~50 Shades of Grey~..Scandalous,Maybe,Really??..NO!

Let me just set the record straight..."50 Shades of Grey" is by no means the first attempt at depicting carnal knowledge & the various means of expressing that knowledge through taboo acts...as recent Media would have us think!

Every generation has had and will continue to have a "50 Shades of Grey"! It is simply Trendy Literature to awaken the sense and sensibilities of the new explorers_the 20 somethings & refresh the memory of 30+somethings maybe forgotten_or put on the back burner because of careers and children and well...LIFE! BONUS,ding,ding,ding!!..It may be the Second coming of a new generation of "Baby Boomers" in the making.

If one endeavors to read other Genres besides Erotic Literature_(doesn't seem right using the word Literature to describe this form of writing..it is what it is)_one would learn that even the Bible alludes to lewd and lascivious acts.Greek Mythology in the 5th century gave us Oedipus_who was jealous of his father,wanted his father dead and desired to sleep with his mother;18th Century England gave us the novel "Fanny Hill (1748)_...Whoa...setting a new standard in literary smut with pictures no less depicting the acts_(Note To Self: read this book);heck,there's even a Phallic Museum in Reykjavik,Iceland;Ancient Indian Hindu's Kama Sutra..supposedly composed around 200 B.C.has all kinds of pictures and a section on "The Essence of Biting"...,say what?.

The Creme de la Cream_the MotherLoad is_the scandalous writings of my main man_Marquis de Sade_

In response to the highly acclaimed  Epistolary novel "Pamela" by Samuel Richardson (read this book a couple of yrs ago_my namesake)_Sade wrote "Justine,or the Misfortunes of Virtue".This book was sooooo scandalous Napoleon Bonaparte ordered him arrested and his book censored!!Imagine a censored book in France,no! Even more poignant,watching the 2000 movie Quills_loosely based on Marquis de Sade life...well,I'm still "speechless" and I watched the movie in 2010!

BUT, that was topped by my curiosity about the life of Roman Emperor Caligula (37 A.D. to 41 A.D.).Talk about "Bite Off More Than You Could Chew"..."Caligula"(1979)movie_Italian-American biographical film directed by Tinto Brass with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui & Penthouse Founder_Bob Guccione (when I saw his name,I should have heard a little voice saying_"Ma'am back away from the Video". I don't think I will ever fully recover from that movie..."I'm still having Post Traumatic Caligula Syndrome"...Not for the Faint at Heart..try at your own risk! I needed therapy after this movie.....

There are a host of books,films,etc.that top E.L.James "train ride to work writings" as she stated in a recent interview.Reminds me of that scene in the movie "Unfaithful"(2002) where Diane Lane starts thinking of her intimate time with my "boyfriend"Oliver Martinez_and starts to play it out while on the train in plain view..enough said! One newspaper critic said_50 Shades... it's a page turner alright,if you can suffer through 500 pages of the heroine's torturous dialogue,not in a sexy kind of way_the age old female submission_depressing really!Not on "My 2012 Summer & Fall Reading List"!

50 Shades of Grey_controversial,yes,scandalous,maybe,first writings of this kind...REALLY?..that would be.....NO!


                                    ~My 2012 Summer & Fall Reading List~
Novels:
The Man by Irving Wallace
Elspeth Huxley:A Biography by C.S. Nichols
No Adam In Eve by Grace Metalious_(finished)
The Tight White Collar by Grace Metalious_(finished)
5th Avenue,5Am by Sam Wasson
The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka
The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
The Scarlett Contessa,A novel of the Italian Renaissance by Jeanne Katogridis
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys(Saw the movie..awesome!)
Joy & Pam by Dorothy Whitehall(1920's girl's book series,I have a friend named Joy)

History:
Shipcarvers of North America by M.V.Brewington
Last Call "Prohibition" by Daniel Okrent
Red,White & Black_The Peoples of Early America by Gary Nash
Life Along the Silk Road by Susan Whitefield
Scandalous Women,The Lives  & Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by E.Mahon

Philosophy:
Harvard Classics:Descartes,Voltaire,Rousseau,Hobbs(French & English Philosophers(1889)
Anam Cara_A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue
Michel De Montaigne_The Complete Essays(reading,this will take some time but interesting)

Antiques:
Veilleuses,A Collectors Guide,A Definitive Review of Ceramic Food & Tea Warmers (1750-1860 by Harold Newman

Travel:
Land's End by Michael Cunningham (wrote The Hours(1998),movie based on book) reading now.


             ~READING,IT DOES A MIND GOOD~