I don't know if any of you have noticed, but almost every time we have an extensive discussion in class, I and a few others somehow find a way to relate it to Twilight. Moreover, Twilight is always used as the supremely bad example of whatever it is we're discussing. Morals: Twilight is immoral. Literature: Twilight is not well-written. Dating & Courtship: Twilight twists male expectations.
You can call this consistency either a lame life goal to bash Twilight whenever opportunity presents itself, or simply a note-taking of how many wholesome things this series defies. I personally think it's both. For one, there's something ineffably fun about bashing the worst best-selling book of our time. And two; yes, Twilight does break just about every real-life moral concept.
The first I heard of Twilight was when the name Edward Cullen was conspicuously dropped into every teenage girl's vocabulary within a week. All I could think was, great Almighty, it's a vampire romance intended for young adults. Did the legions of Heaven suddenly fall to ruin? Or is there something about this particular vampire romance that justifies its audience? Turns out, I was totally wrong. The book somehow managed to be borderline mature content. Did that make it okay then, that young teenage girls were finding nothing wrong with a 110 year-old 17 year-old (wtf?) watching a high school girl while she slept? I don't know about you, but I find something seriously wrong with the way young teenage girls are throwing around the name Edward Cullen as if it's the best thing ever. How has it come to this, that girls should ever grow up thinking that a sociopath is the epitome of love? I remember a brief time when I was a bit younger when I thought being mysterious was a positive trait too. After a week I gave it up, because it just isn't my nature to be mysterious. Then a year or so later I found out that it's actually a good thing to not appear mysterious, no matter how attractive it seems. The ones that appear mysterious usually have no depth to their personality and end up trapping girls in abusive relationships. Which is odd...why do they appear to have depth when in fact they do not? And inversely, we the open and unreserved have great depth to our personalities, even if we don't show it all for whatever reason. I like the expressive strategy better. Sure it's not as exciting, but when exciting involves a risk of physical health, if I were a girl I would pass on it.
Obviously this isn't all I have to say about Twilight, and I may continue to rant on it in later entries.
The Living Syllabus--Unit 1 Becoming an L/T
17 years ago
3 comments:
Thank you Stephen!
Wow, I'm glad someone has finally formally spoken out against that wretched thing that some people venture to call "good literature".
I agree with you at every single point. I have one correction to make however: I always thought that Edward was actually 3000 years old or something.
I believe somewhere it specifies that he was born in the dawn of the 20th century. But century or trimillenia, it's still a disturbing concept.
I wonder if this gives you comfort in your grief... I am not addicted to Twilight! I do enjoy the series though, I have to admit. I don't think Edward is the, "perfect man/vampire," though. The fact is that he isn't and could never be, there is no chance that anyone could ever be that perfect. I am positive that I am just illustrating what you just said (sorry). It is an immoral book, glorifying physical prowess and having outer beauty be the basis for a relationship. The series is deeply flawed. If you read any passage from the series Stephenie Meyer attempts to show that Bella really does love Edward for how nice he is on occasion...The fact is though all she talks about is Bella's feeling unworthy to be with this perfect chiseled vampire. How screwed up is the concept?! It horrifies me, literally even when I catch girls under twelve reading it. It is just as bad or worse then watching a sexually explicit movie as the series continues. They eat it up and want their little Edward. It is slowly conquering our civilization. Maybe I am being dramatic. It is how I feel though.
Thanks.
*Edward is born in either early 1900's or 1800's or something I think.
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