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Twitards: A Formal Apology


Guest Raidne

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I've read the first two books. They're . . . okay. I didn't find them terrible, but they were kind of dull and boring most of the time. New Moon had one excellently written bit fairly late on.

I much prefer the unfinished Midnight Sun manuscript, the one written from Edward Cullen's point of view. It's just unintentionally hilarious.

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And my impression was that the "romance" between Edward and Bella was actually quite creepy and somewhat abusive, but treated as if it was very romantic.

Just going by the first couple movies, he sneaks into her room to watch her sleep, which is creepy. But I don't believe it's abusive. He doesn't put her down mentally that I recall, and physically he doesn't hit or restrain her. The dialogue did not inspire thoughts of "great romance," mostly it was painfully stilted.

I've heard so much about the books, all the general bashing, and specifically I remember watching "Buffy vs. Twilight" and "Alex reads Twilight" on youtube as well as reading Utilitarian Twilight somewhere. I've never been sure how fair it was that a book aimed at teenage girls gets all the hate it does. When I did see the first two movies, I could see where some of the problems were, in the second movie especially, but again, I don't know how fair it is for me, as someone who it's not targeted towards, to judge it.

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I've heard so much about the books, all the general bashing, and specifically I remember watching "Buffy vs. Twilight" and "Alex reads Twilight" on youtube as well as reading Utilitarian Twilight somewhere. I've never been sure how fair it was that a book aimed at teenage girls gets all the hate it does. When I did see the first two movies, I could see where some of the problems were, in the second movie especially, but again, I don't know how fair it is for me, as someone who it's not targeted towards, to judge it.

That's fair. I guess I have a hard time believing all the hate comes from the fact that it's marketed toward teen girls--I never witnessed a similar reaction to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Princess Diaries, etc.--but it could be because they didn't have as much exposure as Twilight. :dunno:

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Well, I;ve read some of Twilight, and I thought it was one of the worst written things I've ever encountered. My lit teacher also called it "the worst thing to happen to American literature in the last 100 years". So I'm pretty sure it's NOT just the marketing.

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Just going by the first couple movies, he sneaks into her room to watch her sleep, which is creepy. But I don't believe it's abusive. He doesn't put her down mentally that I recall, and physically he doesn't hit or restrain her. The dialogue did not inspire thoughts of "great romance," mostly it was painfully stilted.

I've heard so much about the books, all the general bashing, and specifically I remember watching "Buffy vs. Twilight" and "Alex reads Twilight" on youtube as well as reading Utilitarian Twilight somewhere. I've never been sure how fair it was that a book aimed at teenage girls gets all the hate it does. When I did see the first two movies, I could see where some of the problems were, in the second movie especially, but again, I don't know how fair it is for me, as someone who it's not targeted towards, to judge it.

Just because it's marketed to teenage girls doesn't mean that that's what they deserve. It doesn't matter what the target audience is, from what I've seen it's just bad writing. And these teenage girls (who don't get enough geeky stuff in their lives), they see everyone else liking it so that makes it popular and they can unleash their inner geek on something without facing ridicule.

I think that the Twilight infatuation is a situation of convenience.

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I read them on recommendation before the backlash and didn't have negative preconceptions. Thought they were flawed, but enjoyable.

When I heard they were moviefying them, I felt I knew what would result and avoided it like the plague. Morose teens staring at each other, ugh :P The charming aspects of the story are almost entirely in the internal monologue and broadening perspectives of young people experiencing transformative love.

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If Twilight inspires just one author to write something great, just one publisher to pick up a talented author, then it has bettered the world, no matter how dire the book itself is. I've seen and read enough to be reasonably certain that it has.

That's only true if the things inspired by Twilight better the world more than the damage that Twilight does as a model of (obsessive, controlling) romantic relationships.

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I read them on recommendation before the backlash and didn't have negative preconceptions. Thought they were flawed, but enjoyable.

When I heard they were moviefying them, I felt I knew what would result and avoided it like the plague. Morose teens staring at each other, ugh :P The charming aspects of the story are almost entirely in the internal monologue and broadening perspectives of young people experiencing transformative love.

Yeah, knowing what I do about book 4, I don't know if I'd call it "transformative love".

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Read the second book and let me know how you feel...

The book itself, Twilight, is not great but I can see my 12-year-old self getting caught up in the story. Although, the part where she is almost gang raped and doesn't run away because she is afraid she might trip so that Edward can then zoom up and rescue her was a bit much. In New Moon Bella is a worthless pile of nothing who treats people like shit while Edward is away. Barf.

I've not read the last two books.

A couple of weeks ago I was incredibly bored and couldn't find anything of interest in the library, so I checked out the first 3 books of the Twilight "saga". If nothing else, I wanted to see what I've been bashing all along and get a few laughs out of it. The first one was... tolerable? It certainly wasn't the worst book I've read, because I've read a lot of crappy books in my life and I can certainly recognize one. It was annoying and it was badly written and the characters were not really "there". I didn't like what she has done to vampires because I have a weekness for vampires (it all started with Anne Rice for me as well, like Raidne) and even emo vampires have been done a lot better than Meyer did. My main complaint was that I only got to see Edward sparkle just ONCE. I kept complaining for false advertising, I had been promised sparkling vampires, damn it, and they did NOT deliver! :P (In fact, I think Edward only sparkles once per book)

The second and third book in the series were just horrible. No redeeming qualities, no character depth (ha! that's an understatement!), Bella becoming more and more useless and unreal. I still want to read the last one, though, Breaking Dawn, because I want to find out if

Bella marries Edward and becomes a vampire after all, there's been enough angst and agonizing over this and I want to see it played out.

Unfortunately the library doesn't have it so I had to ask dalThor to ask one of his students who is crazy about Twilight to loan to me, sometime this week I would hope.

(Yes, my "high risk" pregnancy has left me with a lot of free time and I'm not allowed to do anything to fill it, so killing my remaining brain cells is my favorite pastime)

Flipped through a few pages of Twilight last time I was at the library. Best thing I can say is it's not the worst book written in the English language. My impression was a bad Vampire Chronicles ripoff with the author reimagining her high school experience with some LDS elements and an abusive relationship.

If people enjoy reading it and read other things, that's great. It's just not for me.

I haven't read the Vampire chronicles but I know it provided Meyer with most of her "original" ideas. I've been following the TV show and I had a hard time getting to like it at first because I kept getting creeped out by the fact that this 200+year old vampire was so attracted to a teenager. I got over it eventually but only by not dwelling on it much, because Kay is right, it is like admiring a pedophile.

As for the whole Twilight phenomenon? I maintain my position that anything, anything that gets people reading is a good thing. Dealing with kids on a daily basis, it's incredibly hard these days to get them to feel interested in the printed word, so many other distractions are fighting for their time. Hopefully all these girls who are so enamored with the series now will move on to different, better books and recognize that Meyers isn't the best author ever and Bella's and Edward's relationship is not what they should be hoping for.

And let me say it again... Not enough SPARKLING, damn it! :tantrum:

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As for the whole Twilight phenomenon? I maintain my position that anything, anything that gets people reading is a good thing. Dealing with kids on a daily basis, it's incredibly hard these days to get them to feel interested in the printed word, so many other distractions are fighting for their time. Hopefully all these girls who are so enamored with the series now will move on to different, better books and recognize that Meyers isn't the best author ever and Bella's and Edward's relationship is not what they should be hoping for.

But at what cost... *Dramatic*

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But at what cost... *Dramatic*

At any cost. I'm a teacher, anything that gets kids reading is good. Period.

(We've all read and loved our share of really crappy books, especially in our younger years. Would we still love them and gush over them now, after we've hopefully matured a bit? I think not. :) )

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At any cost. I'm a teacher, anything that gets kids reading is good. Period.

(We've all read and loved our share of really crappy books, especially in our younger years. Would we still love them and gush over them now, after we've hopefully matured a bit? I think not. :) )

Dwagonwance is awesomesauce! \m/

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At any cost. I'm a teacher, anything that gets kids reading is good. Period.

(We've all read and loved our share of really crappy books, especially in our younger years. Would we still love them and gush over them now, after we've hopefully matured a bit? I think not. :) )

I guess you're right... When I look back at the Inheritance books, and all the SW expanded universe novels... *shiver*

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I've read the first two books. They're . . . okay. I didn't find them terrible, but they were kind of dull and boring most of the time. New Moon had one excellently written bit fairly late on.

I much prefer the unfinished Midnight Sun manuscript, the one written from Edward Cullen's point of view. It's just unintentionally hilarious.

Wait....is that real?

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I guess you're right... When I look back at the Inheritance books, and all the SW expanded universe novels... *shiver*

I'm with you there. Everyone reads crap when they first start, but it opens a gateway to better literature. Let kids read Twilight; they'll eventually move on to the good stuff . . . hopefully.

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My favorite commentary on the Twilight novels is by cleolinda on Live Journal. She's practically made a career out of writing about it and it all begins here: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/602881.html

And then more than you ever wanted to know about everything sparkle related:

http://cleoland.pbworks.com/w/page/10373763/Twilight

I still want to read the last one, though, Breaking Dawn, because I want to find out if

Bella marries Edward and becomes a vampire after all, there's been enough angst and agonizing over this and I want to see it played out.

Unfortunately the library doesn't have it so I had to ask dalThor to ask one of his students who is crazy about Twilight to loan to me, sometime this week I would hope.

Actually you don't want to read BD. You really don't. Especially if you didn't like the second and third books. I really enjoyed reading the first three but I absolutely hated BD. If the first three were crack, the fourth was crack on acid. If you really want to know what happens, I can tell you whatever you want to know. Or you can read cleolinda's summary which is way more entertaining than the book ever was: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/630150.html

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My favorite commentary on the Twilight novels is by cleolinda on Live Journal. She's practically made a career out of writing about it and it all begins here: http://cleolinda.liv...com/602881.html

And then more than you ever wanted to know about everything sparkle related:

http://cleoland.pbwo...373763/Twilight

Actually you don't want to read BD. You really don't. Especially if you didn't like the second and third books. I really enjoyed reading the first three but I absolutely hated BD. If the first three were crack, the fourth was crack on acid. If you really want to know what happens, I can tell you whatever you want to know. Or you can read cleolinda's summary which is way more entertaining than the book ever was: http://cleolinda.liv...com/630150.html

Heh! I'm sure I really DON"T want to actually read Breaking Dawn, but on the other hand I can't stop myself. Call it the same train-wreck fascination that had me read 11 out of the 12 Sword of Truth novels. I knew all along I could find out what happened in BD by doing a bit of googling but I want to experience this first hand. Thank you for trying to save me from myself, though. :) I'll go back and read Cleolinda's links after I'm done.

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I knew all along I could find out what happened in BD by doing a bit of googling but I want to experience this first hand. Thank you for trying to save me from myself, though. :)

I totally understand, I'm like that as well. But I do feel I should warn you...there are some things that happen in BD, however, that in your current condition I'm not sure you will want to read at this time. Either that or be prepared to cover your eyes and skim over a certain section in the middle of the book.

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