#and I simply think Stephenie Meyer was wrong | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 5 years ago

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Hi! As someone who’s literary opinion I really trust, I was surprised that you’re a twilight fan? I know almost nothing except commen knowledge things about that series, and I always assumed it was actually bad/un-feminist. What is it that you like so much that others seem to miss? I’m just genuinely curious about your take on the hate it always seems to get vs. it’s actual quality. I’m not gonna judge bc animorphs is also one of those books where you see it and assume it’s bad.

In over 14 years of loving this series, I’m not sure anyone has ever asked me why I enjoy it instead of simply trying to convince me that I’m wrong to do so. So thank you for that.

First and foremost, I love the Twilight saga because of the vivid detail in Stephenie Meyer’s writing style. The descriptions are so lush and dense with sensory information that you can practically bite down on them as you read. Bella and Jacob aren’t just sitting on the beach; they’re sitting on a gnarled log of driftwood, worn smooth at the top from where so many Quileute teens have sat upon it during bonfires but still uneven enough to rock on its branches when Bella suddenly stands to rage at her own mortality. Meyer describes that log in Twilight, so tangibly and with such economy of detail, that we recognize it immediately when Bella and Jacob return to that spot in Eclipse. I’ve always disliked the movies, because I’ve always felt that the best part of Meyer’s writing simply did not translate well to the screen.

Secondly, I love the feminism.

Okay, let’s take a quick pause to let everyone gasp and clutch their pearls over me calling Twilight a feminist work. I will address the criticisms later. For now, please just hear me out.

Twilight strikes me as a premier example of what Hélène Cixous means when she calls for “women’s writing,” or writing for women, about women, by women, with a strong focus on the concerns and strengths and desires of womanhood. This is a series about building and maintaining close relationships, both romantic and platonic. It celebrates beauty, and love, and care. Bella moves to Forks because she recognizes that her dad is lonely while her mom is quite the opposite, torn between family priorities. She doesn’t simply subsume her interests to those of other people, but instead actively chooses how and when and where to express her love for her birth family and her found families. Most of the other major decisions throughout the story — Alice “adopting” Bella, Carlisle moving the family to Alaska, Jacob becoming werewolf beta, the Cullens going up against the Volturi, etc. — are motivated by care and devotion for one’s family and friends. Even the selfish or morally ambiguous character choices are shown to be motivated by love. Rosalie tells Edward that Bella died because she genuinely thinks it’ll help him move on. Victoria creates an army that nearly destroys Forks because she’s avenging James. Alice abandons Bella and the others before the final battle because if she can’t save her entire family, then she’ll settle for saving her lover before letting him die in vain.

Not only is there a striking concern with love and care, but there’s also a strong commitment to avoiding violence. Bella’s eventual vamp-superpower proves to be preventing violence and protecting others, an awesome character decision that I’d argue gets set up as early as the first book. She lives in a violent world — this is a YA SF story, after all — but she has the power to suppress violence and create peace, both in herself and others. I was already sick of “power = ability to inflict damage” in YA stories well before I knew the word “patriarchy.” Twilight was one of the first books to convey to me that power could be refusing to do harm in spite of hunger or anger, that power could be shielding ones’ family, that power could be about building enough friendships and alliances to have an army at one’s back when facing an enemy too strong to take on alone.

Closely connected to all of that love and care, I love how much Twilight is about navigating teenage girlhood. Is it empowering, intersectional, or all-inclusive? Hell no. Does it still dare to suggest that a completely ordinary teenage girl could have valid concerns about the world? Yep. The main conflict of the story, as Stephen King so derisively explained, is about the romantic entanglements of a teenage girl, and the book therefore has no literary merit. (To quote my dad’s response: “Bold words from the guy who inflicted Firestarter on the world.”)

There is, indeed, a lot of romance in Twilight. There are a lot of clothes. Alice and Rosalie especially spend a lot of time on makeup, and hair, and choosing the prettiest cars and houses. Twilight embraces all the stereotypically “girly” concerns of adolescence, and makes no effort to apologize for or condemn them. Bella isn’t particularly good at performing them — she likes but doesn’t excel at shopping, fiercely defends her ugly car as ugly, hobbles through prom on crutches — but she can still enjoy the feeling of being pretty in a sparkly dress while dancing with her sparkly boyfriend. And Twilight, like Animorphs with Cassie, takes the daring step of treating that feeling as valid.

Speaking of sparkles, I love the commitment to the fantasy concept in Twilight, including the myriad mundanities that Meyer brings with that commitment. If you have super-speed, why not use it to play extreme baseball? If you’re a mindreader with a clairvoyant sister, why wouldn’t you two play mental chess games? I couldn’t tell you, after seven seasons of Buffy or eight of Vampire Diaries, what Spike or Damien or Angel or Stefan does all day when not brooding or lurking in the bushes to creep on human women. I can tell you what the Cullens get up to. Emmett and Rosalie work on their cars, usually by holding them overhead one-handed. Carlisle and Alice read plays, and sometimes talk the whole family into home Shakespeare productions. Edward and Carlisle debate theology, Emmett and Jasper have dumb athletic competitions, Edward and Esme play music, Alice manipulates stock markets, the twins go shopping online, etcetera. The Cullens feel real, feel like the vampires next door, in a way that Louis and Lestat simply do not.

To get to the elephant in the room — I just described Twilight as a feminist text! — let’s talk about the other thing the Cullens do for fun: they have sex. Weird sex. Kinky furniture-breaking sex. Sex that Emmett (who would know) compares to bear-wrestling. These books suck with regards to queer representation, but they are sex-positive. They feature an old-school Anglican protagonist offering his daughter-in-law a medical abortion. They treat Edward’s desire for sex only within marriage and Alice’s desire for sex outside of marriage as both being valid. Like I said, not groundbreaking, even by the standards of 2005, but still more than most teen novels do even today.

There’s a passage from Breaking Dawn that people love to pull out of context as “everything wrong with Twilight in two paragraphs” because it describes Bella waking up the morning after sex with bruises on her arms. That moment is shocking out of context, to be sure — but in context, it’s the end result of an in-depth consent negotiation that lasts four books. Bella says that she’d like to become a vampire. Edward says okay, but only if she spends a few more years living as a human and considering that choice. Bella says okay, but only if Edward, not Carlisle, becomes the one to turn her. Edward says they can use his venom, but that Carlisle, who’s an MD, really needs to supervise the process. Bella doesn’t love the idea of Edward’s stepdad cockblocking what’s supposed to be an intimate moment, and so agrees only on the grounds that she gets to have sex with Edward as a human first. Edward’s hella Catholic, so he requests that they get married first. Bella’s super horny, so she demands that the wedding happen within six months. Edward says that he might hurt her during sex, and Bella says that she wants a little hurt during sex. They marry. They bang. During the banging, Edward makes every effort to be controlled and courteous and gentile, while Bella goes wild and crazy. The next morning, she has bruises and he does not. Edward apologizes, but Bella’s actually really into it. She spends a while admiring her sexy vamp-marked self in the mirror, touches the bruises many times, and reminds us yet again that Bella Swan’s whole M.O. is being a monsterfucker. Her kink is not my kink, and that’s okay.

To be clear, I think there are other aspects of the romance that get criticized for good reason. Edward does not negotiate with Bella before sneaking into her room to watch her sleep, and he does make unacceptable use of their power differences when he thinks she’s in danger of being mauled by werewolves. The text condemns Jacob’s “don’t wanna die a virgin” ploy to manipulate a kiss out of Bella, but not the wider conceit of all the male characters as possessing uncontrollable urges. Bella’s struggles to adjust to a new town feel very feminine and realistic; her amused tolerance of Jacob’s and Mike’s sexual harassment as the price for their friendship does not. Werewolf imprinting might be mostly platonic, but that doesn’t make it okay for Meyer to depict it as a form of soulmate bonding that happens with child characters. Those are good points, all around. I just wish that most of them didn’t come up in the context of post-hoc rationalizations for loathing the femininity of a feminine text.

I’m not calling Twilight an unproblematic series. I’m saying that it gets (rightly!) criticized for appropriating Quileute culture, while Buffy’s total absence of main characters of color and blatant anti-Romani racism are (wrongly!) not remarked upon. I'm saying that I’ve been told I’m a misogynist for liking Twilight but not for liking James Bond. I’m saying that there’s a reason people tend to go “oh, that makes so much sense!” when I let them in on the fact that reactive hatred for “Twitards” started and spread on 4Chan, later home of Gamergate and incel culture. I’m saying that Twilight depicts problematic relationship dynamics as sexy — but then so do Vampire Academy, Blue Bloods, Supernatural, Vladimir Tod, and Vampire Diaries. All of which take the time to stop and thumb their noses at Twilight, smug in the superiority of having vampires that fly rather than vampires that sparkle, and for thoroughly condemning teenage girls for being girly while continuing to show men inflicting violence on them.

After all, as Erin May Kelly puts it: “we live in a world taught to hate everything to do with little girls. We hate the books they read and the bands they like. Is there anything the world makes fun of more than One Direction and Twilight?” No one has ever called me a misogynist for liking the MCU, in spite of less than a third of its movies even managing to clear the low-low bar of the Bechdel test. Because people are still allowed to like Harry Potter in spite of its racism, or Lord of the Rings despite its imperialism. Because hatred for Twilight was never about its very real sexism, or the genuinely silly sparkle-vampires, until it had to justify itself as something other than hate for everything that teenage girls have ever dared openly love.

I enjoy the novels, and I enjoy the fan fiction that tries to fix some of the problems with the novels. I appreciate the extent to which Meyer has elevated fan culture, and made an effort to acknowledge her own past mistakes. I would love to be able to talk about my love for the series as a flawed but beautiful work of literature, but for now I’ll settle for asking that the world just let me enjoy it in peace.

#twilight #the twilight saga #breaking dawn #eclipse #new moon #stephenie meyer #fandom #nothing to do with animorphs #misogyny #ableist language #sexist language #long post #sexism #romance #anonymous #asks

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ghostofbambifanfiction · 4 years ago

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Before you posted these excerpts, I actually felt bad for SM because of the 50 Shades thing. Now, while Istill think 50 Shades was stealing, I believe that EL James had a better grasp on the characters than SM and simply put every fucked up thing about them to the forefront 🤦‍♀️

I still feel like it was completely ethically wrong for E L James to trade on SMeyer’s name and characters in order to sell her shitty books, knowing that it would boost her profile to do so. I think it’s shitty that SMeyer felt for a long time that she no longer had ownership of her own characters because of that. All of that I believe, and it stands apart from how much I have remembered that I DESPISE Stephenie Meyer for telling girls that to be abused by your lover is not just acceptable, but enviable and desirable too. I personally know women who endured abuse at the hands of men because Twilight led them to believe that they should be searching for men as intense and “protective” as Edward. I hold Stephenie Meyer responsible. Still think what E L James did was reprehensible too. Throw them both in the dumpster.

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jasperwhitcock · 4 years ago

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Been thinking about former Confederate Jasper Whitlock. So, I firmly believe that in life Jasper thought of anyone who wasn't white as less than human. And joining the vampire army he swiftly adjusted to thinking as all of humanity as less than. But I just had a vision of Jasper trying school for the first time in the 60's, at a freshly integrated school and identifying with the few black students' outsider feelings so much that it's the first time in his immortal life that he sees humans as =

so, i hope/want to assume you have good intentions with this ask! clearly, you don’t want to stan jasper’s past as acceptable which is obviously a good thing because you recognize/acknowledge that it was inappropriate of smeyer to make jasper a confederate soldier in the first place. even with the time period he was born in, the location he was born in, it was unnecessary to highlight the confederacy in her young adult series without also condemning it. and further rendered unnecessary with the fact that it’s even canon that jasper’s time as a confederate soldier was useless to his time with the vampire armies. jasper could have been a vampire war expert, a “southern gentlemen” cowboy, all while still not having ties to the confederacy. (would he have still been racist because of the time period? absolutely… as can be assumed of the rest of the cullens even if you disregard the blatancy of their racism against the tribe). but it was entirely possible to come up with a plethora of other reasons why maría decided to turn jasper into a vampire. but, of course, stephenie meyer didn’t which is why we are having this conversation in the first place.

anyways, i feel cautious about these sorts of asks because i see a lot of asks defending jasper or even the confederacy itself… or trying to figure out how to create a redemption arc for him (which kae said it so simply and yet exactly right) but even as good as your intentions are, i think it’s important to realize that there’s no way we can head canon the racism out of jasper.

i know that it’s conflicting because jasper seems like a cool character, so a lot of people are inclined to try and fix him. (a lot of us have nostalgia and emotions and comfort that tie us to these characters, so in desperation to hold on to that sense of comfort, it can be tempting to make excuses for some of their behaviors. but no one is arguing that you can’t still hold on to the sense of comfort you’ve built by having twilight in your life when you were younger. however, being older, it is important that you acknowledge the problems deeply imbedded into the series by stephenie meyer and be critical in order to really allow yourself to enjoy it)

anyways, i hate to say that because it could be interpreted as i think racist people can have redeeming qualities. that’s not what i’m saying. i’m saying i see how jasper could have been a good character – an interesting talent, a quiet yet mysterious/dangerous disposition, battle experience with other vampires. but then…stephenie gave him a racist past, therefore a racist present, and also in regards to the cullens’ treatment of jacob and the rest of the pack.. a racist future.

i know it’s conflicting. but trying to save him can make BIPOC – and because this is the confederacy we’re speaking on, i will specifically say black people – feel uncomfortable and hurt. and at the end of the day, no fictional character is worth hurting real life people with real life feelings who have real life experiences with racism daily.

our energies are better spent not trying to save and imagine the educating of a fictional racist character, but instead trying to educate/challenge the real people in our lives who may still hold on to problematic ideas. it’s easier to be like drop those toxic bitches!! but the reality is that sometimes because of circumstances out of our control, we do have to interact with racist people because our problematic aunt is unavoidable at family events we can’t get out of or we can’t quit our job where our boss says micro aggressions because it’s impossible with our financial stability. (these are random examples… i don’t have a boss/aunt i’m referring to) the unfortunate reality is that we share a world with racist people, so we have to do our best to be antiracist and fight that. we have to make our stances clear that that is not acceptable, and you either “embrace change or die on the wrong side of history.”

(and on that last point, for BIPOC, do i think you need to tolerate this treatment or educate these people yourself? no. but for white allies, you’re often in uncomfortable, difficult positions where you are faced with either saying something or saying nothing. believe me, i know it’s hard. it’s awkward. it takes bravery and courage. but it’s the very least that can be done.)

anyways, again, i hope you have good intentions. i’m not trying to make some like “look at me owning problematic twilight stans” example of you, but i am using this ask to highlight that there is no way to be 100% perfect as an ally. it’s an impossibility. you will make mistakes. but there is a way to be 100% perfect in trying your best. (that sounded super corny.) which is when you do make mistakes, to acknowledge them. to be okay with the fact you made a mistake (because the time you spend beating yourself up and feeling ashamed is time wasted! also… BIPOC have too much else going on to focus on any pity parties) to take the time to research so you understand and educate yourself. and then to then take that knowledge and experience to do better in the future.

and can i as a non black poc accept any apologies related to attempts with jasper’s character? no. but i can challenge myself and everyone to again, do better.

edit: also because this ask is mentioning the confederacy, an unrecognized (lol) breakaway state infamous for racism against black people by advocating for slavery, i do want to post again the black lives matter carrd as a resource so you can find petitions you can sign, protests you can attend, or places to donate.

#twilight renaissance #midnight sun #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #twilight #anon #ask

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oneweirdredhead · 4 years ago

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Twilight and Midnight Sun - My Thoughts

It's been a long time coming but Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer has finally arrived.

It's been 12 years in the making but the Twilight author has finally given us a story from the point of view of Edward Cullen, the 109-year-old vampire in the body of a 17-year-old boy.

When Twilight first came out in the cinema, I was an immature 12-year-old, dealing with hormones and trying to think about what I really wanted in life. I read the first book (simply because everyone was!), and I will admit, I found it a little dubious. Whether it was the characters or the writing, I wasn't sure. But then again, I was young, and I had a thing for vampires at the time so I thought I would give it another chance.

So I got New Moon... and all I can say is, I do not know how I managed to survive through the entire book. I had never had a boyfriend, but even I knew that in real life, you don't just curl up and die when your boyfriend dumps you. You have to get up, move on and get over it. I also didn't like the constant comparisons that Meyer made with Romeo and Juliet. At the time, I was studying Romeo and Juliet myself, as part of my Junior Cert. To me, it's not a story of true love. It's an adolescent fantasy of what love is. What they believe to be love, ends up killing them.

Put it like this; how long did the two youths actually really know each other before they decided to marry? Think about it.

Another thing I didn't like was the constant references to suicide. Edward running to to Volturi to kill him, Esme throwing herself off a cliff when her child died, Bella putting herself in constant danger... is this the right message to send to someone? That if life is too hard, you should kill yourself?

Anyway, I only got two chapters into Eclipse before I finally gave up. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was tired of hearing about how gorgeous Edward Cullen was and the constant complaining from Bella Swan about how life wasn't fair. (But of course, we already knew that!) I stayed right away from Breaking Dawn and I didn't go near the final three movies. By the time the last movie came out, I was sixteen. I had grown out of vampires and werewolves; I had moved on to books that covered real life issues.

I did start the unfinished draft of Midnight Sun... I just don't think I ever finished it. To be honest, how Stephenie Meyer wrote through Edward's eyes really unsettled me. The part where he watches Bella read outside her home, was disturbing. I'm sure that many Twi-hard fans would agree that this takes stalking to the next level.

Reading where he compares Bella to Persephone - a woman who was forced to marry a man without her consent, live somewhere she never wanted to be - it actually makes sense. It's a reference to how he treats Bella. Stalking her, forcing her to go places where she doesn't want to go, making her do things that she doesn't want to do; he is exactly like Hades in that perspective. Yes, Meyer picked the wrong time to make the comparison (comparing Persephone's pomegranate to Bella's mushroom ravioli? Really?) but I think many will agree that the comparison holds true.

Stephenie Meyer waited 12 years to publish this book and to be honest, I think she waited too long. Society has changed, we have moved on. Even the most Twi-hard fans have grown up and have moved themselves away from the franchise. As much as we like to hang onto something we really like, we must learn to let go.

With the rise of MeToo and the constant horrific stories of abuse in the media, our perspective of Twilight has altered. Fans are beginning to see the realities and unhealthiness of Edward and Bella's relationship. Control, isolation, mental and emotional abuse. In today's society, do we really want to read a story like that?

Midnight Sun is a story that I'm sure that many devoted fans will be itching to read. But I will admit, it's a little sad that they would still want to read about a controlling and abusive monster especially in today's society.

#my thoughts #midnight sun #twilight

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yoramkelmer · 4 years ago

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The rise and fall of the Twilight-Craze

Let me tell you about my first encounter with Twilight - it was a “read”-week in 6th or 7th grade, and I picked up a very new book at the library of my elementary school. So I started reading it. I remember reading the first chapters, but never finishing it. I remember how I found the protagonist to be very whiny, and very disrespectful too.

Also, at this point I also didnt know that this would be a vampire-novel, as the backcover of the book - this being the first danish translation/edition of the novel - never mentioned it.

Anyway, afterwards, I forgot about it pretty quickly.

Flashforward to a year later.

I´m over in Germany, visiting my grandmother, and I buy some books - the german translation of Twilight being among them - and then I start reading it later in the fall. While I did think that the name Stephenie Meyer sounded familiar, I could not remember why. At this point I should also mention that 6th and 7th grade was a very traumatising period for me, and I had by that point pretty much blacked much of that period out of my mind, focusing on the now and future. And yeah, I was 14, so there was still much to come.

Anywway, as I start reading the novel later in the fall, I suddenly remembered that one book I never finished back in 6th or 7th grade - and am kinda amused. Yeah, anyway, I still found Bella Swan to be a very whiny girl, and I actually liked the novel, and honestly did not think that much about it afterwards. Though I did learn not long after that a movie would come out later that year, I - while I was looking forward to it - did not imagine that it would start a big craze, that I later learned from the Wikipedia article of the South Park episode The Ungroundable to be named “The Twilight Craze”.

I enjoyed the movie, actually - I watched it with my best friend (who went on to become the biggest Twilight fan I know, at least for as long as the craze lasted) and it is a memory that I like to think back on. I still think that both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson did a good job in these movies - though more on that later.

So, flash forward to the fall of 2009, where I am in Thailand with my parents. On the way to Thailand - as we went through Germany - I bought the subsequent books New Moon and Eclipse. I read these books very quickly, and my mom as well.

New Moon - and I´m talking about the novel here - did introduce some rather interesting ideas, such as the Volturi. One thing, however, already stuck me back then - it was the fact that Meyer completely distorted the actual folklore of an actual native american tribe, the Quileutes, for her own way, and it seemed really disrespectful back then already. And as for the Volturi, despite being mentioned early on, we didn´t really get that much from them - though as for the climax of the novel, I was pretty disturbed by the fact that the Volturi let in hundreds of tourists into their palace just to eat them after closing the doors. While that scenario is already pretty much horrifying, what really disturbed me was that Bella - and by extension, Stephenie Meyer herself - immediately forgot about it after it happened and moved on with the plot. That, and another thing - are we really gonna accept it as okay that one from Jacobs tribe physically hurt and mutilated his wifes face after wolfing out, because he feels sorry and he forgave her? It already seemed really wrong back then.

What I also noticed was the fact that Bella Swan essentially only hung out with Jacob so she could play with his feelings, and so she could get into dangerous situations so she could get these hallucinations of Edward. With that said - I also could not really see what was so special about the relationship between Bella and Edward.

Then I read Eclipse - and one thing stuck out to me there: it´s the fact that the mentioned backstories of the individual Cullens - Carlisles past with the Volturi, Rosalie seeking out and killing her rapists, Jaspers backstory from the american civil war (as I later learned from Das Mervins sporkings, she got a lot of stuff wrong there, to put it mildly), or how Alice was abandoned by her family in an asylum and pretended she was dead, where she ultimately got turned - all of these backstories are a hundred times way more interesting than the perks of being Bella Swan and her love life!

Also, I immediately knew that the vampire army was a work of Victoria, and that it was to kill Bella - only upon reading the sporkings by Das Mervin did I learn that it was supposed to be a “twist”.

On the way back from Thailand I bought Breaking Dawn shortly before leaving Germany, but I never finished it - you know why? Because some of my classmembers spilled the tea on the spoiler that Jacob imprints on Bellas daughter. I was just grossed out. I later learned that the book is what turned many fans off Twilight - and the imprinting thing was one of the reasons why, in many cases.

Anyway, then a few weeks after returning from Thailand, I went in to see New Moon with two of my best friends, and it is a memory that I cherish very much.

And that was the time when the Twilight Craze really, really went off - with all the cringeworthy “Are you Team Edward, or Team Jacob?” stuff, and how out of touch with reality some of the fangirls seemed - there were apparently some who really believed that Edward Cullen exists, and so much more. I still didnt think too much about it, as I had other things to look for.

Though - despite liking the movies and the books at the time - I really, really enjoyed a lot of the parodies on the Twilight Craze, like this one from Smosh. The thing is, that Twilight became the probably most parodied thing in the 2009-2010 period. And that may have been one of the things that killed the craze - but more on that later.

Then, in the summer of 2010 - one of the best summers of my life - I was in Miami with my family. And then my best friend and I got to watch Eclipse in a gigantic cinema in a very big mall in Miami Beach - that was unforgettable. And I also remember that I wasnt the only one who laughed over Taylor Lautners overacting. Good to know.

During that same summer, I remember then seeing a new book by Stephenie Meyer in the bookstores - “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”. As this was before my friend and I saw the movie, I myself did not think that much about it; but I then later realised that Bree was the girl killed by the Volturi at the end of Eclipse, and that the novel - as the title already states - was about her time with the army of newborns. That sounded like an actual interesting plot. Shortly before watching Eclipse, the trailer for “Vampires Suck” came out - and the trailer was very funny, way more funny than the actual movie.

So....Eclipse was a huge hit that summer. But you know what that also was? The end of the Twilight Craze itself. In fact, it can also be compared with another contemporary hit of the 2009-2010 period - Avatar. While that was the biggest hit of the winter of 2009-2010, as soon as spring started, everyone forgot about it. And while Eclipse itself got a lot of mixed reviews, like the preceding movies of the franchise, it simply was the end of the craze itself.

I think here are some of the factors:

Twilight was pretty much EVERYWHERE in the media in 2009-2010, not only from advertisement, product placements, and posters, but also from parodies, not to mention how often Twilight was mentioned in actual news broadcast. In other words, people got tired of it - not just the people who werent even fans of the franchise in the first place, but also more moderate fans, like I considered myself then. And yeah - now thinking back on it, I was also pretty tired of seeing Twilight everywhere even before Eclipse was released in the cinemas.

And another thing is this: The Second Life of Bree Tanner. While the novel was released in early June of 2010, mere weeks before the movie came out, it was very bestselling, because of the Twilight Craze. And the reason why it was released was most likely because even Stephenie Meyer herself had a feeling that the craze soon would end, and had to publish something Twilight-related in advance, so she could be talked about again. Officially, the novella started as a short story to tie in with her illustrated guide for Twilight.

I bought the book later that summer while in Germany - and I found it not very well written, and forgot about it very shortly afterwards. Even my friend found it forgettable. I recently read the sporking of the book on Das Mervin to be reminded of what actually happened - and boy, does it suck! And here is my point - many Twilight fans probably realised with that book that Stephenie Meyer isnt that good a writer. (A lot of people had the same reactions to “The Host” - including me, who never finished the novel because of that)

And then, as soon as the summer of 2010 was over, Twilight was over. People had enough.

I know that the final film was - because of Harry Potter - split in two parts (a decision that was continued when The Hunger Games were made into movies, and a decision that ultimately killed the Divergent franchise), and was released in the winter of 2011 and 2012. I watched both of them - and I was immediately struck by this in 2012: While there of course were trailers and posters for these films, there was simply not the same exposure to the franchise as back in 2009-2010.

And by the time of the release of Breaking Dawn part 2 in the winter of 2012, I had already been redpilled regarding Mary Sues, and had a field day of counting all the Mary Sue points in the movies.

Yeah, Bella Swan is one of the biggest Mary Sues in existence, and was created as a way of Stephenie Meyer wanting to live out an idealised version of her highschool years.

That, and Stephenie Meyer isnt that great a writer - just read the sporking on Das Mervin.

During the reading of the sporkings, I also realised the way how Meyer demonises every blonde - from Lauren to Rosalie, and how Leah Clearwater is demonised for being an independent woman who doesnt bow down to Bella Sue and who actually does something, unlike Bella Sue.

Now, onto the thing with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Both are very good actors, and I think it is sad to see how haunted they were in the past decade of Twilight. Many have accused Stewart of being a bad actress because of Twilight (not to mention that they haven´t seen her brilliant performance in Speak) - I disagree. Kristen Stewart showed what a spoiled, ungrateful and dull Sue Bella is, and Pattinson what a creepy, controllable Stalker Edward is. And I´m now especially happy to see how especially Pattinson is recovering now, as Kristen Stewart did get to prove herself in movies like Camp X-Ray.

Anyway, that was my rant on the Twilight Craze.

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itsdaniclayton · 5 years ago

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Final Twilight thoughts

I finished rereading the four main books for the first time in almost 11 years and let me tell yall it was a Ride and I have a lot of thoughts so I don’t know how long this is going to be but I can get carried away easily so beware.

The first book is not as bad as the internet makes it seem. Overall the saga is a Mess and there are So Many Wrong things but the first book is actually quite enjoyable. I haven’t read many YA romance books but I don’t think it’s too far off. The second book is not that bad either but that might be completely personal because I’ve always liked New Moon best. It goes to hell after that but some parts are so unintentionally funny that it kept me reading. Most of the memes come from the movies so I cannot wait to watch them.

Bella and Edward are so fucking dull, I cannot believe they’re the main characters and we’re supposed to love them. Bella gets better in Breaking Dawn but I think it’s only because 90% of her personality is being horny. I can’t say aything good about Edward tbh.

Their relationship is Not Good. I know Edward is worried that something will happen to Fragile Human Bella but he’s so possessive and their relationship is so toxic and he still won’t let vampire Bella alone for a minute and ew. Also they said I love you in like their first date.

Related to the second point, there are So Many great female characters and the main character is like the absolute worst of them all. We have Alice, Rosalie, Esme, Leah on one hand and Bella in the other. Like I said, Bella gets better in the last book and even more when she becomes a vampire but still, I just can’t care about her when there are other characters that are so much more interesting.

Alice is literally the best character and that’s that on that. I am personally offended about how little she appears and that she leaves twice. I just love her so much and I hate that her entire backstory is in another book and that we get almost nothing from the four main books. I absolutely love the mental image of her driving a stolen yellow porsche at full speed through Italy.

Rosalie is a Queen. She went and killed the men who raped her just for revenge and she wore a wedding dress when going after her fiancé and leaving him for last so that he’d know she was coming, truly Iconic. Also she’s the best mechanic of the Cullens and that’s a great mental image to have.

I can’t say much about the rest of the Cullens other than I still cannot process the fact that Carlisle was turned at 23. I know he claims to be older in front of humans but like, imagine a man in his mid/late 20s being an extremely skilled doctor and having adopted five teenagers, it’s insane.

Jacob is the absolute worst and I can believe he got votes in my little poll, I’m so sorry for everyone who has Jacob as a favorite character.

The Clearwaters are simply amazing and I love them all so much, rip to Harry who died as a plot device. Seth is my son and I’d die for him, and Leah could kill me and I’d thank her. It does bother me that Leah’s entire story revolves around Sam though.

I don’t like Charlie at all, like I’m sorry but if a grown up man cannot make one (1) decent meal for himself and depends on the women around him to take care of the meals and chores, literally all he does is fishing, and he’s a cop, he’s not good.

Again, I don’t care much about Bella and it is kinda very annoying that we are introduced to many cool things but are shown only very little about them because Bella is too busy being all clingy and horny. This happens a lot but I’m particularly talking about the last third of Breaking Dawn when all the vampires come over. I want to know more about them!! We shouldn’t need a vampire guide because they’re just introduced by name and one line with their special power if they have one!! I didn’t need the guide this time because I was already familiar with them but I think the first time I needed to go back constantly. The point is, the vampires from around the world were extremely interesting and I would have liked to know more about them. Especially the ones that were introduced before that moment. I know the Denali coven is given a little bit more depth but Peter and Charlotte are first mentioned in Eclipse and we’re not even given a physical description of them.

I have the theory that Bella is an unreliable narrator basing myself on the fact that she finds literally every person/vampire/wolf she meets beautiful.

I think Stephenie Meyer didn’t create a very solid concept of what vampires are like in this universe. They only drink blood, sparkle in the sun, don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t sweat, can’t cry, their hearts don’t beat, but they can impregnante humans. How does that make sense? How do vampires have sex? Like do they have the bodily functions necessary for it?

Finally here are the results of my little poll. For those who haven’t seen it, I just asked people who their favorite character was. Thank you everyone who voted! The results were predictable but also quite surprising (“other” consists of characters with less than five votes).

#reading twilight #this is all i can think of rn #there’s a read more there somewhere i hope it works #im gonna start with the movies tomorrow bc it’s too late now

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study-read-repeat · 6 years ago

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A defense of Bella Swan

A commonly heard criticism of Bella Swan is that she’s weak and boring and therefore a bad protagonist. I would like to argue that she’s just human and that this doesn’t make her a bad protagonist at all. .

When we first meet Bella it’s immediately clear that she’s physically weak, she’s clumsy, she’s bad at sports. So are a lot of people, none of these make her in any way a bad protagonist. If anything, they make her more relatable to a lot of teenage girls. In recent years we’ve seen an influx of strong female characters, who can kill a man with their bare hands, which is awesome, but it’s not very realistic at all. Bella portrays far more common and mundane aspects of strength. She took care of her mom for years, she faces death with a quiet sort of acceptation, she’s willing to make sacrifices for the ones she loves. She pulls through, keeps going to school and starts living again, even after losing not just Edward, who’s the love of her life, but also Alice, her best friend. None of these are signs of weakness.

I’d also like to argue that it’s unfair to compare her character to the Cullens. The Cullens are at the youngest a little over 100 years old. Age comes with emotional maturity, age comes with wisdom. Bella is a teenage girl, she’s 17, you can’t compare that to a century old vampire, you can’t even compare that with someone who’s 25. Bella is in many ways one of the most realistic teenagers I’ve read, because she makes stupid choices, she gets into situation that are primarily her own fault and she gets into those because of her own lack of oversight, a common characteristic of teenagers, something that they can’t overcome, because their brains aren’t done maturing yet. The fact that she requires saving in the situations she gets herself into is a natural consequence of being a teenager, I regularly require saving by my mom too. Requiring saving doesn’t make you weak, it means you tried to be strong, a quality I think is admirable, but you took on more than you could handle.

Lastly, I would like to respond to criticisms that Bella is boring. Twilight is a romance and a common characteristic of romances is having a heroine that’s kind of mousy, someone you can relate to. Bella likes reading, Bella gets fulfillment out of taking care of people, she’s a worrier, all characteristics most readers of romances share with her. Saying she has no personality is not entirely fair to people who see themselves in her, simply because not everybody has a large and overwhelming personality. Some people like quiet, some people like simple and provincial and their character is a direct reflection of that. It’s true that we don’t see Bella aspire much of anything, other than a life with Edward, at which point I would like to point out that for many women their primary ambition is finding a loving husband and having kids, secondly I would like to point out that Stephenie Meyer has stated that after she had her son she just wanted to be his mom and that this ideal of motherhood fits her own life and finally I would like to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a life like that, even if it’s not the life I and many with me would choose.

To conclude, no Bella Swan is not particularly special, she’s no chosen one, but this doesn’t make her weak. Instead, she’s just human, she’s just like the rest of us. This fact ties in neatly with the fact that twilight is primarily a romance, not primarily a fantasy novel.

@aelin-godkiller you wanted to read this.

#twilight #Bella Swan #pro twilight #look i love twilight okay #always will

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daughter-of-pens · 6 years ago

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Thought Bamboo: Twi-Hate is Dead. Criticism is Eternal.

I saw an interesting discussion going on around a video called “Dear Stephenie Meyer” by youtuber Lindsay Ellis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O06tMbIKh0

(Go watch her video and check out her channel. She’s awesome.)

I definitely agree with Ellis on her overall points, I just come away from it with a slightly different ending. You’ll see what I mean.

I agree that the trend of bashing things and people into the ground more so on the shallow principles of

A. Hating “girly things” and looking down on other girls who revel in those “girly things”

B. generally being a controlling ultra-(and often, fake/superficial)-woke snitch about everything

is completely wrong, annoying, and plain tired. You don’t have to campaign against the existence of things you don’t enjoy for whatever “too cool for school” or “I smell problematic” reasons. Let other people enjoy them for whatever reasons they enjoy them. Have your problems with the material all you want, but just know you’re gonna be the pretentious asshole in the room the second your issue becomes only or more so with the people who just simply don’t feel the same way because you genuinely believe you have the behavioral recipe to “the right way to human.” Sorry to break it to you, hunny buns, but you don’t and you never will just like the rest of us.

Now speaking of the material, here is where I divert from Ellis just a bit because I wouldn’t go as far as to blame “sexist-driven hate frenzy” for all the negative critiques the story that is The Twilight Saga received.

I'm 25 now. Started reading Twilight back in middle school, finished the series in 9th or 10th grade. I remember expecting something more after Twilight, the first book. I remember seeing the potential for world building with the Blacks and character development for Bella and watching it be wasted in New Moon, then hoping Eclipse wouldn't drop the same balls (it did), and then being absolutely gutted by Breaking Dawn, one of the most rushed yet stagnant and outrageously "throw everything at the wall and write whatever sticks" stories I had ever read at that time.

Jacob Black is now a term, verb and noun, that I use for a most pathetic character pathetically hung up on someone to the point of stunting his or her growth as an individual. I never want any character I like in a book, show, or movie to be "Jacob Black'd." I’ve called back to Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie when I want to provide examples of promising yet wasted character arcs and flip-flopping personalities to cater to the main character's allergy to conflict and personal growth. And that's just a few drops in the well of problems the whole series has that I still remember and think about to this day when I notice other stories wobbling in similar ways.

All of my problems with Twilight were and still are completely story-based and so I don’t feel the need to apologize for them. I never watched the movies because I was nearly done with the series around when the first film took off as this mega-cultural phenomenon and so, by the time the last movies were coming out, I was well over the story at that point. I had moved on to other books like avid readers do, so I’d missed the train on the rabid twi-hard fandom and just plain never had an interest in making it my mission to join the rabid anti-twihard brigade.

(I get the impression that perhaps Ellis had done some form of the latter, which is why it’s understandable that she would feel the need to apologize for disliking Twilight and perhaps even Meyer herself whereas I do not. Different readers have different reactions which means different responses, naturally, so this isn’t me telling Ellis how to feel or saying she’s wrong in how she feels, she’s just got me examining my own feelings now.)

To touch on the “ultra-woke” crowd beating the “problematic-ness” of Twilight into the ground, even those who hadn’t even read it or saw it themselves...yeah, I’m just not...hmm, there’s some part of that I don’t condone on principle. I’ll get to that principle in a second.

When I read the Twilight series, my mind wasn't on any societal messages that the story might have represented; like young girls in the real world suffering under codependent Bella as their role model and Edward being a low-key abuser. (If they thought that was bad, their heads would explode at some of the fanfic I was gushing over at the time.) The kicker is, they might even be right in their analysis as it is just their perception of the actual story. But I don’t think they’re right in touting that it’s existence as that kind of story (through their own eyes) will ruin real lives. That kind of righteous mobbing is what I don’t condone.

Ellis is absolutely right about the trope-y overprotective protector kind of stuff. Hurt/comfort is popular because some people, including myself, like to indulge that just as much as trope-y Miss Independent Bad Ass chick who doesn’t express feelings (Black Widow) and trope-y goofy guy with barely a personality and his hot model girlfriend go on the adventure of a lifetime for no reason relating to him (Transformers/any action story centered around a dopey average teenage boy who stumbles into something more interesting than him). And I don’t think there’s anything psychologically damaging about getting giddy over any of that. Seeing Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil didn’t make thousands of girls go running to the gym to become gun-toting martial artists, did it? How many girls have signed up for fencing lessons or ran away from home to save a small country from an evil ruler since becoming a fan of Arya Stark in all her edgy tomboy glory? I don’t think many, if any. So, I also don’t think seeing a pretty and lonely Plain Jane be shielded from jerks by her sensitive strong boyfriend or eeking over obsessive evil emo couple Margot Harley and Jared Joker in Suicide Squad is gonna make thousands of girls put themselves in real life dangerous situations or bad relationships “for the feels.” Just like you don’t see 14 year old boys stealing million dollar sports cars and drifting to Walmart because they’ve been watching Vin Diesel do it since they were 8. Some people have to stop underestimating/insulting young people’s intelligence.

To get real for a minute, any kid at risk of doing bad things or making bad life choices were gonna do it regardless of what book they read or what movie they saw, so they’re the kids who need the people who worry about them in their real life to guide them in real life, instead of complaining about how TV might be guiding them. It’s not TV’s job to raise your kids, folks. Influence in the home, school, neighborhood, internet, and the television is always going to be there, so if you’re seriously worried about how too much or certain kinds of these things will affect your teenage daughter/niece/cousin then YOU have to get proactive in HER life, not campaign against the life/livelihood of the author who wrote the girl’s favorite book. That’s not gonna save your troubled teen because that’s not what made her troubled in the first place.

But annnyyywwaaayyysss. Back to me.

Like I was saying, I didn’t have any qualms with the morals of Twilight. I was too focused on my disappointment with the fact that Edward and Bella's personal stories (as in individual arcs) were so consumed by their sudden and extreme like for each other that Edward as just a vampire with his background and Bella as the child of divorced parents living with her estranged single dad was never really explored. The closest I came to being annoyed with Twilight in the context of moral grandstanding was when Meyer ruined Jacob Black’s character even more by not only having him imprint on a baby, but then making everyone, including Bella, want to kill him for being a pedophile. Oh NOW we care about what’s appropriate, Miss Suicidal Because My Boyfriend Dumped Me turned Mrs. Pregnant at 17? Oh okay, okay I see. So yes, while it’s fine that Twilight made an effort to be self-aware of the icky factor of that one thing, it didn’t bother to be self-aware of any of its other icky factors, so it got no points from me on that one. Instead, it just pissed me off with the story even more.

Now to touch on the thought of “disdain for unapologetic girly things and girly girls clearly fueling the vitriol for Twilight because it really wasn’t that bad...”

Mmn...okay, yes, that is a thing when it comes to the hyper-hate train for the books/movies. However comma, I also still hate Bella Swan (and Edward Cullen, for that matter, but he’s more the Love Interest than the Main Character and this particular criticism is about the girl-ness of it all, so I’m just gonna focus on Bella.) Just not for the reason highlighted above in quotations.

I love feminine characters, but I'll say here what I say about Sansa from Game of Thrones. Just being feminine and plain in a setting flooded with glammed up or rough girls does not make for a compelling female character, same as just being a tomboy does not make for a “strong” female character. Feminine or masculine or average either way, a character can still also be thinly written as a person.

Character is just as much the story as the plot and the Twilight Saga shortchanged both to me. I cannot bring myself to like Bella Swan or give her a pass on being a flat character by seeing her as this representation of the average girl because I feel like average girls in real life have more depth to them than Swan. I believe an average girl from the city with divorced parents suddenly living with her estranged father in a small town a year before graduation would have more depth to her. But all the depth of that kind of average girl was thrown by the way side for what Ellis properly calls Meyer’s “wish fulfillment.” I don’t take issue with the story being Meyer’s wish fulfillment, I just don’t believe it can be both that and be martyred as a symbol of the average young girl in Bella’s specific circumstances. But hey, I’m not a genie, I can’t see into people’s lives, so maybe some girls with Bella’s background are still exactly like she was and so there is nothing poor (as in not grounded, flat, unrealistic) about her character and I’m just a moody bastard with an unhealthy craving for personal dysfunction. If that’s the case, then screw me on that one.

In conclusion, my problem with Twilight has and always will be rooted in the poorly executed story wrapped up in easily gobbled writing. Because I was a fan of those books, I wanted them to be the best they could be and it didn’t feel like they had lived up to the potential I saw in them. I have no hate toward Meyer, didn't even as a teen because I was still invested in what she put out and most importantly, because I am also writer. I know firsthand that writing is fun, but never easy. Most of the time you’re never quite sure you’ve done it well or not or to what degree until it’s already done and judged. So while I was disappointed with the story’s progression as one of Meyer’s dedicated readers; ranted about it and mocked it (the story) for all its ridiculousness, I also gave her (Meyer) props and still do for the insane success of her work. I even bought The Host when it came out because I liked that she was trying something different and I looked forward to seeing in what ways her writing had grown. In some ways it had and in other ways, not so much, but that's neither here nor there.

I would never revoke or apologize for my criticisms of the Twilight Saga because critiquing stories is a part of the fun of reading and it’s how I learn as a writer. Meyer’s writing sucked me right in, but the story ultimately delivered me nowhere. I can’t bring myself to pretend not to feel that way about it just so it doesn’t come off like I’m just another edgelord hater. But Ellis is right that all those who did become professional edgelord haters, viciously despising Meyer as a person and belittling her fanbase for the sport, were doing the absolute most for no reason, much like those obsessive or rude, obnoxious fangirls who they might say prompted them into their hate-frenzy in the first place.

Now, with those people who just hated it because it was popular or they thought the genre was lame or they didn’t like the actors from other projects they had done, you can say their comments hold no merit because they didn't even know or care about the material, they just jumped on a bandwagon of bashing something they assumed or heard was awful. Fine. But as far as all the uber-try-hard femitron woke-based hate for the actual story...if that's how some other readers interrupted the story and so they shared that with each other and the world, I think that's their right, if not actually part of their purpose as readers, as well. While I still don’t like the righteous mobbing that is launched off that kind of interpretation of someone’s work, I do like seeing the wildly different ways people interpret things, even when I greatly disagree with them, so I don’t think those kinds of opinions need to be censored or retracted in the name of female-unity or what have you. But if it did get to the point of bashing people in real life and feeling disdain for Meyer personally, then yeah, those kind of uber-femitrons should probably try to find some inner closure with that like Ellis did.

Ehm, okay, I’ve seriously talked enough. If you read this all the way through, you’re seriously a champ. If you liked what I had to say, hit those square arrow heart button thingies. And eh, thanks for hanging out. :)

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#Twilight #stephenie meyer #Lindsay Ellis #youtube #rant #review #thoughts #writing advice #writing tips #writeblr #writblr

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ladyfantasist · 7 years ago

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Reread, Rewrite or Burn - Book Tag

This tag is very popular on Booktube and even though I’m not a booktuber it looked exciting so I just couldn’t help doing it myself on paper! I saw it first a few days ago on BooksWithEmilyFox’s channel so PLEASE go check out her videos on Youtube or her Goodreads page if you haven’t already she is a wonderful Booktuber and a total sweetheart – watching her videos always makes me happy.

I chose a lot of my favorite books to make this as hard for me as possible… prayers are welcome. I ended up doing a lot of rounds because it was ridiculous addicting. Most people do like three to six but I did twelve because I’m just beyond extra.

Also I am a total nerd and decided to add a difficultly level to each round! Next to each round you’ll see either Normal, Hard, or Brutal. Normal meaning it was fairly clear from first picking them out which one would be which, Hard meaning it was a challenge to decide, and Brutal meaning it was absolute agony to have to choose between those books. I added this aspect to my own rounds simply because I’m not doing this via video but on paper – whoever is reading this won’t be able to see my reactions and won’t really know the difficulty each round was for me or how much time it took me to decide.

THE RULES:

- Randomly choose 3 books (I wrote down a bunch on slips of paper and put them in a hat to pick from.)

- For each group, decide which book to burn, which one to rewrite, and which to reread.

- Repeat until you completed however many rounds you want to do!

If you do one of your own PLEASE tag me in them! I’d love to see what you picked!

ROUND 1 – Normal

Reread: Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas. This was fairly simple, I LOVED this book and was already planning to reread it anyways. It was also the only five star book out of this round.

Rewrite: Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner. Wonderful novel but I didn’t fully enjoy the magical aspect of the town and would rewrite it to focus more on the romance because the romance is A+.

Burn: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I enjoyed this book a lot but the last time I read it was around when it came out which is I believe around 2009. So, I was a freshman in high school and 14 years old. I have a pretty good feeling I would feel differently if I read it now – especially since I don’t like any of Stiefvater’s other novels I’ve read as an adult. I think about rereading it sometimes but I just don’t want to break the façade.

ROUND 2 – Normal

Reread: Wolfsong by T.J. Klune. I pulled out this one first and immediately put it here. Easy. This book is fecking magically wonderful and I could never ever do any wrong to it.

Rewrite: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. The books in this trilogy are some of my favorite books of all time. I have to say though, I would have to go back and add more backstory to some of the new elements we learned in this book because it just felt a little thrown in randomly.

Burn: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. A good book but not nearly as good as the other choices. Can be a bit forgettable.

ROUND 3 – Normal

Reread: Saga Vol. 1 by Brian Vaughan. Saga is my favorite graphic novel series. I thought about putting this in rewrite but honestly there isn’t one thing I would change about it.

Rewrite: Paladin by Sally Slater. Great unknown author who deserves more attention. This novel was originally posted on Wattpad and I fell in love with it. I think I would rewrite it just to make the romance a little more believable.

Burn: My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand. A feel good guilty pleasure book. Not enough love for this to replace the other options.

ROUND 4 – Hard

Reread: Carry the Ocean by Heidi Cullinan. This book is so damned dear to my heart. A lgbtq romance novel between two boys one of which has autism and the other has severe anxiety and depression issues who are just trying to get each other through each day and be there for each other, their friends, and their family. If you haven’t read this PLEASE READ THIS.

Rewrite: Red Winter by Annette Marie. Japanese influenced novels are my kryptonite. Especially well written ones and this is one of them. The only thing I would ever change is maybe add a little less arrogance to Emi the main character – she can come off a bit prissy sometimes.

Burn: Consider by Kristy Acevedo. A great book that really makes you think, “what would I do in this situation?”. It’s a book you’ll be telling everyone about. Unfortunately it simply just lost out to two books I love more.

ROUND 5 – Hard

Reread: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. My favorite book of 2016. Russian culture has always been fascinating to me and this book made that even stronger. This book is a damn masterpiece.

Rewrite: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD CHANGE, DON’T YOU DARE PRETEND YOU DON’T KNOW.

Burn: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I’ll probably get hate for this one and I’m probably the only person who has chosen this but I’m sorry, I love it, it’s just not as dear to my heart as it is for most.

ROUND 6 – Hard

Reread: Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff. Favorite novel of 2017 so far. There’s not a fecking chance I’m giving up Mia or rewriting one word of this book.

Rewrite: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. My favorite character and pairing in the series is introduced in this book and I think I would rewrite it to be just a little less juvenile feeling in some places.

Burn: Uprooted by Naomi Novik. God I love this book I’m so sorry Uprooted… but as I was putting it in the rewrite slot at first I noticed how much I would actually change in this book and it was more than Scarlet, so it just had to be done.

ROUND 7 – Brutal

Reread: The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon. All the feels are coming back… gosh I really need to reread this one. Nothing I would change about little Lark or her story. Full of magic and love and loss.

Rewrite: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. Emma and Julian’s relationship needs a little tweeking I think – make it a little less angsty and a little more real.

Burn: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. Okay I love this series and will to the end of my days. It’s awesome getting more to the story and seeing all the characters grow up even more and maturing… but, honestly I wouldn’t have been upset if the story had ended with City of Glass.

ROUND 8 – Normal

Reread: The Host by Stephenie Meyer. This was actually the first “adult” novel I ever read. I read it in one sitting and laughed and cried and cried… I just loved it. I still go back and reread THE Wanda and Ian scene. I need to give this another read and even if I don’t love it as much as I used to it’ll be worth it. Now when IN THE HELL are we getting The Seeker and The Soul, Stephenie?

Rewrite: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. In my opinion, it was an amazing novel but I think she went a BIT overboard with the “magical, airy, dreamy” prose. It’s beautiful and perfect in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy but in this I think I would rewrite just to tone that down a little.

Burn: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Fecking Mal, I hate him. Useless boy. Alina x Darkling forever.

ROUND 9 – Brutal

Reread: Morning Star by Pierce Brown. I mean, this is the third book in my favorite trilogy of all time how could I not put this here? Darrow has been crushed into my heart for all time. If you haven’t read these books I’m not completely sure we can be friends.

Rewrite: The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson. Guys, this is it, this is the first novel in the series that single handedly turned me into a reader. Ten year old Lisa’s soul changed after reading this, not even slightly joking. This book is a big part of why I am who I am today. The only reason it’s in the rewrite is because it is a middle grade novel and it would be cool to see what it would be like if it was written for the age I am now.

Burn: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. Jem Carstairs don’t hate me, I’m so sorry Jem, you know I love you! I’m so sorry Will please forgive me. Cheers to the only great love triangle written, I’m so sorry all of you.

ROUND 10 – Hard

Reread: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Look I know these books have their flaws but I don’t care I simply love them and grew up with them I can’t change them or burn them I just CAN’T.

Rewrite: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I mean yes this needs to be rewritten to death but I don’t care how ridiculous it makes me I’m a Twi-hard for life I just can’t help myself.

Burn: Scythe by Neal Shusterman. I really enjoyed this book but it didn’t impact me enough to replace it with either of the other two that impacted me growing up.

ROUND 11 – Normal

Reread: A Court of Mist and Fury. I’ve already reread this book three times, it’s one of my all time favorites and Rhysand is my husband – I put this here before I even picked the other two out.

Rewrite: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I’m just nitpicking with this one, these novels are damn amazing, there isn’t really anything I would change. If ANYTHING maybe make the high society balls and intrigue a little less present.

Burn: Bird Box by Josh Malerman. Just couldn’t live up to my current favorite YA novel and current favorite adult fantasy series.

ROUND 12 – Normal

Reread: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. Just can’t get enough of these two honestly.

Rewrite: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. Maximum Ride has a special place in my heart and I just SO BADLY would love it to be rewritten for my age group I want it so badly.

Burn: Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore. A great novel but unfortunately the second half of this book is MUCH better than the first half.

#booktag #reread #rewrite #burn #books #fantasy #youngadult #scifi

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heywritebetter · 8 years ago

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Your Main Character is Just You

The door to Q’s study creaked open, but he didn’t look up. His focus was as intense as his cause was righteous, with a glance unwavering and fingers unstoppable. The blank word document, the white canvas to be filled with the paints of his ideas, quickly ran black, coated with brushstrokes of eloquent prose. He felt a delicate hand on his shoulder. “Oh Q,” the maiden moaned. “I know you’re busy updating your immensely popular writing advice blog, but I need your help!” He looked up. She wasn’t wearing any clothes. He turned back to his work. “Look dear, I know I’m the best at sex, but you must understand-” “No!” she cried. “It’s not that. It’s just that you’re the smartest guy I know, and I need you to…” she hesitated, lip trembling. “Look at my manuscript!” She thrust a stack of papers in front of the unfazed writer. “No need babe. I’ve already read it.” “R-really? What did you think then?” Q pinched the bridge of his nose. “Honey, your novel sucks.” He looked up. “And Here’s Why.”

“Every first novel is the author either as Jesus or as Faust.” That’s a quote that has been dubiously attributed to Oscar Wilde, but whether it comes from Oscar Wilde or Nick Wilde, there’s certainly a truth to it. Indeed, many first novels, published, unpublished, or really unpublished, have premises which boil down to “me and my friends go on wacky adventures”—and, really, why shouldn’t they? Common wisdom says “write what you know”, and the core of any good story is its characters, so why not base your characters on yourself and those close to you?

Indeed, autobiographical fiction is perhaps the oldest form storytelling. The first work of fiction ever conceived was probably when Grok the homo erectus told Bunga how he killed seven mastodon with his bare hands so that she would indulge him in some sweet hetero erectus. However, much like Grok, who in earnest had only slain a single cave rat with a crude hammer, we have a tendency to embellish when writing about ourselves, if not to make us look better, then at the very least to make us look more interesting. Hell, if we’re not going to look cooler, why even write fiction? Why not just write boring old real stuff? This is where the problem begins.

Now, to properly examine the difference between good and bad author avatars, let’s pull some examples. For the good let’s take a gander at the acclaimed horror-comedy John Dies at the End by David Wong(you know it’s good because Paul Giamatti is in the movie), and for the bad let’s break new literary ground and make fun of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer(because sometimes I like to close my eyes and pretend it’s 2011 and Donald Trump isn’t president).

Now, it’s not hard to see the reasons that Twilight doesn’t really work, and you probably already know them all so I’ll keep this brief; the character of Bella Swan, who bears a striking resemblance to Meyer, is fought over by two handsome boys, gets vampire superpowers, marries the love of her life, and generally everything for her just goes real peachy. The character’s flaws are… present, but superficial and minimized, much like Paul Giamatti’s. It is shallow wish fulfillment, and while there’s nothing wrong with indulging in that every now and again, having that as the core of your story is not very compelling. That’s because a reader isn’t reading about them getting their wish fulfilled; they’re reading about you getting your wish fulfilled. Hell, Twilight only succeeded because the author’s indulgence just so happened to line up with the fantasies of a large, relatively untapped demographic.

Even then, though, it was predominantly successful only within that demographic, and that’s the real problem with wish fulfillment: everyone has different wishes. It’s a valuable, maybe even necessary tool in the creation of escapist media, but if it’s the backbone of your story, you’re only going to be reaching a small audience. Struggle, on the other hand, is universal. Comparing Twilight to Harry Potter, which panders to children every bit as much as Twilight does to teen girls, you see that Potter also puts its characters through the far more universal struggles of abuse, loss, the pressure of expectations, and probably a billion more things because those things are built like damn encyclopedias. Consequently, Harry Potter has had far more broad appeal outside of its core demographic. But of course, Harry Potter also isn’t built around an author insert character, which is allegedly the subject of this blog post, so fuck it, let’s talk about John Dies at The End.

Let’s be clear here, wish fulfillment is absolutely part of John Dies. The base premise is that two midwestern twenty-somethings, named for the author and his best friend, drive around pumping supernatural spookums full of lead, taking magical drugs, bedding beautiful women, and breathing the same air as Oscar Winner Paul Giamatti. Speaking as a midwestern twenty-something, I can tell you that this is absolutely the dream. That’s actually part of why I picked it over something more literary, because I think it’s important to point out that there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun with your writing. If you can put that fun on the page, the reader’s gonna have a good time right along with you. The other reason I chose it, though, is that what makes John Dies a good book is actually Dave Wong, the protagonist. More specifically, the fact that he is a massive tool(A huge Wong, if you will excuse me picking a fruit so low hanging that I had to physically bend over to do so). The book is very character driven, and Dave is a deeply flawed character, in a way which I can only assume is at least semi-autobiographical. Author-Wong uses perspective to look back on a younger, dumber time in his life, and make that as basis for a fucked up and deeply fascinating character.

Virtues make a character likable, but flaws are what makes them compelling. If you’re writing about yourself simply to indulge some fantasy and stroke your ego, maybe consider writing something else(perhaps an apology letter to your beta readers?); but if you’re willing to take a frank and honest look at your own flaws and mistakes you may find a fertile ground for some rich stories, the kind you can tell in a way no one else truly could. Don’t pretend you don’t have any though, because anyone who seriously wants to be a writer is guaranteed to be plenty fucked up.

#writing #write #JDaTE #novel #character

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negativereader · 8 years ago

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Everything Wrong With Twilight: The Anti-Human Thing

“I’m not anti-woman, I’m anti-human,” -Stephenie Meyer.

It’s time to address this.

The Anti-Human Thing

The biggest and most common criticism against Stephenie Meyer is that she’s sexist. I mean, there’s evidence everywhere. Bella does nothing but cook and clean for Charlie, who seems incapable of doing so for himself, she often has to be physically carried places because she’s so weak and accident prone that it’s sort of amazing that the girl has managed to survive as long as she has. Her only goal seems to be getting with Edward, and honestly once he’s gone, she just sort of curls up and tries to die of despair. She’s called herself a ‘moon without her planet’ in New Moon, and the narrative has no problem with this.

In addition, you have Emily who just seems to submit to an abusive relationship because ‘he loves her’, and Leah, who is demonized for daring to be a girl and interrupting the boy’s club of the werewolf pack and then is told she is not female enough because it’s heavily implied that she’s infertile.

However, Meyer constantly denies that she’s against women in particular. What people are seeing as an anti-human bias that happens to involve a woman. Now, taking out the fact that I don’t see how that’s any better, I actually think that she’s telling the truth. She is very anti human, however her hatred of humanity tends to take the form of using some of the most degrading stereotypes around men, women, Native Americans, blacks, and just about everyone else.

“Human in Distress”

One of Meyer’s biggest defenses that she makes time and time again, to the point where she literally wrote a book in order to prove to her critics that she wasn’t sexist, is that Bella was not a damsel in distress. Rather, she was a human in distress, completely outclassed by the supernatural world around her.

There is, in Meyer’s mind, nothing that Bella can do, surrounded by creatures that are faster, stronger, smarter and just generally better than her. The only thing that she, or anyone else with any intelligence, can do, is try to join them. If Bella was male, as demonstrated by Life and Death, there would be no difference. ‘He’ would still be blind, weak and completely helpless. And this is the way that Meyer likes it.

Her Vampires are Superior

Despite the many, many jokes about how sparkling vampires sound like fairies and how the Cullens couldn’t stand a chance against ‘real’ vampires, I’m going to point out an unfortunately truth.

The vampires of this world are terrifying.

Most of the time, vampires have the same weaknesses. They can’t be out in the sun, they can’t come into a place unless they’re invited, they have to sleep and recharge, holy items and certain herbs like garlic repel them, and as terrifying as these things are, humanity has at least some defense against them. Meyer, from the first, makes sure to strip humanity of every single one of these protections. Her vampires are obviously able to come into the house without being invited (or else Edward would have some difficulty in his favorite hobby), they don’t need to sleep (so there is never a time when they’re unaware of your approach), holy items do nothing, and neither does garlic. Their skin is impervious to just about all human weapons, other than flamethrowers. And, oh yes, we have those, but vampires are also super fast, super strong, and have unique powers of their own.

Essentially, only the threat of the Volturi is keeping us from being ruled over by them, rounded up into ‘human farms’ and summarily devoured.

What’s worse is that Meyer doesn’t see a problem in this. In her Correspondence 12, she mentions how seeing humans purely as food is “a hard viewpoint to resist—after all, vampires are physically and mentally superior to the nth degree. Their life spans measure in centuries and millenniums. Human lives are so short—sort of like fruit flies that only live a day in comparison. Humans die so easily, too, in their sleep, from tripping, from a tiny heart glitch, from a virus, from getting bumped a little too hard by a car. It's sort of hard for an average vampire to take them seriously. They're going to die soon anyway, right? (I know it might be difficult to step away from a human perspective and see it through their eyes. The question is, is it really wrong for them to see the world that way? Vampires are at the very pinnacle of the food chain. Should they feel bad about that? Or are they simply following the dictates of nature?)” (https://www.twilightlexicon.com/2007/05/20/personal-correspondence-12/).

This paragraph sums up the true and awful power that Meyer has given her vampires, and just how little she thinks of humans in comparison to them. I’ve mentioned how, in the past, that Meyer clearly doesn’t see anything wrong with vampires eating people. This is my proof. The world for a human in the Twilight universe is perfect for a Social Darwinist: a place where the strong thrive and the weak deserve their fate.

Weakness is Human

What’s more, weakness is something that is identified as belonging to humanity. Bella, when she is being stupid, is not being a ‘female’, no, everyone tells her just how human she’s being. Every mistake that she makes is because she’s human. Once she’s a vampire, Bella happily crows about how her human failings have vanished. The moment that Bella isn’t human anymore, she goes full Godmode Sue and starts eating mountain lions, having no trouble with her transformation, and talking about how stupid and slow and hideous humans are.

Not only that, but humans are reduced to nothing but their flaws.

The place where Meyer gets hit the hardest for being sexist or racist is here. Throughout the entire book, humanity is reduced to the bare stereotypes of what they are really like. All human men of mumbling, sex-obsessed Neanderthals whose affections are as shallow and fleeting as a puddle. They’re all obsessed with ‘manly’ things like sports, and are all sniffing around anything good looking.

All human women are shallow, vain harpies who think of nothing other than their own looks, and resent all other women for possibly being competition for men.

Charlie, despite the fact that he is an adult man who has been living alone for most of his adult life, is incapable of cooking, and, as the series progresses grows more and more like the distant, insensitive, yet authoritarian father that belongs in a badly written soup opera. Renee is the same. Despite the fact that this woman is an adult, and she should be able to handle herself, she’s treated as if she is little more than a toddler in the body of an adult. She can’t do taxes, organize her life, or much of anything without a man (or Bella) to do them for her.

The same holds true for Bella’s friends, or the people that she talks to during Breaking Dawn.

We never actually see a capable human being throughout the entire series. Bella is not supposed to be weak because she’s female, no, in Meyer’s mind, Bella is weak because she’s human.

Why?

Twilight is, at its heart, a wish fulfillment fantasy. A chance for young girls to essential have their cake and eat it too. They get to be the weak, delicate flower that a handsome, wealthy man who will stay that way forever dedicates himself to protecting, but she also gets to rise above her humanity, eventually eclipsing Edward, and every other vampire in power, and growing to protect all of them from being told what to do and what not to do.

For Bella, humanity is the trial that she has to overcome. It’s not the vampires, not really. She has to rise above her humanity, which we are to view as her slow, stupid, worthless nature, in order to become a vampire, where every pleasure is magnified, and all flaws (physical and then some) are removed. The vampires aren’t the trial, they’re the reward.

Does that mean it’s not sexist?

Now, I’m going to say that I’m always reluctant to use terms like ‘sexist’ or ‘racist’ easily. I believe that terms have power, and if they’re used too often, some of the punch is lost. It’s one of the reasons that I would not call Rowling’s Magical America racist. There are areas that are insensitive or show that she has the same in depth understanding of American issues as most Americans have of European ones, but I’m always hesitate to throw out major words.

That being said, Meyer’s work is sexist, but not for the reasons that she thinks. Meyer thought that the reason that people called her work sexist had to do with the damsel in distress thing, and she’s wrong. That trope can be used and worked. A female character needing help is not inherently bad. People sometimes need help. The problem is the mindset around her needing to be rescued. The first thing with Tyler’s van wasn’t a big deal. It was something that happened randomly, served the plot and worked to make her suspicious, but also to wonder if Edward wasn’t a bad person. However so many of Bella’s kidnappings weren’t about her. They were about Edward. Even Lois Lane was usually captured because she was usually gathering information to write a story that would expose the person who kidnapped her. Lois was a threat in her own right (unless it was the sixties but whatever). Bella isn’t. Bella is just there to get to Edward.

Another reason I’d call the series sexist has to do with Rosalie and Leah, who are both at some level blamed for the horrors that befell them. Rosalie was just so good looking that she was apparently asking for Royce to rape her (Meyer even states in one interview that he loved her in a way) and Leah should have just been happy that her fiancé’s entire personality was rewritten so that he could have babies with her beloved cousin, and is treated like a raging harpy and ostracized for being hurt and angry. Both are considered someone inferior to Bella because they can’t have children, and both are supposed to be viewed with little to no sympathy.

Alice is just a raging stereotype that I have little to no interest in discussing.

So, yes, the series is sexist, just not why Meyer thinks people object to it.

Fixing it

Meyer needs to actually look at her beloved superheroes. What made Superman such an important figure not how powerful he is. It was the fact that he loved humanity and seemed to see himself as human.

Unless you’re Frank Miller, what made Batman as popular as he is isn’t the fact that he’s a rich, hot angst muffin. It’s the fact that, despite having no powers, he was capable of going toe to toe with beings far more powerful than he was and winning.

Even if you’re writing a wish fulfillment, which is all that superheroes and heroines are, it is possible to show humanity in a positive light, even if the focus is on characters who aren’t human, and half of fixing it would be to make the mindset of the vampires less of what Meyer sketches out in Correspondence 12. Make it clear that the vampires who see humans as meat aren’t justified, acceptable or anything else. They’re wrong. Make the Cullen’s, rather than ‘struggling’ as Meyer puts it, to honestly reject it, which is one of the reasons why they live with people.

Make it so that characters like Charlie are capable in their own way, make Bella, even if she is weaker than her opponents, clever enough to at least stand.

Rather than seeing humanity as a weakness, or a state that needs to be transcended, show it, at least, as something to be defended.

#everything wrong with the twilight saga #twilight #anti-human #stephenie meyer

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snarktheater · 8 years ago

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The Chemist — Chapter 26

We open the chapter after Val's worked her makeup magic on Alex (and more descriptions of how ridiculously large Val's apartment is). And of course, Alex is now "perfect", by which we mean pretty. Val also insists she could make Alex sexier if Alex didn't insist on being inconspicuous. But she did need to be pretty for some reason? I get hiding the bruises, but the rest is just weird.

The two of them banter for a while about looks and Daniel, a.k.a. the only range of girly topics Meyer knows.

“Thanks for passing your observations on to Kevin.” “You’re being sarcastic, but you should thank me. Aren’t things easier now, without the secrecy?”

Anyway, plot-wise, this means Alex can move forward with her plans without constantly worrying about having to avoid being noticed. But first, the obligatory scene where the boys react to Alex's makeover in admiration. I mean, this is essentially what this is: a makeover. You may call it a disguise, but it's pretty clear from the narration that you only care about looking pretty.

“I’d gotten so used to seeing you with the bruises, I’d almost forgotten what you looked like without them,” [Daniel] said, and then his grin got wider. “It’s nice to see you again.”

"Again"…with a ton of makeup. Which I don't think she was wearing the first time. Something tell me Daniel isn't all that observant.

But the plot does eventually advance, as Alex heads out to place a tracker on Carston's housekeeper's minivan. Which the book doesn't seem to think is interesting enough on its own (and…can't really fault it there), so we also have Alex calling Daniel to "act natural" in the street, forcing us to suffer their pseudo-domestic banter, because Meyer can't imagine any couple that isn't a suburban married couple with mundane interests.

Oh, but if you think "what do you want for dinner?" is boring, wait until they get to talking about politics.

“You don’t care who the president runs with?” [Daniel] asked. […] “Ventriloquist dummies […] I don’t worry about the puppet,” Kevin said. “I worry about the guy pulling the strings.” “That’s a pretty cynical attitude about the democratic nation you used to work for.” Kevin shrugged. “Yup.” “Alex, Republican or Democrat?” Daniel asked. “Pessimist.”

Yeah, because having political ideals and caring about the state of your country isn't cool. It's for those other people. You're so edgy, Meyer.

But seriously…why is this here? No one was talking about politics until now. I assume your non-answer here is because you don't want to alienate any potential reader, but…again, what's the point of bringing it up at all?

Oh, but it's not over.

“So nobody cares that the front-runner is some ultra-right senator from Washington State who used to work for the Defense Intelligence Agency?”

Considering when this book came out, and what's going on right now, this is making me both uncomfortable and amused. I mean, ultra-right is correct, but the rest? Could not be more incorrect.

“It’s sad, but you’re probably right. Just a beauty pageant.” “Everything is, honey,” Val told him.”

Okay, now I'm just uncomfortable. Oh, but wait. It gets stranger as they keep talking about the candidate to the vice presidency.

“Plus, the new guy is one part grandpa, one part silver fox, with a catchy two-syllable name.” […] “Vice President Pace. Do you think he was born with that name, or did he alter it to make it voter-friendly? Wade Pace.”

This…can't be a coincidence, right? And if it isn't…what exactly is Meyer saying here?

Oh, but wait. It's actually a plot point. Yes, not-Pence here is our P-name winner of the Juliana Acronym Lottery.

“That name… it sounds familiar.” “I think everyone knows his name,” Daniel said. […] “I don’t follow politics,” Alex said.”

How did you do your job as an interrogator if you had no idea what was going on in the world? You realize politics isn't just about campaigning, right?

Eh, whatever. By the magic of coincidences (and really contrived conversations), we have our candidate to the highest element in our little conspiracy. Except he's now candidate to the vice presidency. But since he's only candidate, that means the Secret Service isn't protecting him yet, which means it's the perfect time to strike, according to Kevin. Sure. Sounds like a great plan. No one will notice!

“So he put a hit out on me, my brother, you, your friend… so he could try to be president. Oh, I’m going to enjoy this one.”

So, um…you're not even going to investigate a little? You're just going with Alex's instinct on this one? First name with a P that she hears is the right one and we're not gonna question that at least a little? Well all right then, I guess.

Oh, and they're going to straight to planning assassination, by the way.

“Quiet is the goal, right? It won’t get too much attention if our wannabe president dies of a heart attack or a stroke – not the same coverage as if he were found shot in some kind of home invasion.” “I can be quiet,” Kevin insisted. His eyebrows were pulling down into a scowl. “Natural-causes quiet?”

Alex asks for a few days to adapt her Carston plan to Pace, and…Kevin argues with that. Yes, he once again wants to improvise the assassination of a candidate to the vice presidency. Great idea, Kevin, you are truly showing how much of a competent agent you are.

Daniel breaks up their argument with the standard "let's just team up again" statement, i.e. have Kevin carry out Alex's plan. And do so within a few hours. Yes, really. This book is fucking insane. Actually, it's so insane that we don't even wait for the next chapter to do this. One scene break later, Kevin's inside Pace's home, with Alex remotely guiding him. By which I mean she just tells him to find something only Pace would use and poison that, because she'd feel guilty if they killed his wife too.

From everything Alex had learned in her hurried research about the senator’s wife, Mrs. Merritt-Pace seemed a pleasant enough woman. Certainly not deserving of the painful death her husband was about to suffer.

Yeah, well, to be fair, I hope a senator's wife is able to hide her skeletons in her closet enough that a couple hours online won't turn them up. Otherwise she wouldn't be very good at politics, which she probably plays too, being a senator's wife in the midst of a presidential campaign.

We waste a few pages trying to find what to poison, they settle on poisoning his nicotine patches, and…that's it, I guess. Kevin goes on to "target number two" (which I assume is his former boss?) while telling Alex to take care of her own guy. Because they can't cooperate on all three for…some reason.

So, after a nap, we cut to Alex watching Carston's housekeeper with a different makeup and wig. The point being, Carston likes organic orange juice, so Alex buys some while the housekeeper does Carston's groceries, poisons them, and switches them around.

She and Barnaby had called this drug simply Heart Attack, because that’s what it caused.

Someone please stop Stephenie Meyer. She has no idea how scientists work.

A man of Carston’s age, in his physical condition, and factoring in the high-stress job – well, Alex greatly doubted that anyone would look too carefully at the cause of death, at least in the very beginning.

Yeah, why would anyone investigate on the death of a spy, right? That's just ridiculous!

Only problem is: Alex notices that the housekeeper isn't buying the same things as usual, and that's bad because Carston has his habits (also something that totally works with his life as a spy), and that makes Alex worry she might kill the wrong person and alert Carston that she's still alive and around.

Luckily, Alex has just spent the earlier parts of this chapter listening to Carston's calls, so she just so happens to know that Carston has his granddaughter over. She hesitates, misses her window of opportunity. And because the book realized that this was not a very compelling way to add tension, she suddenly gets a call from Kevin, except no one's talking on the other end of the line.

Alex almost said, Kevin? Four years of paranoia stopped her tongue.

So instead she gets rid of her phone and prepares her escape. And that's our chapter break.

#the chemist #stephenie meyer #book reviews #ya books #young adult #books #young adult books #ya #reviews #book #book review #review #st: the chemist

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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Ten years ago this month, the first Twilight movie sparkled broodily into movie theaters. By then, the four-volume book series had already been published in full, made the best-seller lists several times over, and was safely established as a cult phenomenon for its target demographic of teen girls — but with that first movie, Twilight became mainstream.

In the fall of 2008, America at large was introduced to the story of Bella Swan, teenage everygirl, and her fraught, star-crossed love for glitter-streaked vampire Edward Cullen. Twilight introduced us to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and it continued the Harry Potter tradition of the YA book-to-movie franchise as a dominant box office force.

It also became a cultural flashpoint. Think piece after think piece by turn celebrated Twilight’s cultural dominance, mocked its shimmery vampire mythology, and feared the effects that romanticizing its tortured, dysfunctional love story might have on its teen readers. In 2008, Twilight was adored, but it was also hated, feared, and mocked.

Here in 2018, we finally have room to get a little perspective on the whole thing. In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the first Twilight movie, Vox culture writers Constance Grady, Alex Abad-Santos, and Aja Romano joined forces with deputy managing editor Eleanor Barkhorn to look back at the unlife and legacy of the Twilight phenomenon.

Constance: When the first Twilight movie came out in 2008, I was 19, and I was positive that the entire franchise was a blight on the pop culture landscape. Before the movie even came out, I made up my mind about it. I read the posts about how the Edward-Bella love story ticked all the boxes of an abusive relationship; I shook my head over Stephenie Meyer’s bland, boring sentences; I howled over the whole concept of everything that happened in Breaking Dawn. (He chews the baby out of her uterus!)

But I was also completely fascinated by the franchise. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I picked up the first book to see what the fuss was all about, and even though I thought the love story was creepy and the prose was blah and absolutely nothing happened until about three-quarters of the way through the book beyond some vampire baseball (vampire baseball!), I kept turning those pages. I was compelled. I couldn’t help myself.

I hate-read every Breaking Dawn review, and every review of the movie. I developed opinions on Kristen Stewart (bit her lip too much) and Robert Pattinson (I appreciated his palpable hatred of the franchise). I spent so much emotional energy thinking about the whole Twilight thing that I was, for all intents and purposes, a fan. I was just a fan who hated it.

Looking back 10 years later, I don’t think I was necessarily wrong about most of the things I disliked about the franchise then. Bella and Edward’s relationship does have some disturbing power dynamics (which we’ll get into in a bit). Myer’s prose is pretty bland. The structure of the plot is bananas. (I was wrong about Kristen Stewart, though, and the way she was penalized for sometimes seeming mildly uncomfortable with the Twilight phenomenon while Pattinson was lauded for his outright hatred of it says a lot about gender politics circa 2008.)

But I also think that I clearly found Twilight really compelling when I was 19, and I was mad about that, because smart girls weren’t supposed to like books and movies like Twilight. There’s a weird, creepy eroticism to those books that is calibrated to speak precisely to the sexual and romantic fantasies of teenage girls, and I was a teenage girl. It did speak to me. And that pissed me off.

There are few pop cultural products that our society likes to shit on more than the pop culture created for teenage girls, and Twilight circa 2008 was the pinnacle of that phenomenon. This was a franchise that was built for teen girls, marketed to teen girls, and loved by teen girls, and because of that, it became accepted common knowledge that all correct-thinking people could only despise and revile it. So when I look back 10 years later, I find it difficult to untangle my hatred of Twilight from my own internalized misogyny, and from my profound and at the time unexamined belief that anything made for teenage girls must inherently be less-than.

How did you feel about Twilight back in 2008? Has it changed for you since then?

Eleanor: I was 24 when the first movie came out, and I think being just past teenagehood made all the difference for me. I loved the movie — fully, earnestly, without irony, without reservations. I loved the moody Pacific Northwest setting. I loved the longing glances. I loved the vampire baseball! (But then I am a sucker for the “characters with superpowers show off their superpowers” scene that these movies always tend to have. Ask me how I felt watching Tobey Maguire leap from Queens rooftop to Queens rooftop in the 2002 Spider-Man.)

I had spent my teenage years full of feelings, full of angst, full of deep, painful crushes on mysterious boys. And I’d mostly felt embarrassed by those feelings. I wanted to be calm, detached — a Cool Girl, to reference Gone Girl, another best-selling book turned hit movie. Seeing Bella feel so many of the things I’d felt was tremendously validating. I was normal! I’m okay, you’re okay, etc.

The fact that I watched the movie at 24 instead of 19 also meant that Twilight inspired a fair amount of nostalgia for me. By my mid-20s, I was no longer having those intense feelings anymore. I was turning into a much more practical, grounded person — realizing that I should be looking for stability, kindness, and shared values in the men I dated, rather than hotness or mysteriousness.

This was a necessary step in my maturation as a human being. (I’m very glad to be married to my kind, stable husband, whom I met at church, rather than the hot guy in my algebra class who sometimes showered me with attention and sometimes ignored me.) But it came with a sense of loss — intense teenage feelings have a particular joy and drama to them.

Twilight came at just the right moment for me to be a fan: I was close enough to my teenage years to appreciate the validation of my feelings, but far enough away that I could appreciate, rather than be embarrassed by, the romanticization of those feelings.

And that’s why I never fully understood all the hand-wringing about whether Twilight was “good” for women, or whether Bella was a “good role model” for girls. Pop culture doesn’t need to be instructive to be good. It can simply show people as they are, rather than as they should be. Bella isn’t a character I want to be like as an adult, or want my daughters to be — but that’s fine. Fiction for young people is full of spunky, plucky young women role models. It’s okay for Bella to capture a particular way that many young women are — even if, with the benefit of a few years of hindsight, we recognize that’s not the way we want to be forever.

Alex: I mean, I understand the hand-wringing and analysis of whether Bella is a “good role model” because of Twilight’s audience. The books were being consumed by teenage girls (and younger-than-teenage girls), and the natural response from adults, when it comes to any piece of culture as popular as Twilight was, is to fret over “what is it teaching the children?”

Many adults seem to believe that books for younger audiences should follow a certain moral code or provide some kind of moral guidance. Though overhauling the way we teach kids about books and how we approach books ourselves warrants its own entire article.

I read New Moon — the one where Bella wants to die so Edward will come and save her — and I’ve seen every movie except Breaking Dawn Part I. I guess my main impression of that one book and the four movies (I don’t want to speak for Stephenie Meyer’s entire oeuvre) is that Twilight is both a not-so-well-written book and a mildly exciting movie franchise.

But like Constance said, it gets criticized exponentially harder than other pieces of pop culture because teenage girls like it. I think some of that criticism is warranted, in that the book wallows in shallow descriptions, but it gets magnified because of who its target audience is.

One of the things I wish the movies had done more of was lean into the vampire action. There wasn’t enough vampire baseball. If you’re gonna give these vampires magical superpowers — elemental manipulation, mind-reading, pain projection, etc. — then show us those powers. Make it seem cool to be a vampire. Or at least make it seem cooler to be an immortal high schooler than Twilight often did, with the characters just trolling around a Pacific Northwest high school looking for an eternal mate.

Aja: We also can’t really talk about whether Twilight was instructive or not without talking about the kinds of real-world legacies it left us with — including a full decade and counting of YA novels with extremely problematic relationships at their centers. Despite the many red flags flying around Bella and Edward’s relationship — starting with their 87-year age difference, his stalking and controlling behavior, and the fact that he wants to bite her more than any other human he’s ever met, fans loved the couple. And because plenty of Twilight fans were so interested in their codependent passion, publishers started marketing books that featured similar relationships as a selling point.

(One of the most disturbing of these books was Hush, Hush, a New York Times best-seller that featured a hero who literally stalks, threatens to sexually assault, and tries to kill the teen protagonist. It’s a controversial book that’s currently being made into a movie, so the phenomenon is still very much with us.)

But we also have a whole generation of Twilight fans who turned the publishing industry on its head with their insistence and demand for trope-filled stories that indulged their fantasies. And their unashamed consumption of a brand of media that nakedly catered to them arguably presaged the flourishing romantic comedy resurgence we now appear to be in the middle of.

Twilight fans were also responsible for one of the most remarkable and underdiscussed publishing phenomena in history, in that they essentially built an entire new publishing genre from scratch. They started by creating a controversial but very effective system of pull-to-publish Twilight fanfiction — stories that centered on Bella and Edward analogues, without any copyrighted names or details. Then, backed by the money and enthusiasm of ravenous Twilight fans who wanted to read more, more, more, they created their own small-press publishing houses in order to ship those fics-turned-novels directly to their audiences.

It was from one of these Twilight fandom publishing houses, created for and by Twilight fans, that Fifty Shades of Grey — which was originally a massively popular Twilight fanfic called “Master of the Universe” — originated. By blowing the doors wide open on the potential financial power of fanfiction, and introducing it to mainstream culture for the first time, Fifty Shades of Grey forever changed publishing. And it wouldn’t have existed without this very specific way in which Twilight fans commercialized their fandom.

We could debate endlessly whether the marketing of any of these fics was “good” or “morally instructive,” but I do believe these fans were galvanized to do what they did because they were forced to spend years defending their hobby and their reading pleasures. And we all know the best way to defend your hobby is to find a way to make money from it.

Constance: Aja brings up a great point here: Twilight was such a giant franchise that it had a real effect on pop culture. So what do you think is its most lasting legacy?

An interesting counterbalance to the wave of YA romances about creepy, mysterious, controlling boys that Aja correctly pegs to Twilight’s popularity is that Twilight also fundamentally changed the way we talked about those romances. Before Twilight, they were considered silly and fun and not really worth critiquing, but the criticism of Twilight was so heated and so pointed that it ended up influencing the discourse around practically all relationships built on the Bella-Edward model.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a lot more sophisticated about the power dynamics of its relationships than Twilight was, but I don’t know that it could have gotten away with a ship like Buffy-Angel in a post-Twilight era. When Buffy first aired, a scene where Buffy wakes up in the middle of the night to find Angel sitting on her windowsill passed without comment, but after Edward Cullen, it became one of the scenes that people brought up when they talked about why they don’t like that pairing. That’s because one of the things the hand-wringing over Twilight established is that it is creepy when a boy breaks into a girl’s bedroom to watch her sleep, the way Edward does with Bella.

And The Vampire Diaries, the next big vampire romance franchise after Twilight, went out of its way to subvert any Twilight comparisons with its central romance between Stefan and Elena. That show very pointedly played the big reveal that Stefan was a vampire in an echo of the famous “Say it!” / “Vampire,” scene in Twilight, but in this version, Elena ran screaming in the other direction as soon as she realized what Stefan was. There’s even a scene in one episode where Elena is watching Stefan sleep, rather than the other way around, and he tells her it’s creepy.

There’s plenty for us to critique about the gender politics of The Vampire Diaries, but it’s a show that clearly wanted to be the woke alternative to Twilight, and the way it positioned itself to take that slot was by subverting the tropes that the Twilight discourse had established were gross.

Eleanor: The only love triangle YA story I really got into after Twilight was The Hunger Games, which provided an interesting (but also maddening) foil to Twilight. I saw The Hunger Games get treated a lot more seriously as a franchise because of its apparent critique of income inequality (the movie came out just months after Occupy Wall Street), and because Katniss was in so many ways the anti-Bella: tough, resourceful, independent. Also in The Hunger Games’ favor: Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss, was much, much better at the celebrity image game than Kristen Stewart.

But I found everything about The Hunger Games a little too perfect; the good role model protagonist and the “serious” commentary on today’s social issues was all a bit much. I still appreciate Twilight’s stubborn refusal to be anything more than what it was: an evocative, albeit problematic, teen love story that took its characters’ feelings seriously.

Would it be a stretch to call movies like Brooklyn and Lady Bird part of the legacy of Twilight? Of course, they’re in an entirely different genre; they’re also more nuanced and better acted, and the relationships at their center are largely absent of the troubling power dynamics we discussed above. But they fill a place in my heart that Twilight once did, for the way they show that the stories of young women and their romantic choices are important and worthy of deep study.

Alex: The world would be a better, kinder place if everyone was required to watch Brooklyn. Though I’m not sure if it and Lady Bird are a part of Twilight’s legacy or are simply terrific stories about teenage girls growing up that haven’t been given the credit they’re due.

Twilight’s more direct legacy is Fifty Shades of Grey and the phenomena — the backlash and the fandom — that followed it. Right? When Fifty Shades came out, article after article depicted and chided its readers as desperate, horny middle-aged women. The book was considered “mommy porn.” Like Twilight, Fifty Shades is no beautiful tome of language. But the criticism of it seemed amplified because women, particularly women of a certain age, were really into it. And If there’s one demographic whose taste people like to judge more than that of teenage girls, it has to be moms. Poor moms.

Aja: I definitely think we can’t discount the fact that a lot of the teen girls who got vilified for loving Twilight grew up and got vilified for loving New Adult erotica, so I’m doubling down on the stance that Twilight’s legacy is creating a generation of women who became loud and proud about their fictional kinks as a result of being perpetually shamed for them. I want to think that ultimately, this confidence outweighs all of Twilight’s problematic tropes.

I will add that Twilight sparked a weird purity backlash in YA literature whereby depictions of sex and sexuality between teens became newly taboo, in part because of all the hand-wringing over Twilight and its ilk. I think that’s taken a while to wear off, in part because Twilight’s imprint was so indelible.

Also, there’s one really obvious thing Twilight bequeathed us, simple but huge, and that’s “Team X” and “Team Y.” Twilight made shipping, and discussion of shipping, a standard part of the pop culture discourse around media franchises, and it did so specifically via “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob.” (And the perennial underdog, Team Bella.) These ideas — and the specific concept of shipping as rooting for your pairing or character, or “team,” to win the love triangle — entered the pop culture landscape with Twilight, and now they’re ubiquitous. And crucially, by framing shipping as a pastime akin to rooting for a sports team, they made shipping into something harmless and fun rather than yet another toxic, galling thing to shame fans for doing. If only for this, I am Team Twilight all the way.

Original Source -> Reckoning with Twilight, 10 years later

via The Conservative Brief

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