Making
large claims based on a small knowledge base is my personal style. So
why not analyse the significance of the fastest-selling fiction book
in history without having read any of it? I've read plot and
character descriptions, mostly from critical reviews, and it seems to
me that to explore the mysterious grip a particular fictional work
has on the public imagination requires only a basic knowledge of what
kind of story it is. The details and the quality of the writing are
irrelevant. These might be relevant to someone, such as a publisher,
trying to make a decision about whether or not a book will be
popular. But if a book already is popular, literary quality is
irrelevant to understanding why. One would imagine that most of
George Orwell's books were about equally well-written, but it was
Animal Farm and 1984 which captured the public
imagination because of their themes. This is equally true in the
realm of pulp fiction. Nobody claims that Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey are many hundreds of times better written than
books which sell hundreds of times fewer copies. They are simply
books which have thematically captured the public imagination. And it
is quite likely that the very things for which critics attack them
are a major factor in their popularity. What the sophisticate views
as a crude and annoying caricature or cliché may come across to the
fan as a bold archetype free from irrelevant nuance. And it stands to
reason that our response to archetypal characters will depend on our
relationship to that archetype in ourselves or in those around us.
What attracts one will repel another. Our ability to identify with an
archetypal character depends on our own psychological struggle. A man
who is insecure in his masculinity may strongly identify with Rambo,
while others might find his alpha male arrogance and aggression
repellant. What is relevant to analysing the cultural importance of a
work of the imagination is that fans respond positively to the
character archetypes it presents. And it is that positive response
which we have to understand. The imagination is inescapably
prophetic. This has nothing to do with talent in writing,
characterisation or plotting and it is something which is as true in the
world of the pulp novel and the comic book as it is in the world of
high class literature, in fact often more so as, in the literary
world, a book's value is not judged by how many of us it speaks to.
But once we understand the psychological evolution which is taking
place in our society we can see it symbolised all around us in our
popular culture. The prophets are no longer self-aware individuals
crying in the wilderness, they are now pulp novelists and Hollywood
scriptwriters probably totally unaware of the role they are playing
in showing us the way ahead.
As I
understand it Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels are about a
dominant/submissive relationship between a man who is handsome, rich
and powerful, but filled with self-loathing, and a timid virginal
woman. To me this seems a very powerful metaphor for our neurosis as
a species. This neurosis takes an active or passive form. In the
active form we feel the compulsion to try to control others who
represent to us that which we fear in ourselves. And we strive to
accumulate material wealth as a way to compensate for the poverty
within, the lack of self-acceptance, the self-loathing. Fearing
ourselves we come to fear and need to control others. Feeling
worthless we become obsessed with physical evidence of our worth. In
the passive form our neurosis is expressed in submission and
conformity. Not accepting ourselves we crave acceptance from others,
even at the cost of our own degradation.
Because
our neurosis originated in a division of labour along gender lines
when men took up the task of protecting the tribe against predators
while women remained in the nurturing role which had previously been
shared by both men and women, men, historically, have tended to
express their neurosis in an active form and women in a passive form.
This is only a tendency. There have always been many actively
neurotic women and passively neurotic men, but the patriarchal
society, particularly, has encouraged men to take the active role and
women the passive. The current collapse of patriarchy has to some
degree decreased discrimination against actively neurotic women and
passively neurotic men.
But the
fan base for Fifty Shades of Grey is clearly among passively
neurotic heterosexual women, therefore the issue with which it deals
is the need for a reconciliation with the actively neurotic man. And
the method for healing is sex. It is through a sexual relationship
that the man is liberated from his self-loathing and the woman from
her repression.
To
understand the dominant/submissive relationship we have to recognise
that our society, having repressed its natural sexuality for over a
million years, is deeply frightened by the erotic. The erotic is
anarchic. It is subversive. And therefore those of us who seek
control over ourselves or over others have much to fear from erotic
desire. Our first step in taming ourselves as individuals and as a
society was to repress our sexuality. Those who do not do this have
historically been referred to as libertines – i.e. they have been
viewed as dangerously free individuals. And one of the biggest
threats to patriarchy is female sexuality. Male sexuality could be
harnessed as a tool of oppression, but female sexuality can only
liberate. And for the neurotic society that is something to be
feared. Hence, in some cultures, little girls have their clitorises
cut off. Patriarchal society is obsessed with the madonna/whore
dichotomy – the idea that the “pure", virginal woman
(i.e. a woman who has been especially successful in repressing her
natural sexuality) is the source of all things good in society while
the sexually uninhibited woman is seen as a source of social
sickness. Of course the truth is mixed. Breaking the oppressive rules
of patriarchy could unleash violent jealousies and promiscuity could
spread disease, but prostitutes brought much needed sexual healing to the very society which condemned them.
The
archetype of the libertine setting women free from their sexual
repression has been around for a long time. In the British
underground erotic classic The Way of a Man with a Maid, which
was published in about 1908, the rake hero kidnaps a woman, forcibly
strips her naked, chains her up in his basement and then tickles her
with a feather until she submits to him sexually. She is horrified by
this rape, but through it she discovers that sex is loads of fun and
so she teams up with the hero and they kidnap another woman. And so
it goes as our hero adds to his band of horny bisexual women. But
this was a novel of its time. The hero is not portrayed as
self-loathing, and the women spend no time agonising over the process
of their liberation. There is no angst, just a fantasy about
undermining the sexually buttoned-down Victorian society. And the
book could not reach a wide audience, but was restricted to only the
most decadent among the ruling class.
Sexual
dominance and submission, which may be restricted to role play or may
include the use of bondage and/or the infliction of pain, is
sometimes the intermediary stage of liberation from sexual
repression. It is still a form of repression of the erotic, but it
creates a context in which the insecure individual may feel protected
while expressing or exploring erotic feelings. Those who practise
this lifestyle very often explain how it makes them feel safe. In
BDSM the erotic is not allowed unrestricted expression. If the erotic
is a wild animal, then in BDSM we pat it while it is safely in a
cage. The active neurotic still plays a dominant role and the passive
neurotic still plays a submissive role. In same cases the role may
the reverse of the one the individual enacts socially, but even here
adherence to an agreed upon structure is what makes it feel safe.
So Fifty Shades of Grey represents an intermediary
stage in our liberation from our neurosis. It is sexual liberation
with the training wheels on. But what would complete liberation
from sexual repression look like? I think an unleashing of female
sexuality will heal the divide between the sexes. We will return to
something approximating our origins as a species when men and women
where nurturers and much that we associate with masculinity was
unnecessary. The character armour of masculinity will be abandoned
once we move beyond fear of the erotic. All that is needed is for us
to feel safe. Where strength is necessary it will be the real
strength which men and women have always been capable of when not
divided against themselves by neurosis. The macho mentality is a
hollow shield, it has never been true strength. And bisexuality is
likely to gradually become the norm. Fear of same-sex eroticism is an
element of the neurosis which divides us. Playfulness and sensuality
not just centred in the genitals are liable to characterise the
sexuality of the free state.
In
recent times there has been an increasing fascination with
transgender individuals. Who would have thought that we would see
full-frontal transexual nudity in a major Hollywood movie? But we did
in last years The Hangover II. I think that the reason for
this fascination is because in the hermaphrodite we see a symbolic
image of our future as a species. We see a single figure in which the
masculine and the feminine are united. And we are comforted. This is
part of the nature of the healing vision which is emerging. The
disowned become the treasured. In the New Testament – Matthew
21:24 – it says : Jesus said to them, “Have you never
read in the Scriptures : ‘The stone the builders rejected has become
the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our
eyes'? Now I'm not suggesting that Jesus was talking
exclusively about chicks with dicks. But it is a part of the nature
of our neurosis that we have most deeply repressed and despised what
we most needed for our liberation. And thus it should be no surprise
if those who were considered freaks or losers or outsiders become the
front riders towards a new society.
The
popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey has struck us like lightning.
Where did that come from, we ask ourselves. Why is this the fastest
selling fiction book in history? Why are so many women suddenly
coming out of the closet about their sexuality? Jesus said : For
as the lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the
west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:27.
The breakdown of the repressive neurotic patriarchal society is also
a breakthrough to Paradise and it comes, as was predicted, in a rush.
You can also find this post on the How to Be Free forum here. You may find further discussion of it there.
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