Guest Raids Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 So...this is going to be hard. Previously I know I have posted things here like "I'd rather my daughter take up crack-smoking than read Twilight," etc. But it's possible I was a little harsh. And yes, I judged a book that I had not yet read. So recently my office book club read A Discovery of Witches. And people liked it. People liked it so much that they decided to read the first Twilight book as our next pick. As I said, this is my office book club. I could not really object for all the reasons that I have stated here in the past. So, okay I read it. And as much as it shames me to say it, I was kind of taken in by the romance. It kind of took me back to what it's like to be a teenage girl who has all of these romantic, naive views about the world, and so I asked myself if that was really such a bad thing? If maybe I've been a little overzealous in ascribing that tendency of teenage girls to the anti-feminist princess culture that they grow up in? So, yeah, it really wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. Apologies. It was pretty much on par with Witches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sivin Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 :leaving: If you say so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageGuy Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Eh. I don't hate on the books the way some people do, haven't read them, but I have seen the first two movies. And I have to say, when Bella, due to being deprived of her one true love, goes through months swinging between being comatose during the day and crying out in pain during the night, when her dad confronts her and says, "This isn't normal!" I found myself (mentally) shouting, "YES, Bella's dad!!!" The fact that she she needs werewolf-boy to recover wasn't my favorite part, either.Then again, I was never a teenage girl, nor have I ever particularly romanticized anyone, so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 :leaving: If you say so... :agree: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sivin Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 So, (sorry I have to ask) how exactly does an "Office Book Club" get started? And how does reading A Discovery of Witches lead into reading Twilight...?Sorry, I've not read A Discovery of Witches, and I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Raids Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Ummm...women in my office who read got together and decided to...read? In the past, I have been treated to such joys as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I actually liked) and Eat, Pray, Love (which, I admit, I actually also kind of liked in spite of myself, even though it's solidly in the category of "divorce porn" and Elizabeth Gilbert has all the failings of the worst kind of Sex-and-the-City Arab women love fashion too! liberalism). Discovery of Witches is also vampire/witch/random esoterica for a popular audience. Like, even more popular than Ann Rice's audience. I actually have a soft spot for Ann Rice, who, now I think about it, tends to write romantic, tortured men and no-nonsense women. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gargantuanjon Old Chap Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Ummm...women in my office who read got together and decided to...read? In the past, I have been treated to such joys as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I actually liked) and Eat, Pray, Love (which, I admit, I actually also kind of liked in spite of myself, even though it's solidly in the category of "divorce porn" and Elizabeth Gilbert has all the failings of the worst kind of Sex-and-the-City Arab women love fashion too! liberalism). Discovery of Witches is also vampire/witch/random esoterica for a popular audience. Like, even more popular than Ann Rice's audience. I actually have a soft spot for Ann Rice, who, now I think about it, tends to write romantic, tortured men and no-nonsense women.I don't mind Twilight. Didn't like it, of course. But I mind it much less than people who bash other people's reading tastes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 thank god this is about twilight (bad) i thought for a second you were going to say twitter users are ok! that would have been beyond the pale! twittertwats, no one cares what you think, shut the fuck up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWHamel Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I feel this whole vampire thing is a metaphor for a physical abuser, with all the typical clichés associated. "Oh, Edward is so cute." "He has such wonderful hair." "I know he really loves me." The fact is, he is an undead monster, who will eventually kill Bella, and by killing her, will turn her into an undead monster abuser. In addition, he is 104 years old. He's a child-abuser! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxx Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Moreover, Edward is 104 years old and still in high school! He must have cut class a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxx Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Sansa would have loved the Twilight stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriele Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Sansa would have loved the Twilight stories.Heh, that might have kept her off Joff, because he doesn't sparkle. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I actually have a soft spot for Ann Rice, who, now I think about it, tends to write romantic, tortured men and no-nonsense women.I had a bad Anne Rice spell when I was in junior high. sigh. I'm kind of wary of trashing books that are squarely aimed at girls/women. I don't think, say, Eat-pray-love is really worse than Tom Clancy "Killing Terrorists #25", but that dosen't take the kind of bashing Twilight or whatever does. Men's crap is silly good time fun, women's crap is a sure sign of mental deficiency and the death of western culture :dunno: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Obligatory .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. And even if not, there's the link above.I still probably will never read it, for two, mostly illogical reasons that I'm not very proud of: OSC has instilled me with a deep, gut-level distrust for any fiction that contains deeply ingrained Mormon values; and the other time I went back to 'read the book(s) that 'started it all'', Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, I put it down, bored to distraction, about a quarter of the way in, because even though it did all this stuff first, I'd read so many derivatives that it just didn't add anything new.I had a bad Anne Rice spell when I was in junior high. sigh. I'm kind of wary of trashing books that are squarely aimed at girls/women. I don't think, say, Eat-pray-love is really worse than Tom Clancy "Killing Terrorists #25", but that dosen't take the kind of bashing Twilight or whatever does. Men's crap is silly good time fun, women's crap is a sure sign of mental deficiency and the death of western culture :dunno: .Well, you didn't read "Killing Terrorists #25", did you? That means that it's crap by default. It holds no interest, rejected for its very premise. You bash it simply by not reading it.The worst thing that can happen to an author is to be obscure. Being proclaimed far and wide as mentally deficient and the source of western culture sells far more books than being ignored. And things that sell books spawn imitators. And quality of imitation tends to be almost completely independent of quality of original - in other words, 10% of it won't be crap. So maybe you're doing your part for the cause by bashing it. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbor Gold Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Well, you didn't read "Killing Terrorists #25", did you? That means that it's crap by default. It holds no interest, rejected for its very premise. You bash it simply by not reading it. Not true. I've read quite a few Tom Clancy's. I just can't remember then names of any of them. And they are bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elrostar Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I'm deeply disappointed. Are you sure you're the same person that lent me your copy of Rawls? Reading Twilight? And liking it?Oh dear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelli Fury Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 what I do not get about it is why anyone finds someone who is however old the vampire dude is supposed to be scamming on a high school girl any less gross than high school teachers banging their students. Just vampire pedo books if you ask me. I'm only 10 years out of high school and there is no way in hell I'd be interested in someone that young, legal or not, there is just a huge difference between someone that age and a real adult Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaine Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 It takes a big person to own up to something this terrible. Good on ya, Raids. Now get out. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Was a Discovery of Witches any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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