dirty secret

[aryanhwy]

It's something I've been meaning to admit for two years or so now, but given what it is, I've been a bit ashamed...

I have to admit, I actually rather like the Twilight books. Mom brought me the first one when she came for my Ph.D. defense, and between then (Tuesday) and leaving for Known World (Friday), I'd swallowed it. I got the next two at Heathrow and read them on the flight from London to Omaha, and got the last one in Omaha and read it on the flight back (or something very close to this; I don't remember the exact details). I found them to be page-turners -- obviously!

The second time I read them, I wasn't so impressed. Since I wasn't as wrapped up in the "what happens next" feeling, I noticed the writing more, and it was clearly a bit...clunky in style. A bit more tell than show.

But, I'll admit, this didn't keep me from picking Twilight up again a few weeks ago, after we'd moved and I got to try out my new bathtub for the first time. I needed something brainless and fun to relax with. I got about halfway in, it ended up getting set aside, and I picked it up again yesterday and I've been reading it while Gwen eats (I had thought about reading it aloud to her, but found I was a bit too embarrassed to do so; so now we stick with Beatrix Potter and nursery rhymes during the day, and keep Twilight for in the night when I don't want to wake her up.)

So, why do I like the books? Because I see so much of my teenage self in them. What shy, unpopular girl wouldn't love to have the most beautiful boy in school fall in love with her? Seek her out and spend so much time talking to her about his thoughts and feelings, and other times be dark and brooding? Make her feel special? Be just sexy enough, but also be the one to always put the breaks on things? And who hasn't felt like going withdrawing from the world -- maybe for months on end -- when things go south? This is the type of relationship I would dream about before I ever had a chance to experience a real one. Of course it's unrealistic. It's a fairy tale. I knew it was unrealistic then, and I know it's unrealistic now as I read the books (he's just too noble. And they don't fight often enough, about the little things. There's no petty griping, or hurt feelings, or misunderstands, not about things which aren't Drama (TM), about life and death). But who wants to day dream realism? Not me! What's the point? I see much of the story, like my daydreams, and the stories I wrote in junior high and high school, as being a way of working out how relationships are supposed to be; in order to have a realistic view of what they're like, you have to have something unrealistic to compare it too. You need to have the poetry fairy tales in order to recognize the prose of reality.

I actually intended to write this post upon returning home from KW'09, but I didn't feel like I could quite articulate my thoughts on the subject well enough to warrant doing so. I still feel like I haven't, but since this is the second time that I've been moved to write a post along these lines, I figured I should just go ahead and do so.

And so, he sparkles. Who really cares?

Comments

[adelais.livejournal.com]

Snape cares! http://misspolska93.tumblr.com/post/1206674070/no-diggory-vampires-dont-sparkle-50-points

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's a fairy tale and I can see the appeal (as someone else who never got any male attention in high school).

The trouble is, I've heard too many people point out that Edward is a stalker, a manipulator, and does not encourage his supposed true love to stand on her own two feet and grow up. It may be romantic to dream about being taken care of, but it isn't healthy. The trouble with these books is that they present unhealthy behavior as if it was a GOOD thing. If it was presented as a fairy tale of "do not do this!" I'd be happier with its popularity. (And you can still get vicarious thrills from reading about deliciously unhealthy behavior... ;)

I hear the later volumes become progressively less fun, too.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I've heard too many people point out that Edward is a stalker, a manipulator, and does not encourage his supposed true love to stand on her own two feet and grow up.

I'm curious about this, because I actually don't see it (well, the stalking maybe, but that seems pretty harmless in and of itself. When I think back to all of the "organized coincidences" that I created when I was younger...I eventually had to tell Joel that it wasn't just happenstance that I was always showing up at his window at the library *just* before he happened to get off work). Especially in the second book, he is actively trying to prevent/protect Bella from her desire to not grow up. It takes a heck of a lot of arguing on her part before he finally capitulates.

[merlyn-gabriel.livejournal.com]

I read the 1st three books and just couldn't bring myself to buy the 4th. Aside from the whole vampires sparkle wtf moment, I just found the books poorly written, very cliche and kind of annoying. Maybe that's because i didn't really have anything to connect me to them. I was a geek in highschool but in difference to most of the world it seems, I actually loved being in highschool and I remember it as fun. ( in spite of the heartaches and cruelty etc...) For me, while there were some things of interest, for the most part it read too much like a Mary Sue fan fic turned into a paying novel. And that's the real thing, she made money because they sold. They sold because people did read and love the books so there must be something appealing there.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

People make such a big deal about the sparkle thing, but it plays such a small role in the story, it seems a bit disproportionate.

I do agree that it's cliche -- that's part of what I enjoy about it, part of why it resonates with my remembrance of my teenage years. Cause cliches have to come from somewhere...