from the washingtonpost.com this morning...

'“FIFTY SHADES OF GREY,” the quasi-pornographic bestseller that is doing for sado-masochism and leather crops what Harry Potter did for British boarding schools and broomsticks, is a publishing sensation — a supernova in the zeitgeist and a cultural lightning rod. It’s also atrociously written — proof positive that execrable prose is no bar to dominating the bestsellers list.

The book, by previously unknown British author Erika Leonard (better known by the pseudonym E.L. James), concerns the no-holds-barred sexual affair between a billionaire Adonis with a taste for bondage and beatings and the ingenue who loves him and takes pleasure in accommodating his tastes. Having appeared on the cover of Newsweek in April, the book is the subject of lively debate about whether it represents a milestone in the debasement of Western culture; harmless low-brow entertainment; or a tectonic shift in post-feminist fantasies.'

aaaaaaaand...this is what we've come to...suddenly, urban or "street" literature doesn't look that bad anymore....

right?