to change minds. Rather, it explains why 100 million copies and a blockbuster movie took over the marketplace for escapist fiction and changed the landscape of erotica, and in doing so turns the story itself into a microcosmic laboratory for the forces of story that E.L. James, despite your opinion of her prose, so powerfully harnessed.
But from a storytelling perspective, the extraordinary success of "50 Shades of Grey" (the trilogy) is as much a strategic application of storytelling principles as it is simply pandering to a common denominator of reader fantasy. While far short of great literature, it is nothing short of a social phenomenon that demands closer artistic examination.
Written by bestselling author and writing teacher Larry Brooks, this essay does not seek to change minds. Rather, it explains why 100 million copies and a blockbuster movie took over the marketplace for escapist fiction and changed the landscape of erotica, and in doing so turns the story itself into a microcosmic laboratory for the forces of story that E.L. James, despite your opinion of her prose, so powerfully harnessed.
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Used availability for Larry Brooks's What You May Have Missed About 50 Shades of Grey