ABC: Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Slate Books

Slate Podcasts

Arts

3.8 • 546 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2015

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the release of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie in theaters this week, wandering minds are drifting back towards the world of E.L. James’ blockbuster erotic novel. In this episode of the Audio Book Club, previously published around the height of Fifty Shades mania, Slate culture editor Dan Kois, Slate culture critic Meghan O’Rourke, and Slate DoubleX founder Hanna Rosin debate the merits of the book. O’Rourke describes it as maybe the worst book she’s read in her life, but still has quite a bit to say about the book’s issues of class. Rosin expanded on her ideas from her March 2012 piece about the book’s sexual politics and admitted that a second read had led her to better understand why every woman she knew was reading and loving the book. Kois attempted to perform Christian Grey’s “gray gaze” on the radio. Hear their two-year-old predictions of what the film, now in theaters, might look like. Note: This episode contains spoilers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains explicit language.
0:09.0	Hello, this is the Slate Audio Book Club's discussion of El James's novel, 50 Shades of Grey.
0:15.3	I'm Dan Coise, editor of the Slate Book Review, and I'm joined here in Slate's DC recording studio by Hannah Rosen, Slate's
0:22.3	double-X editor. Hi, Hannah. Hi, Dan. And in our New York studio, we have Megan Norwork,
0:27.4	culture critic for Slate. Hi, Megan. Hi, Dan. Welcome, everyone, to the Red Room of Pain.
0:32.7	We are here to discuss the gazillion selling erotica, 50 Shades of Gray, the first in a trilogy of books that
0:39.1	began as Twilight fan fiction, and have turned into a phenomenon all their own. 50 Shades is about
0:44.7	Anastasia Steel, our innocent virginal heroine, a senior about to graduate from college, and
0:50.5	Christian Gray, millionaire industrialist who can't keep his hands off her, nor his
0:55.4	riding crops or floggers or belts.
0:58.4	Beads, eggs.
0:59.4	Beads, eggs, everything, and his hands.
1:02.6	Christian is a Dom.
1:04.1	He wants Anastasia to be his sub, but she wants more.
1:07.1	And the plot tension in the novel derives from whether they can find a way to love each other
1:10.6	that satisfies both his needs and hers.
1:13.9	Hannah, I'm going to start with you because you wrote about 50 Shades a couple of months ago, and you wrote about Anna in particular.
1:19.9	Our heroine is not one of Fabio's ravishing redheads or Raven beauties.
1:24.5	She says things like, holy crap, and writes witty emails.
1:28.8	She has never really been kissed or even tempted, preferring to spend her evenings in the library. She is pale and scruffy,
1:33.5	and so uncoordinated that when she first meets Christian, she trips and falls onto the floor.
1:38.3	She is, in other words, all brain. And the point of her is to show that any woman can override
	...

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