When I got off my mission, I was excited to watch some of the movies that I'd been missing. One of the movies I watched was the new Twilight movie that had came out a few months previous. At the time, I didn't think it was that horrible. After all, I hadn't seen movies in a year and a half, so it seemed okay to me. However, since then, I've come to realize that the movies are really not quality entertainment. This post actually isn't about the movies, but about the books themselves. The movies have some pretty horrible acting, and the characters all look like they need more sleep. I'm not going to address the movies, but the quality of the books.
This may be an interesting post for me to write, especially after last month's Harry Potter spiel. After all, the Harry Potter books are much better than the Twilight ones, right? Probably.
However, today I'm standing up in defense of books that I don't really like, just because they've gotten a lot worse publicity than they actually deserve.
My sister really like Twilight when it first came out. She told me that I needed to read the books, because they were fantastic! Reluctantly I agreed. Understand, I'm not a big fan of romance books. However, even though all the teen-angst and drama was wearying to me, I still had a hard time putting down the book. Especially after I got halfway through it. Suddenly, the action kicked in, and I had a really hard time putting it down. I ended up finishing it in just a few hours. Still, I was reluctant to admit that I liked it because it was such a 'girly' book.
I read the second one eventually as well. I haven't read the other two, but maybe someday I will. Here's the thing. Stephanie Meyers isn't a bad writer. In fact, if a book is difficult to put down, it means that the person is an excellent writer. I don't even like romance, and I had a difficult time disengaging from it.
Stephanie Meyer was trying to introduce a different kind of vampire. Vampires have almost always been allusions of sexual desire. I've never read Anne Rice, but I hear that she capitalizes on that as well. Stephanie Meyer wanted to show that acting upon our desires is always a matter of choice. In the vampires in her books' case, there were several kind of desires that the characters were managing. I appreciate what she was trying to do with her books. I agree with her.
Some people didn't like the non-traditional version of vampires that were in her books. They claim that they were 'unvampirelike.' What does that even mean? Vampires are fictional. They have been around for centuries, but every author whose every written about them has changed them to suit their own needs. There is not a set parameter on what vampires should look like. If Stephanie Meyers wants to make her vampires sparkle in sunlight instead of turning to dust, who am I to argue. We might make fun of it, but it is still legal.
Stephanie Meyer came up with a concept that was supremely successful. A lot of less successful authors criticize her works and her writing style. However, she succeeded in capturing the hearts of a lot of young people. Doesn't that speak for itself? Writing is as much a gamble as anything. You never know if your book is going to be successful. However, she won the gamble. (And yes, J.K. Rowling did as well. Maybe I'm just jealous.)
If you haven't read her first book and you are an acute hater of Twilight and her other creations, try to read it before you say you hate it. Yes, the movies were pretty awful, but like all movies, they didn't really follow along with all the aspects of the books. The books described the vampires in a way that did kind of make you want to meet them. Even if they did sparkle.
Like I said, I haven't finished reading the series, but from what I've read, it's okay. She was trying to portray her morals into a concept that has long been the opposite. For that, she has received quite a bit of gruff. I take my hat off to her for trying though. She's been quite successful.
So, that's why I think Twilight's not so bad. Tell me what you think.
Oh please be careful handling these snails. I have been watching a show on Animal Planet called Monsters Inside Me. They showed two different people getting sick and almost dying from coming into contact with snails and their slime trails. Both cases were in Hawaii. Make sure to use antibacterial soap and wash thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with this: "In fact, if a book is difficult to put down, it means that the person is an excellent writer." There are plenty of people who have fantastic ideas but are terrible writers, and in my opinion Stephenie Meyer is one of them. She doesn't develop her characters (other than Edward, who she spends pages gushing about), she writes ENORMOUS paragraphs just to describe Edward's appearance, and her books are a disgrace to traditional vampire novels ("Dracula").
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that authors have license to remake traditional literary characters like vampires, and I do like how Stephenie Meyer took a totally different take on vampires, she has also admitted in interviews that she never read any vampire books or watched any movies before she wrote the Twilight series. Essentially, she didn't know anything about vampires before she drastically changed them, and to me that really undermines her credibility as a writer.
I will say that I read all of the books until I got halfway through the fourth one, and by that point I was so disgusted that I stopped reading and had my sister tell me what happened. They were hard to put down, sure, but I was really upset by Bella and Edward's abusive relationship, especially how possessive he is of her, and was turned off by the lustful nature of the books. They are supposed to be about true love, but the main parts of the book are about Edward and Bella's physical attraction to each other — and that's why they're so popular with teenage girls and adult women.
Anyway, I thought she had an interesting story, but I had some big problems with her execution and think the writing could have been much better. Glad you liked them, though!
Ha ha. Thank you for your thoughts. I didn't necessarily 'love' them, they just had more merit than people were giving them. Like I said, I've only read the first two, and the action scenes were quite good. But yes, there were serious issues in the books as well.
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