Who Are These People?

A Process Opposite to That of Reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"

When I see a headline like "Fifty Shades of Grey sequel breaks sales records," my first thought is always "who are you people?"  And even after a bit of consideration, I can only attribute the popularity of this kind of poorly written tripe to: 

• the number of people who chase every hot trend and want to appear to be part of whatever is "cool", people for whom product quality is not even a consideration, 
• the timeless popularity and appeal of soft core pornography (be it poorly written or not),
• the possibility that the reading skill level of the world's general population is now so bad that many people (when they even bother to pick up a book) can only handle the simplest prose and are unable to recognize poor writing when they see it, 
• the overall dumbing down of societies around the world stemming from television shows like "E!" and others that make instant celebrities of trash like the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, and all those clowns on "Jersey Shore," and
• to the internet, the best mass marketing tool to come around in human history.

That headline is one I grabbed from The Guardian, by the way:

“We’ve had magnificent support from across the trade,” said Susan Sandon, managing director of Cornerstone. “The excitement and enthusiasm that Grey’s publication has generated is totally irresistible and I am delighted with these early results.”

James’s previous novels, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed – which tell the story of Christian and Ana’s relationship from her perspective – have sold more than 125m copies around the world to date.

...who ARE you people?