Stephenie Meyer and Twilight

I want to start this blog by stating how ashamed I am that I read the entire Twilight series. I should have known from the mixed reviews I was receiving and the scattered yet scathing reviews that I heard, just how bad these books were. I want to provide a caveat up front: if you have any dignity, DO NOT READ THESE BOOKS! The only Twilight book that is halfway worth reading is the fourth book, Breaking Dawn. Unfortunately, "halfway worth reading" is still infinitely better than my caveat, because the three books that build up to it are filled with drivel. Add to that a lack of knowledge of how to write proper sentences in the English language, and you have Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I don't care how popular vampire books are these days, the Twilight series hardly even fits in that category; it completely distorts the classical image of the vampire into some hyper-sexualized creature that actually cares for humans.

So, now to my analysis of Twilight's popularity. My best analysis here has to do with the book's romance aspects. A huge portion of Twilight's readers are middle-aged women, and it is these readers that I wish to analyze. I don't want to over-generalize, but quite a few middle-aged women love reading romance novels. At the same time, there is a stigma associated with romance novels that cause a lot of women to avoid them, despite their enjoyment of the subject material. Twilight represents an innocuous novel that allows women to explore their romantic side.

I believe that teens feel the same draw to Twilight: it's a chance to read about romance without the stigma associated with romance novels. The teenager can dream about "true love", and the fact that you can truly feel like you belong with someone. But one of the biggest problems I have with Twilight lies between the two reader groups: teenagers and adult women. The characters in Twilight are 17 years old. In most states in the US, 17-year-olds are considered to be minors. I don't think any of us would ever expect to see a 40-something mother watching pornography involving 17-year-olds, and yet we constantly see them reading about it. What's the difference? The sex isn't explicit, but it's most certainly implied. Regardless, the sex is clearly there, and it seems to be this that middle-aged women are enjoying about the book. So let me offer another piece of advice: find romance books that are age-appropriate. If you're 17, then reading about 17-year-olds' romances may be appropriate; but if you're a 40-year-old mother, then sex between 17-year-olds is inappropriate. Please help us to remove Stephenie Meyer from the "canon" of modern literature. Relegate it to the list of authors who can't compose a proper sentence and whose stories are largely comprised of a moody, co-dependent 17-year-old girl and the boy who can't seem to get away from her, only because of his bloodlust. Since I can't think of a single other book that fits in this category, I'm going to place it in the broader categories of "I can't believe I read this whole series!" and "Make sure no one else suffers through this book like you did."

Modern Authors

Something that has been on mind for a few days now is that of modern authors. In recent years, I have started reading what I consider to be "popular" authors and books, with the excuse that "I want to know what all the hype is about". I have mixed feelings about them, thinking that certain authors are absolutely fantastic, whereas others are fly-by-night fads that will fade soon. However, that latter sentiment is only a hope, because these authors have become popular already, which to me implies that they will stay popular for a while. In the next few posts, I intend to discuss such popular authors as Dan Brown, Elizabeth Kostova, and Stieg Larsson, with perhaps a couple forays into Stephanie Meyer and J. K. Rowling, and maybe some reference back to Tom Wolfe. I have read all of Kostova's and Rowling's books, and unfortunately I've also read all of Meyer's Twilight books; the whole Robert Langdon series of Brown; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Larsson, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Wolfe. These authors are all ones about whom I have strong feelings, be it good or bad. I welcome any speculation about how I feel about each one, whether I feel like they are the fly-by-night that I mentioned or if I believe that they are actually contributing to the canon of literature. But in due time, I will reveal my feelings about each one, for better or for worse. So please, let me know how you feel, and we'll see if I agree or not.