BDSM has been hot media topic lately — have you read 50 Shades of Grey yet?

Update February 2015: I did read the book, and I watched the movie. I’ll link to my reactions shortly.

Sorry, I just snarfed my ADD-drug laced coffee. The actual question should be have I had time to read or watch anything for pleasure since I started filming. The answer is, not really. Pretty much the only reading I’ve done is non-fiction, and the only watching I’ve done is at other people’s homes, on other people’s cable. I’m the girl who doesn’t know what Justin Bieber is or what Katy Perry looks like. In fact, I actually made a rule that I wouldn’t watch any movies in theaters I haven’t already seen so that I wouldn’t be swayed by anything too contemporary. I made an exception for A Dangerous Method and Jackass 3D, as Cronenberg is already a huge influence… and I’m really interested in the capabilities of the Phantom camera’s frame-rate capabilities.

But I digress and geek out.

It’s strange to have mixed feelings about a book I’ve never read. Obviously I’m aware of it, aware of the reactions to it on both sides of the thin grey chalk line between the kinky and the vanilla. I’m thrilled that so many people are coming out about their personal fantasies and exploring new ones as a result.

But this shit ain’t new. Kink has been present in variety of literature and media since time immemorial — I dare you to find a sexy song lyric that doesn’t somehow incorporate power exchange. Ever listen to the lyrics to “Wrapped Around Your Finger” by The Police?

But I have never seen such a massive CONSCIOUS and ACCOUNTABLE response to kinky literature like I’ve seen with the 50 Shades audience. Unlike Anaïs Nin or the Marquis de Sade or The Story of O or even certain parts of The Decameron, this book is in people’s beach bags, not suffering from a broken spine in some remote closet corner, pages stuck to the handle of a Hitachi magic wand.

One of the major critiques of the book I’ve heard, however, is that it presents an unrealistic situation. I’m proud to say that’s one area Remedy has strived to avoid. My mission statement doesn’t prioritize titilation in the same way this novel seems to. It’s a side effect, certainly, but not the POINT of the movie. Rather, I wanted to figure out a way to SHOW how BDSM feels, but in the context of a service industry. It was a balancing act, for sure, to figure out how to include the subtleties of a “civilian” kinky relationship in the film, since we never see Remedy in those situations out of session. I will address this in another Q&A question soon regarding the level of fictionalization required to turn my year and a half story into a two hour film.

Anyway, that’s my long winded answer. The short one is, I’m looking foward to reading it on the subway when Remedy is completed. But I’ll probably borrow someone else’s copy.