Sometimes you just want to see what all the fuss is about. File this under the ‘because I can’ category: I proudly (?) present – a wordcloud produced from the text of E. L. James’ “50 Shades of Grey”.

For a book which is getting all this press about being full of explicit sexuality, the data are not what you expect. Obviously the main characters’ names feature prominently, but if you ask me this visualization shows that this is another romance novel much like any other.

Sure, you probably wouldn’t expect to see the words ‘dominant’ (left, next to grey) and ‘submissive’ (right, next to don’t) in some other books of this type. But look at some of the other words which are largest besides the names of the main characters – eyes, head, hands, hair, voice, smile. Obviously, it’s not just about the sex.

Produced in R using the excellent tm and wordcloud packages.