I’m a relative newbie to this blog, so I’ve just been browsing the archives…but I stopped here because I feel like I might have to be among the minority in coming to the defense of the “Twilight” series…lol.

I have to say that I have read all four books (multiple times, please reserve your judgement) NOT because I identify with Bella or want Edward to bite me (quite frankly, I’d rather he didn’t) but because I fell in love with them from a literary standpoint. Meyer is clearly an avid reader of classic fiction, and I find the deliberate comparisons she makes to works such as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Wuthering Heights” fascinating (especially viewed through the lens of fantasy) and a good way to get young adults to think critically about literature–were I an English teacher, I think I would take advantage of this fad!

Don’t get me wrong–if you are a fan of Anne Rice or other “hardcore” fantasy works, this series will probably seem stupid to you. This is strictly Abercrombie & Fitch vampirism here–brooding, over-glamourized, and yes–sparkly. However, after attempting to read “Interview With the Vampire”, I have to say I’ll take Edward’s moping over LeStat’s cruelty any day.

In regards to the feminism stuff, Meyer herself says (on her website) “I am not anti-woman; I am anti-HUMAN.” And she’s right–look more closely at the supernatural females: Alice, Kate, or even Jane–they are strong and powerful; and the kicker: SO IS BELLA…eventually. The entire point of the series is that Bella does not fit in with the human world–she is destined for another life! When she acheives it, she rapidly becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Also, I never got the impression that Jacob was an abuser of any kind! He is a cocky teenager with some SERIOUS late-pubescent issues (*wink*) who is only trying to prove to Bella what she already knows–that she loves him, too.

For the record–the vampire baby thing creeped me out at first, too–I am not usually a fantasy person! I gave it a chance, though–and I agree that it does actually present a very pro-choice argument (even though the choice made is not the typical one you would associate with it!) And you really have to be paying attention to the other books before you call the “imprinting” thing creepy–it’s magic, dammit! :p

I guess my take-home point to this is, don’t read so far into it unless you’re going to read farther into it! Get it?(Mysterious enough for y’all? lol, it’s late!)

In other news, loving this site and the things you ladies stand for–keep up the good work! (And Kate–I totally ordered the book!)

So we should never ever complain or examine the content of anything because each individual is fully capable of reading the source and comprehending all the levels of message and meaning and deciding independently what to do with it, completely without regard to lifetimes of moral and cultural messages they have absorbed through the media? Give me a break. If that were true, we might as well fold up this site, feministing, Shakesville and all the other sites on the Internet, not to mention all the universities that have English or literature or film/media departments and give up, because nobody would need to keep a critical eye on the messages our media and our “entertainment” are sending to us and instilling in us from birth.

Not all cultural influences are “fads” like your Madonna phase of dress. And whether you’re aware of it or not, the fact that you dressed like her and idolized her may have affected your view of women, feminism, sexism, fashion and music in ways you might not be conscious of. But I guarantee you that a whole gamut of people have strong opinions about the message of the Madonna phenomenon. I know for a fact scholars were writing about her back then, talking about whether her image was a positive or negative one for young girls (people are still arguing about this).

If you personally don’t want to examine the Twilight books or anything else on a critical level, that’s fine. There are plenty of shows or stories I don’t want to think about that way because I want to enjoy them without analyzing them. But to say nobody should think that way because it’s “just entertainment” is ridiculous.

DRST

And the worst part of it is, personally, that I’ve been writing a vampire novel since 2005 (I went back and rewrote it twice) and from what my friend told me, there are some freaking bits and pieces that people will claim I ‘stole’ from SM even though I never really read her crap books (despite the fact my friend/editor assures me are far and few in between, I can’t help but worry) . And anything else written with vampires in mind will get compared to SM, just like everything got compared to Anne Rice when her books were still setting shelves on fire. It’s pathetic. Anne Rice’s books were magnificent (the movies were pathetic), but SM’s stuff is just embarrassing to American YA literature.

It’s funny, because I have been thinking (and journaling) a lot about this sort of thing lately. And IHeartChocolate, your reply really resonated with me! The kind of stuff that goes into fantasies definitely isn’t formed in a vaccuum.

I’ve been writing a new story, and doing something very different from my norm, which is that in addition to writing it I’m also drawing the thing out in storyboard form (in case a few of you haven’t heard of a storyboard: think sloppy, sketchy comic book sort of deal). Actually, the whole story came to mind because of a botched drawing, but that’s not the point. The point is that looking at the characters and situations in a visual sense as well as in text form has made me come to some interesting realizations. This particular story is like some kind of subconscious journey for me, it’s been almost like journaling as much as writing a story. The main way this has manifested is that my villain is seriously some kind of merging of all my crappiest relationships. I haven’t decided yet what it says about me that I wrote him as having a tragicly abusive past which sort of “explains” why he’s such a dick (does not excuse it of course, he’s still a complete douchehound) and then in the end he is run through with a sword.

It’s just creepy. I was looking at one of the scenes I’d doodled out, and there he is, being mean to the female lead again, and he’s biting her on the neck, and something’s tweaking in the back of my mind about her pose (she’s wide-eyed with surprise and clutching his arm), and I realized that the reason the pose looked so familiar was because I’d DONE that. I looked a few other interactions between them. Holding her arm so he can touch her elsewhere, grabbing her face to make a point… shit, this dude’s got all the physical mannerisms of guys I’ve been with. He even looks vaguely like one of my exes. I know evil-wizard-villains are supposed to be creepy, but that’s creepy on a different level.

Makes me wonder what kind of relationships this Twilight author must’ve had. The fact that it’s the romantic lead instead of the villain with all these horrible traits is fairly disturbing. At least my romantic interest is non-abusive, supportive, and caring… even if he has a completely overblown sense of responsibility towards basically everyone and everything.

And, BeccaBoo, to answer your question… sadly, thinking isn’t “in” in the literary world lately. Now it’s all about shock value, trauma, and despair. Later, we can get together in a dark coffee shop and talk about how “gritty” and “real” everything is in the story about the homeless pre-teen girl who does drugs, gets raped by every male character in the book, and whatever other godsawful things we can think up to happen to the poor wretch before she dies in a fire at the end. YAY DAT’S GOOD READIN RITE THAR.

My friend later went on–after I told her I couldn’t read the book, it just wasn’t my thing–and told me all about the plot. I picked up the messages of an uninteresting female protagonist with a wildly amazing male counterpart in her description.

Being a teen aged girl, I found it rather…pathetic. Edward was described as obsessive, compulsive, over-protective, and not in love, but in denial of his own instincts. I can see girls wanting to be protected by the mysterious introvert, but what my friend told me of Edward made me suspect a harlequin romance with a drug addict more than a YA novel with a vampire.

Being a fan of the better written vampire tales out there (I read Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ in the sixth grade and graduated to ‘Carmilla’ a year later. I still have the copies in my collection), it irked me that she would take such a refreshing new look on the species (though it’s not the first vampire I’ve read of being able to go into sunlight) and managing to screw it up with a cliched and stereotypical plot. It’s basically a bad Romeo and Juliet renewal with a sprinkling of B-movie vampirism.

The worst part of it though, is that females from their preteens up to aging housewives are all so enthralled by this series. Are people really that…easy? I mean, Twilight sounded predictable–what I’ve heard of the rest of the books makes it seem just as bad. Have people stopped thinking? Whatever happened to novels that took absorption and time to get through? Doesn’t anyone want to think any more?

Okay…but… it is entertainment. It’s up to the people in society to dictate what they do with it. After reading so much about Twilight on the net, I’m seeing more people not liking the story as those who do. I’m not feeling concerned that people aren’t thinking for themselves here.

There’s always been waves of popularity in culture. I was influenced to dress like Madonna or Lisa from Prince and the New Revolution in high school. My “madonna days” lasted all of a few months, and off came the lace gloves and I was wearing something totally different. I believe that these influences are somewhat normal among teens who are searching for something to identify with.

Then guardians or parents come into play here, to help guide youths to find understanding in what they are seeing as entertainment. I’m truly unmoved by the whole mass of swooning girls over Edward, as it too will pass when he is long gone and replaced by another. Just like my mom was as a teen with Paul Mc Cartney or John Lennon.