2. As the great @KathaPollitt rightly notes here "50 Shades" -- apart from the BDSM -- has many conventional aspects:http://www.thenation.com/article/199161/fifty-shades-basic …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. The brooding, wounded, Byronic hero tamed by the plucky if inexperienced maid who is willing to sacrifice/suffer for love. An old story.
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4. As per
@KathaPollitt, archetype here is "fairy tales of Bluebeard & Beauty & the Beast, to say nothing of a thousand Gothic novels."1 reply 3 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Also of course Jane Eyre, North and South, and countless novels.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. There's a political economy aspect to all this: the hero is a billionaire (just as The Beast was a prince), much richer than heroine.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. The persistent economic divide in Beauty/Beast scenarios points to how the stories are about social as well as emotional reconciliation.
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8. Think of recent romantic comedies like "You Got Mail" or (more obscurely) "Brown Sugar"
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9. Typically, in these movies predatory, successful businessman is entangled with nurturing, artistic less affluent woman.
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10. The reconciliation of the gender is also a reconciliation of classes: the predatory rich man is socialized into proper behavior.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. If the brooding hero learns to behave, you have a romance (Jane Eyre). If he doesn't, a Gothic tragedy (Wuthering Heights).
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12. By this analysis, the romantic comedy is a profoundly Keynesian genre, where capitalism is able to be humanized, regulated, & socialized
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. The affinity between Keynes & romantic comedy shouldn't surprise us. It was Keynes who taught us capitalism has an emotional life.
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