Sasha Grey
Sasha Gray is an award-winning former pornographic actress, model, musician, video maker, writer and American literary popularizer. She is much better known for her participation in adult films, a career she carried out between 2006 and 2011, when she retired from it to dedicate herself exclusively to her role as a vocalist, as well as posing for various brands. and international photographers.
During recent years has stood out as a member of the Read Across America project, which seeks to promote reading in schools. This last activity has generated great controversy at an academic level, since the parents did not agree with Sasha educating her children. On the other hand, Gray has also written several books, including, Juliette Society.
Biography
Marina Ann Hantzis was born on March 14, 1988, in Sacramento, California, United States. She grew up in a Catholic family of Greek origin. Her mother worked for the government and her father was a mechanic, so they did not have such a privileged position. Marina's life began to change after her parents' divorce, when she was five years old.
Later, his mother remarried. The actress has stated that she never felt very comfortable living with her stepfather, so he decided to become independent at the age of seventeen. After working as a waitress for a year, she moved to Los Angeles. When she came of age, her boyfriend, pornographic director Ian Cinnamon, convinced her to enter the world of porn.
Career as actress, model and singer
When she decided to pursue a career as a pornographic actress, Marina decided to change her name. He chose Sasha Gray as a tribute to Sascha Konietzko, from the group KMFDM, and Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's most famous literary character. From her first scenes, Sasha became a promise in the industry, winning several awards between 2007 and 2010, including the AVN Awards.
During the same period, He began working in mainstream cinema, starring in films such as The Girlfriend Experienceby Steven Soderbergh. Likewise, she was the founder, writer and singer of the industrial music project aTelecine, which she left behind in 2013.
Approach to letters
The same year, Sasha brought to the ring The Juliette Society, her first novel, which was published by Grand Central Publishing on August 27. A few months later, it was marketed in Spanish by Grijalbo, who exhibited it in the same collection where it is located. Fifty Shades of Grey, a title with which it has been compared on more than one occasion, although not for the obvious reasons.
The main difference between EL James's novels and Sasha Gray's little experiment is that the former have a "romantic" approach that has raised the eyebrows of more than one serious critic, while this former porn actress, for her part, speaks with great irony about the sexual appetites of a young girl who finds herself involved in a secret society where only the elites have a place.
All Sasha Gray books
- The Juliette Society (2013);
- The Janus Chamber: Juliette Society, Book II —The Forbidden Room (2016);
- The Mismade Girl (2018)
Argument from Juliette Society
From normality to the abyss of pleasure
Catherine is a young and normal film student, however, she feels that something is missing from her life. Her boyfriend works for the campaign team of a lawyer running for senator, and that doesn't leave them much time to get intimate in any way. That's when another character enters the scene. It is about Anna, a cheeky and libertine friend of the protagonist, who shows her a different world.
Anna confesses to Catherine that —sometimes secretly and sometimes under their noses— There is a society that is dedicated to exploring pleasure. However, this group is only made up of the world's elite: politicians, clerics, entertainment stars, economists, members of government cabinets, among others. Soon, the girl finds herself drawn into this clandestine activity.
Who is Juliette?
One of the most attractive aspects of this book is its name, since there is an interesting story behind it. The title of Grey's novel is inspired by two books by French Marquis de Sade: Justine or the misfortunes of virtue y Juliette or the prosperity of vice. Both texts feature two sisters, Juliette and Justine, who are orphaned at the ages of 14 and 12, respectively.
After leaving the convent, the sisters take different paths. While Justine insists on looking for an honest job to maintain her virtue, Juliette has no problems with going to work in a brothel, since in the monastery she had had several sexual experiences, and adapted very quickly to the life of vices, depravity. and the money.
What does Juliette represent in Sasha Grey's novel?
Gray herself describes that Juliette Society It is so secret that it would be impossible to find nothing about her on the internet. The same, she says, may be true of Sade's character, who tends to be the least known of her sisters, although her eagerness for sex and murder is simply scandalous. In this sense, literature and cinema become a metaphor.
It is likely that Juliette Society I never won a literary award. The style is concise, almost naive. Even so, within its shortcomings, it presents references to cult cinema, in addition to the duality that exists in a protagonist who wants to try everything without losing the life she leads in the light of day, which, broadly speaking, is almost impossible. .
Narrative style of the work
Despite everything mentioned above, the only really captivating thing in Juliette Society It's the plot of the secret group, which takes a long time to become the protagonist. Overall, the book is composed of a first-person narrative that lacks the training of a writer. Likewise, the author abuses explicit sexual scenes that do not contribute anything to the story.
In a world where the sex It is assumed to be something typical of books, it is natural that there is a lot of it. However, the flaw is that it is not used as a resource, but rather as filler. It is evident that Sasha Gray is not the only one who abuses this cliché, since there are other authors who do it in the same way, such as Anna Todd in After or Ariana Godoy in Through my window.