twilight
*This is literally what I did in my 10th floor dorm when I was reading the second Twilight and a chapter ended “Bella, how do you feel about grand theft auto?”
And it wasn’t even my book. Whoops.
“Millions of Twilight fans out there just cannot wait to see this. It’s almost heartbreaking because they don’t want it to be over. It’s a little bittersweet, isn’t it?” (x)
I love how he doesn’t even try to hide how stupid he thinks these movies are. I actually do think he’s really freakin cool (cept he’s gotta drop KStew). Where’s that quote from him about how Edward seemed like an obsessive weirdo so he just played him like that or something?
queer-feeri:
I agree with you that Twilight is heinous. I can forgive horrible grammar, a trite plot, and poorly developed characters. Twilight is heinous because it is sexist, promotes unhealthy relationship models, tells young people that more important than anything is to be in a relationship and your life is second to that relationship, the main character is selfish but we're expected to look up to her, the main love interest is controlling and many other things. I could go on, but in a nutshell...
PREACH MY FRIEND
Also isn’t heinous such a good word
silkensummerstorms-deactivated2:
I think that Twilight tells young, lonely, awkward teenage girls that if they continue to be awkward, the perfect love will find them. Edward is 'perfect', he never seems to be able to do wrong. So it reinforces girls who expect boys to be perfect and also encourages them not to work at relationships. Terrible morals, terrible.
Terrible.
musicintuition:
I'll put out there that if it weren't for my own research and skepticism later on, I would have come to believe that the relationships encouraged by the Twilight series were normal and healthy. Call me naive, but I was always an impressionable youngster, and society already does enough damage to the minds of young people.
^Exhibit A people! But I’m glad you did your research girrrrl
luipaardjack:
I think there's about as much chance as Twilight leading young people on to healthy relationships as there was of Elvis Presley turning teenage girls into whoreswhoreswhores back in the day. People grow up and mature and can recognize the unpleasant messages any media conveys. If Twilight promotes unhealthy relationship messages than we need to throw out Wuthering Heights too. And Othello. Or any other book in the Western canon that doesn't portray perfect relationships.
But Twilight is far more subtle. Bella’s and Edward’s relationship is treated as a normal and acceptable one. In other books tumultuous and unhealthy relationships have some negative result. In Othello, for instance, everyone ends up daed.
And can you be sure you’re speaking for all 12 and 13 year old girls who’re still reading these books?
zachrisso:
Personally, I love Twilight. If someone I previously thought of as intelligent and well-read tells me they love Twilight (or even defend it's more-than questionable morals) I know I will not be friends with that person.
Huh?
some-wicked-little-town:
People don't understand how bad Bella is for women's rights. She's training a whole generation of girls to think that they need a man or they'll go freakin' crazy, to sacrifice everything for their man. Not to mention that she's always in the kitchen cooking for her father and stuff. I've read that she's actually meant to not be a person; because she's featureless, every little girl can BECOME her, literally. Not healthy, if you ask me, and certainly lazy writing.
I’ve read that too—about how bland little Bella is a perfect canvas for every female reader to project herself onto, and Edward is the classic Knight in Shining Armor who every girl dreams will come sweep her away.
meisterful:
I completely agree with your views on Twilight. The writing itself isn't the issue, its how the novel portrays unhealthy and harmful relationships as the norm and the ideal. Especially given the readers are generally young teenage girls who are just forming their ideas about relationships this has the potential to be very damaging.
likehell-heaven:
(cont) As for people saying it sets a bad example for girls and relationships", that's basically what the young adult genre is. Twilight is not the only book that sets unrealistic and unhealthy romantic goals for teenage girls; it's just the most popular. Please give us some credit. Girls don't actually expect a romance like that, anymore than they expect vampires to start sparkling in front of them. It's part of the fantasy.
Alright well I guess I read different YA books about love and relationships than you when I was a kid cause I remember them teaching me a lot. When the relationships were unhealthy, in books like Speak or Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, that was at least made clear by the end of the novel, as part of the resolution.
It’s not that I think young girls will expect relationships to be like that; it’s that I think young girls will think that obsessive, stalkerish relationships will be okay. A lot of youngins can be pretty crazy about their first loves because they’re experiencing those types of feelings and emotions for the first time and they don’t understand that other people will make them feel that way, so what I hope is that young girls who’ve read Twilight don’t think it’s okay to like, give up their life and all of their dreams just because they think they’re in love, because Twilight mistakes obsession et. al. for love.
likehell-heaven:
Sorry to be that girl who defends Twilight, but I read all the books when I was twelve and I liked them. I haven't read them since because I know my tastes have matured since then, and I know it isn't amazing writing.I think people should just see it as it is: a pretty decent story idea written for young girls. A fantasy that many enjoy.I just don't understand why everyone else needs to criticize it when it isn't groundbreaking literature, and it wasn't meant to be analyzed as such.
I’m not saying it’s supposed to be groundbreaking literature. I wasn’t even criticizing the writing (which I could do for days. I could make a whole blog about it. Actually, someone else already has, and it’s called Reasoning With Vampires). What I was criticizing was that it’s an extremely popular book that promotes unhealthy relationship models, and since the target age group is particularly young, impressionable readers might be getting the wrong ideas.
perry-monster:
I don't agree with your statement that Twilight is a "heinous" story. If you've ever heard the author John Green discuss it, not to say that it's a great story or that people have to like it but it's somewhat unkind to put down another author's work because it seems more or less fairy-tale like than what elder people would desire to read in a romance. I read the books and I've grown out of them but that's because it's what I once enjoyed and it helped me grow as a writer.
Other than that Twilight isn’t heinous—it is heinous—I completely agree with you and with John Green. You’re right, it does appeal to younger peoples’ ideas of romance. I just hope that when they come of age and start having relationships that they don’t take Bella and Edward’s relationship as a realistic or healthy model.
People put down other peoples’ works all the time. We all, as writers, had better get used to it!
I also find it heartening (wow that actually is a word) that out of 14k+ followers you’re the only person who wrote in to complain about that post… I was expecting a tidal wave!
