Dusk Spank Chapters 6, 7 & 8 Or, 'We Need to Talk About Christian'

And now we reach problematic chapters 6, 7 and 8 of FSOG. Sorry Bella / Ana / Annie, I’m taking over for this one. For purposes of this chapter, ‘original’ character names will be used.

We need to talk about Christian. I think he grooms Ana. Don’t jump in and say, ‘But she’s an adult!’ firstly, abusers DO groom their victims, and secondly, Ana is infantilised throughout the book. She claps her hand like a child, giggles like a child, says she feels like a child. Let’s look at the evidence for grooming.

1)      Buys her gifts

First it’s the books, later on it’s a phone, laptop and a car. The phone and laptop are so he can control the contact he has with her. In Darker, he gets angry with her for using her work computer to contact her, telling her to use the Blackberry (it would seem simpler for her to use a private email account instead of a work one, but that’s a writer fail there.) He will also go on to buy her jewellery and even a whole publishing company.

2)     Gives her alcohol

To make her compliant enough to sign the NDA, show her the Red Room of Pain and the contract. These chapters made me so angry I wanted to smash things.

Ana is a virgin. She blushes at the thought of sex; she’s embarrassed to even tell Christian she’s a virgin. When she does tell him, he charmingly calls it a ‘situation’. This is not the man to lose your virginity to. She’s also drunk, so her ability to make decisions (and therefore to consent) is impaired, but Christian has sex with her anyway.

I find it hard to believe that Ana, a 21 year old university student, has never had sex or kissed anyone (EL James forgets about the ‘never been kissed’ bit in Freed and Ana talks about kissing boys when she was in high school.)

So I find it hard to believe that Ana would go from ‘never been kissed’ to ‘orgasmic sex kitten’ in a few pages. SHE’S NEVER HAD SEX BEFORE. Wouldn’t she want to try other things first? Like, French kissing, hand-jobs and oral sex? Go on a few 'getting to know you' dates and do some of the beginner sex stuff first? I know that this isn’t the way most adult sexual relationships would go, but Ana isn’t a normal adult. We’re repeatedly told of her inexperience, her naivety, her innocence. She doesn’t even know if his penis will fit inside her! This is not a girl that should be having sex on a second date, and this is not a girl that should be going into a ‘BDSM’ relationship (I put BDSM in quotes, because that isn’t what Christian is in to, he’s just into controlling and hitting women, he doesn’t care if they like it or not.)

That's better!

3)     Ingratiates himself into her family / isolates her

This doesn’t happen until later in the book, when Ana goes to visit her mum to get some space. Christian then TURNS UP and he charms Ana’s mother.

Oh mom, et tu, Brute?

‘You too, Brutus?’  These were said to be the last words of Julius Caesar before he was assassinated. I am not sure what Ana’s mum has actually done – she’s not betrayed Ana, but it tells you something about Ana’s feelings for Christian and they’re not healthy.

Mother of the year award goes to Carla:

‘Wow’ she mutters. ‘Ana, there’s something going on between you two. I’ve been trying to figure it out since you arrived here,’

Ana starts crying, probably because she wants her mum to say what most mums would say, which is, ‘What a fucking weirdo, flying all this way when you said you needed some space, I don’t like him, he’s a creep,’

But Carla says:

‘I don’t care how rich you are, you don’t drop everything and get in your private plane to cross a whole continent just for afternoon tea. Go to him! This is a beautiful location. It’s also neutral territory.’

Just think about this for a minute. Imagine you go on holiday with your mum, because you need some time out from your confusing relationship. You’re in Greece, you’re in a taverna, having a few cocktails before dinner. Then imagine that the man you’ve been seeing for a couple of weeks (and it is only a couple of weeks by this point) walks in and announces he got a package flight to come and see you. Is it still ‘romantic’? It’s not romantic. It’s weird.

Christian makes it clear that he does not like Kate, Jose or Paul, further isolating her from support networks.

As Ana has signed the NDA, she is prevented from telling anyone about what’s going on in the relationship.  I’d argue that she was coerced into signing the NDA, so it doesn’t stand.

4)     Emotional manipulation

Those of you that have read and remembered the book, I want to try and describe Ana. What’s she like? Try and think beyond, ‘She has blue eyes and brown hair, and she’s skinny. She’s also innocent and bookish until she meets Christian,’

What else?

Because Ana Steele and Bella Swan are the same person and author / reader inserts, neither of them have particularly striking personalities. I’ve been reading Twilight, and Bella always just seems irritated, annoyed, sulky, exasperated and bored on a continuous loop. The only time she’s happy is when Edward is around. Sure, Meyer throws in that Bella is ‘clumsy’ - her clumsiness almost gets her killed, but Edward saves her. We know that Ana is also graceless and uncoordinated (because Bella is) as she falls into Christian’s office, and later on, she’s almost hit by a bike.

Both characters are ‘blanks’, so the reader / author can slot themselves into the fantasy. This makes it easier for Ana to be manipulated by Christian – Ana has no agency of her own. Her decisions are made by Christian, for his benefit. It also makes it easier for Ana to be EL James’ puppet for ‘plot’ arcs, instead of rewriting bits that don’t fit with what she wants to happen.

Just because an author keeps telling us their character is strong and intelligent, it doesn’t make it true. We see absolutely no evidence of Ana’s intelligence or strength. She’s a void.

I know some of you are going to say, ‘but what about the all the times she stands up to Christian?’ She doesn’t. She might say, ‘No Christian, I don’t want to do that,’ but then she backtracks, agreeing with him, and he gets his own way.

How does he manipulate her?

He sulks. He uses his past as a way to get her to feel sorry for him. His moods change very rapidly (from line to line) he gets angry with her for no reason and she feels that she needs to placate him. She is afraid of the consequences of not complying with him.

Over and over again, she says

Oh no, what have I done?

Have I done something wrong?

Oh, he’s angry

And this, this line from the dinner at his parent’s house (where he tries to finger her under the table, by the way, I can see why women everywhere are falling in love with this guy.)

It is even more palatable since Christian manages to retain his good humour for the rest of the meal. I suspect it’s because I’m eating so heartily.’

Can you imagine how exhausting it would really be to date someone like Christian?

Christian also repeatedly refers to Ana as ‘his’ which, in Twilight world makes sense. Bella is Edward’s because Edward is a vampire and they have companions that ‘belong’ to them. In FSOG, it just sounds like Ana can’t have anyone else in her life apart from Christian.

When Ana first meets Christian, he insists on calling her ‘Anastasia’ or ‘Miss Steele’ even though she keeps asking him to call her ‘Ana’. This is another way in which he controls her, isolating her from her ‘self’ and molding her into what he wants her to be.

Honourable Mention:

 Poor housekeeper Mrs Jones- she has to clean the playroom and the sex toys. CHRISTIAN GETS HIS HOUSEKEEPER TO CLEAN HIS USED SEX TOYS. Who does that? You don’t leave them out for the cleaner with a note, do you?

‘Linda – please clean the following today:

·         Bath

·         Kitchen floor

·         Inside of windows

·         Sex toys that have been up my girlfriend’s arse – these are on the bedroom floor along with the used condoms and spunky tissues.’

Thanks!’

I have to go and lie down in a dark room for a bit so here’s some links to very funny recap blogs. They have made reading this book bearable:

Jenny Trout Jealous Hater Book Club

Fifty Shades of Tedious Fuckery

Bizzybiz Blog 50 Shades Reviews

Dusk Spank - Chapter 5

My name’s Karen Cartwright, and I’ll be your narrator for chapters 5.

I went home with Eric Grey last night. Or rather, I took him home. We had fun.

He was still hanging around the apartment this morning when Annie came back with Cullen. I haven't made my mind up about Cullen yet. I think Annie really likes him, but he seems so stuffy and old before his time. And I thought sending Annie those books was creepy, especially after she said their date didn’t go very well. It made me wonder what his motives really are.

You can’t tell Annie, though – she asks for your opinion and then she gets upset with you if it doesn’t line up with hers, so you have to just let her get on with things. 

I know some people will think I am a terrible friend for letting her just go off with him last night, especially as she was so drunk.  I don’t think I could stand how bad she’d make me feel if I’d stopped her, and she is an adult. But I feel guilty about it this morning, what if something had happened to her? 

Annie’s never had a boyfriend – she’s always been so fixated on this idea of a romantic hero coming along that she’ll never give someone like Jose or Phil a chance. Both of them are kind, handsome, hard-working men from good families.  Dependable, you know.

But that’s not her thing – even though she’s never even really dated she thinks she likes a ‘bad boy’ type.

Let me tell you, those 'romantic', tortured souls, you know, the ones that need saving from themselves? They are NO fun to date. It’s hard work. They require constant reassurance, and you have to tip-toe around them, wondering when they’re late home if they are in bed with another girl or dead in a ditch. It’s exhausting.

But she comes in with Cullen, and she looks all rosy and happy. Cullen actually goes to shake my hand and says, ‘Miss Cartwright,’ in that very odd way he has. It’s like he learned human behaviour from an English period drama.

‘Her name’s Karen,’ says Eric. ‘Hi Annie,’

‘Hi Eric,’ she says, blushing.

‘Eric, we better go,’ says Cullen. I get the impression he thinks his time is more important than everyone else’s.

‘Sure, I’m ready,’ says Eric. He pulls me towards him and gives me a long, wet kiss. It’s not his fault, but I know Annie will be judging me for it, because she judges me for everything I do. I know she does, because she’s no good at hiding it.

‘Laters, baby,’ Eric says when he’s taken his tongue out of my mouth. He says it in this Bill & Ted surfer dude voice, which makes me laugh. Cullen has a moment with Annie where he strokes her face and hair, and to me it looks like he’s sizing her up for a spot in the basement hotel. She’s going to check in, but she’s never going to leave. I shouldn't have said that, I don't know Cullen. 

You probably want to know why I’m friends with someone like Annie. I’ll try and explain, and hear me out. When we first started at WSU, we clicked – I thought, this girl is smart, and cool and fun. So when my parents bought me the apartment here, and Annie needed somewhere to stay, I offered her a room. She’d only need to help with the bills and food, no rent.

The first year or so was OK; she paid the bills on time, re-stocked the fridge and all that stuff. But she’s slovenly. I’m always cleaning up after her. It got so bad, I was going to ask her to move out. I also couldn’t handle her constant irrational moods, snapping at me over the smallest things, all these perceived slights. Then I worried what would happen to her if I asked her to move out. Her folks aren’t local, and apart from Jose, she’s really got no other friends.

I don’t feel sorry for her, that’s not it. I guess I just remember the good stuff, and kind of put all the bad stuff in a box under the bed marked ‘shit Annie does that annoys the fuck out of me’ and try to forget about it.

When I decided I was going to move to Seattle after graduating, I thought that would kind of draw a line under the friendship. Then Annie said she was going to move to Seattle and asked if she could stay with me until she’d got herself sorted. My family already have an apartment there. I felt bad saying no – Annie has such a chip on her shoulder about people with money. It’s like, it’s useful to her when she wants it to be, but then she can use it as a stick to beat you with the rest of the time. 

Maybe I’m weak, but I ended up saying yes, she could move in until she’d found a job and got her own place.

After Cullen and Eric leave, I ask Annie if anything happened last night. She says it didn’t, then asks me if I slept with Eric last night. I say yes, but don’t go into detail. She seems pissed about that, for some reason, but then Annie is often inexplicably pissed off. She then she tells me that Cullen took her to his suite at the Heathman, and she woke up not really remembering too much about the night before, but  she knows that Cullen didn’t take advantage of her. She seems to think this makes him some sort of gentleman.

I’m like, wait, what? So, you passed out, he undressed you and put you into bed, and you think that’s OK because he didn’t rape you while you were unconscious? But at the same time, you’re pissed that nothing happened? This is why I don’t get Annie. But she’s really excited because they have another date this evening. She asks me if I’ll help her with a make-over and if she can borrow a dress.

I don’t know why she’s asking about borrowing something to wear, she normally just helps herself. But she seems so happy, I don’t want to spoil it. I do the makeover and lend her my plum-coloured dress and she goes off to work (and her date) like a happy little lamb.