Fifty Shades of Grey: a primer for aliens

If aliens landed on Earth tomorrow and found America plastered with promotional materials for Fifty Shades of Grey, explaining it would be a pretty good exercise in examining how stories become sensations in 2015.

"Well you see, there was book called Twilight. Many humans liked this book — a book, you know, pretend-words. There were four books, and they all got made into movies."

The alien tilts her head, her four brains pulsating furiously as she processes this.

"Oh, sorry, movies are a thing we humans make when books and comic books make lots of money, but not enough money. They are kind of like promotions for books."

"Can movies be made without being books or comic books first?"

You hesitate. "Yeah, but..." you shrug, gesturing...