I've been trying to wrap my brain around it as well. It's hard not to generalize about the readership, but one comment on Amazon made me pause. The responder was objecting to a reviewer who stated that people who liked this must not read a wide enough variety or very much erotica. The person who commented stated - "I loved Fifty Shades and Twilight, and I've read a lot of erotica and a broad range of books, I'd thank you not to generalize about my tastes or judge them." (Or something to that effect.)
It's not the fact that women are reading it that surprises me so much as the media's weird reaction to it, as if this is a new thing or hasn't been done before. And there isn't that much of it? Making me wonder once again about our media. Did somebody decide to inundate the media with press releases on the book? Whoever marketed this thing..has done a brilliant job. I had an art teacher once who bemoaned the fact that the bad artists always had the best business marketing sense and new how to market their work, while the excellent and interesting artists couldn't figure it out and as a result were rarely seen. (She's not wrong, with few exceptions, the best artist's work rarely is seen until after they are dead and some marketing whiz with good taste discovers it.)
We live in a world that is dominated by media and marketing. The most powerful entity is "the media". It's the US' main import - our media and communications. The richest industry in NYC is advertising and marketing/communications. How we package and market information.
And that entity is run mainly by men. Which may explain the reaction to Fifty Shades of Grey as well as Twilight...both books are tales about an innocent girl-woman (not a woman, but a girl on the cusp of womanhood) being educated in what it is to be a woman. Also the woman who wrote it is a television executive apparently (she also has two small children), as are the women hailing it. Women who work in male dominated fields, and fight daily. Who in their working lives must be stronger and more aggressive then their male colleagues to get ahead. My cousin is a quality engineer, the main provider in her family, and works as the supervisor of a lot of men in a manufacturing plant - she adored the Twilight novels, and probably would love this as well.
I've also noticed a pattern in these best-selling novelists...the writing is about second to third grade level. No big words. Very simple. Which is what they teach you to do in journalism - to write to a third grade audience reading level. You can scan a lot of it - so no concentration required. They tend to be fast reads. And the characters fit certain archetypes or tropes that are prevalent. Also class warfare is often an issue - usually rich guy, middle class girl or in the pulp male novels...rich gal/poor guy or sometimes its the poor guy taking down the rich guy with lots of bullets. Structurally the narrative is linear and easy as well. And? It ends happily.
The reader can get the book as an ebook, read it anywhere, specifically the bus or subway, and not have to work too hard to get the gist.
For people who have mentally and emotionally exhausting/stressful occupations such as television, engineering, motherhood, etc...these books could well be a relief.
I struggle with it a little because...well I read this stuff at the age of 15.
And having talked to a lot of my relatives about it - many of whom did love the Twilight novels, I've realized something...they haven't had the time to read as much as I did, nor the opportunity, nor the educational background. One Aunt is just getting around to reading pulp novels that I read as teen, in her 50s. She wasn't into reading as a teenager. While I read four books a week.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-03-17 03:29 pm (UTC)It's not the fact that women are reading it that surprises me so much as the media's weird reaction to it, as if this is a new thing or hasn't been done before. And there isn't that much of it? Making me wonder once again about our media. Did somebody decide to inundate the media with press releases on the book? Whoever marketed this thing..has done a brilliant job. I had an art teacher once who bemoaned the fact that the bad artists always had the best business marketing sense and new how to market their work, while the excellent and interesting artists couldn't figure it out and as a result were rarely seen. (She's not wrong, with few exceptions, the best artist's work rarely is seen until after they are dead and some marketing whiz with good taste discovers it.)
We live in a world that is dominated by media and marketing. The most powerful entity is "the media". It's the US' main import - our media and communications. The richest industry in NYC is advertising and marketing/communications. How we package and market information.
And that entity is run mainly by men. Which may explain the reaction to Fifty Shades of Grey as well as Twilight...both books are tales about an innocent girl-woman (not a woman, but a girl on the cusp of womanhood) being educated in what it is to be a woman. Also the woman who wrote it is a television executive apparently (she also has two small children), as are the women hailing it. Women who work in male dominated fields, and fight daily. Who in their working lives must be stronger and more aggressive then their male colleagues to get ahead. My cousin is a quality engineer, the main provider in her family, and works as the supervisor of a lot of men in a manufacturing plant - she adored the Twilight novels, and probably would love this as well.
I've also noticed a pattern in these best-selling novelists...the writing is about second to third grade level. No big words. Very simple. Which is what they teach you to do in journalism - to write to a third grade audience reading level. You can scan a lot of it - so no concentration required. They tend to be fast reads. And the characters fit certain archetypes or tropes that are prevalent. Also class warfare is often an issue - usually rich guy, middle class girl or in the pulp male novels...rich gal/poor guy or sometimes its the poor guy taking down the rich guy with lots of bullets. Structurally the narrative is linear and easy as well. And? It ends happily.
The reader can get the book as an ebook, read it anywhere, specifically the bus or subway, and not have to work too hard to get the gist.
For people who have mentally and emotionally exhausting/stressful occupations
such as television, engineering, motherhood, etc...these books could well be a relief.
I struggle with it a little because...well I read this stuff at the age of 15.
And having talked to a lot of my relatives about it - many of whom did love the Twilight novels, I've realized something...they haven't had the time to read as much as I did, nor the opportunity, nor the educational background.
One Aunt is just getting around to reading pulp novels that I read as teen, in her 50s. She wasn't into reading as a teenager. While I read four books a week.