‘Fifty Shades’ away from a conventional course

A step away from conventional topics — it’s how professor Stef Woods likes to teach.

A pop culture phenomenon that spurred conversation, sparked controversy and broke records in online sales is what influenced the American University (AU) adjunct professor to develop the syllabus for her newest spring semester course, “The 50 Shades Trilogy.”

http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/campuslife/fifty-shades-away-from-a-conventional-course 

Fifty Shades of Grey - Anastasia?

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Der Gott der geilen Dinge

Nicholson Baker hat einen Porno-Roman geschrieben, angeblich das versauteste Buch aller Zeiten. Doch in Wirklichkeit ist "Haus der Löcher" lustig und letztlich politisch.

So viele Wörter für ein Stück Fleisch. Dingdong, Pollock, United Parcel, Malcolm Gladwell, Woody, langes Stück Geilheit, Mandingo, Moschusficker, Dickschwanz, massiger, pornokirrer Saftsprüher, wildgewordener Jacquard und langer Knochen, mmmf.

Nicholson Baker hat sicher sehr gelacht, als er sich diese Wörter ausdachte, so sehr, dass sein wuscheliger weißer Bart bebte. Er scheint überhaupt viel Spaß beim Schreiben seines neuen Romans "Haus der Löcher" gehabt zu haben, das ein lustiges, leichtes, helles Buch geworden ist über den angeblich so dunklen, verdrängten, schmutzigen Sex, der uns im 21. Jahrhundert, so heißt es ja stets, vor allem in der Form der Pornografie begegnet.

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-83588405.html 

Fifty Shades of Grey Publishing House Rewards Staff with $5,000 Christmas Bonuses

Best corporate Christmas party ever? At Random House’s holiday soiree on Wednesday night, Markus Dohle, the chief executive of the publishing company, interrupted the evening’s festivities to announce that employees would be receiving $5,000 bonuses after an especially profitable year. The especially profitable year being a result, in large part, of earnings from E. L. James’s erotic best-seller, Fifty Shades of Grey. It is unclear whether Dohle, now one of the best bosses ever, also spent the evening personally refilling his employees' drinks and suggesting they take the next day off of work.

Per The New York Times, thousands of staffers, “from top editors to warehouse workers,” will receive the $5,000 bump in their next paycheck. Those ineligible for the bonus—who have worked at the company for less than a year—will receive a prorated check. In related news, the friends and family members of Random House employees would like to add a few items to their holiday gift lists this year.

The announcement was predictably met with minutes’ worth of cheering. Congratulations, Random House employees.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2012/12/fifty-shades-of-grey-christmas-bonus-random-house-employees 

#TwitterFiction: Endless Possibilities in 140 Characters or Less

If you’ve spent a lot of time on Twitter this past weekend, you might have noticed the hashtag #twitterfiction. That’s because of something called the Twitter Fiction Festival, a five day “virtual event” that, in the words of the company’s Andrew Fitzgerald, promoted Twitter as “a frontier for creative experimentation,” with writers from five continents writing everything from real-time murder mysteries to 140 character poetry — with Tweet epitaphs and remixed Shakespeare in there, along the way — across the course of the weekend. While the festival made for some great reading — Elliott Holt’s effort, in particular was both enjoyable and something that could only really be done on Twitter, allowing readers to unpack (and try to solve) a mystery from the various pieces offered up by three different participants in their tweets — the idea of using Twitter as a new way of telling stories has been around almost as long as Twitter itself.

http://entertainment.time.com/2012/12/05/twitterfiction-endless-possibilities-in-140-characters-or-less/ 

"Fifty Shades of Grey" Inspires Baby Names for 2012 Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-Inspires-Baby-Names-for-2012.html#ixzz2EZYDvvZc

The list for this year’s most popular baby names is out and it looks like parents found inspiration from trendy sources that range from technology to "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Holding on to the number one spot for several years now is Sophia and Aiden, which was no surprise to Linda Murray, global editor-in-chief of BabyCenter.  What she didn’t expect were names from a certain libido-enhancing bestseller.

“Earlier this year, we heard moms telling us [Fifty Shades of Grey] is an aphrodisiac and helping them get pregnant,” Murray told NBC's "Today" show. “Grey is up, Anastasis is up and Ana.” 

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-Inspires-Baby-Names-for-2012.html 

'Mommy Porn? How dare men put down women’s sexual fantasies’

It was by chance that EL James, the creator of the publishing phenomenon of the year, Fifty Shades of Grey, began writing about sadomasochistic sex. While browsing in a bookshop in Hampstead some years ago, she picked up Macho Sluts, a collection of eye-wateringly explicit stories of dominatrixes and dungeons by American author Pat Califa.

“It was my first taste of something really hardcore, and I thought: this is interesting. After that, I read some more BDSM [bondage and discipline, dominance and submission and sadomasochism] and wondered: what would happen if someone from that world met somebody who didn’t know anything about it?”

That idea was the kernel of the Fifty Shades trilogy, a sequence that has coined the salacious moniker “mommy porn”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9729588/Mommy-Porn-How-dare-men-put-down-womens-sexual-fantasies.html 

Bookworm by Atelier 010

Bookworm is the sculptural answer to a commission to design and produce an organic bookcase. Due to the curved shape, the case also offers a place to sit and relax.

The self-supporting shape consists of three parts, which are assembled on site and kept upright by a stainless steel foot in the sidewall. Bending thin layers of MDF and plywood across custom-made molds creates the curved shape. The outsides of the walls are spray-painted in colour, whilst the insides are fresh in white. A light bulb dangling from the top of the worm gives light to the reader’s eyes.

http://www.contemporist.com/2012/11/22/bookworm-by-atelier-010/

Durchs wilde Kelgurien

Petrarca lebte hier, von 1341 an, also kurz vor und während der großen Pest, die seine Laura dahinraffte; dichtend und träumend und wandernd im Vallis Clausis, dem heutigen Fontaine de Vaucluse. Bis hinauf zum Mont Ventoux ist er marschiert, danach hatte das Natur- und Landschaftserleben eine ganz neue Stimme. Vermutlich ist er auch an den Ufern der Sorgue spazieren gegangen, die später, in gewisser Hinsicht aber auch früher Kelmarinbach heißen sollte und hier einer Höhlung unter der Stirn jenes Bergmassivs entspringt, ganz plötzlich aus einem dunklen Quelltopf. Nach schweren Regengüssen füllte der Topf sich an und stürzte brausende Kaskaden den Tobel nieder, die Fluten grünend von Kresse - wie man es heute noch sehen kann, das grünlich schimmernde Pflanzenwerk im silbrig sprudelnden Fluss, sei es nun Kresse oder was auch immer.

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/reise/provencialisches-mittelalter-durchs-wilde-kelgurien-11967350.html 

Even Literary “Bad Sex Awards” Think Fifty Shades of Grey Is Beneath Them

First off, did you know that there even is a Bad Sex in Fiction Award? Ever since 1993, the Literary Review has singled out “the author who produces the worst description of a sex scene in a novel,” resulting in both the public shaming of the author and the discouragement, its editors hope, of “crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description” in the future. But before the Literary Review announces the winner and awards him/her with a statuette—a naked woman sprawled over a book—the British magazine reveals its shortlist for the year, as it did earlier this week, along with a particularly damning sexual passage from each of the nominated titles. More surprising than the cringe-worthy extracts, however, is the fact that this year’s most popular sex novel to deny you’ve read is not included on this year’s shortlist.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2012/11/literary-bad-sex-awards-fifty-shades-of-grey-el-james?mbid=social_twitter 

What Mary Thought: ‘The Testament of Mary’ by Colm Tóibín

I once recommended Colm Tóibín’s The Master to one of my students. It has nothing to do with P. T. Anderson’s movie—Tóibín’s book is all about the masterful novelist Henry James. But not everyone knows Henry James’s work. My student didn’t. Nonetheless when several weeks later I debriefed him, it was clear that it almost didn’t matter. Tóibín’s deft act of characterization had come through.

I’m not sure I’d recommend Tóibín’s new book, The Testament of Mary, to anyone who hasn’t at least looked at a Christmas crèche and spared a thought for the Virgin’s dignity and her poise. You don’t have to be a Roman Catholic to respond, at a deep level, to Tóibín’s new book. But a novel about the Virgin Mary can’t help but be a provocation—a gift, if you will—to those of us who care.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/18/what-mary-thought-the-testament-of-mary-by-colm-t-ib-n.html 

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek gestartet

Die Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, ein gemeinsames Internetportal der Kultur- und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen in Deutschland, ist in einer ersten Version gestartet. Vertreter von Bund und Ländern schalteten am Mittwoch in Berlin den Zugang zu der Datenbank frei. Unter der Adresse www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de kann jedermann jetzt in dem öffentlichen Bestand nach Büchern, Bildern, Filmen, Noten und Musikstücken suchen. Derzeit trägt das Angebot noch die Bezeichnung "beta" im Titel, als Hinweis darauf, dass es sich um ein noch im Aufbau befindliches Projekt und nicht die finale Version der Seite handelt. 

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/deutsche-digitale-bibliothek-gestartet-a-869793.html 

Betraying Physical Books: A Book Lover’s e-Dilemma

I am a very big fan of books. Over the years I have collected a library of close to 2,500 books of all kinds, with 300-plus dedicated to cooking and 200-plus focused on travel. I even have some first editions of Hemingway and Steinbeck favorites. And for decades, books were my travel companions on my many trips to Europe and Asia.

http://techland.time.com/2012/12/03/a-book-lovers-e-dilemma/