Something I have noticed recently is the number of people, especially in the "alternative/goth" crowd who are very open and very vocal about their apparent loathing of Twilight - the film and in some cases the books too; I say some cases, because I'm sorry, but I honestly do not believe that you read ALL FOUR of the novels if you really hate them that much. NO-ONE with any sense would spend that much time and effort reading books they claim to despise.
OK, so I fully appreciate that Stephanie Meyer's books are not for everyone and that the film is not adored by all; that's the beauty of subjectivity when it comes to art, literature, music, poetry and so on and so forth. However, don't just hate them because your little friend does. Why jump on the bandwagon of Twilight hatred simply due to the fact that you've heard that "sparkly vampires are gay" and you prefer your vamps from the Joss Whedon stable? Guess what, I LOVE Buffy AND I love Twilight.
Don't start with the "oh noes, it preaches abstinence and Christian morality" bollocks because I don't think that's reason enough to hate the Twilight Saga - Have any of you read The Chronicles of Narnia? Hmm? In fact, how about the large majority of fairy-tales and children's' stories? Infused with morals and dos and don'ts. And so what if Edward and Bella aren't leaping into bed with each other straight away, so what if he makes Bella wait to be married before having all Teh (headboard-breaking, feather pillow-destroying) Sex? Not-withstanding the fact that Edward was from a different age when being in the same room as a girl required a chaperone, it's actually NICE to see them showing some self-restraint.
The bottom line is, these novels are tales of romance, family loyalty, friendship, peril, depression, choices, love, humour and coming of age and if you insist on focusing on the seemingly popular reasons to dislike them, you are missing out. I'm a 29 year-old woman with a good degree in Comparative Literature and I can certainly see the appeal. So there.
2 comments:
I read all four and I can't stand them :P Well, the first one was standard blah paranormal chick-lit, but they got stupider and stupider. I read them to the end in the hope that they might redeem themselves, and because I don't like giving up on something.
I object less to the ZOMG abstinence than to the "stalking is romantic" message and the "die for your unborn child" message. >_< But we can argue about this tomorrow! ;)
Ah Jack, yes, we talked about this when I was visiting! I do realise that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and respect that - but I do object to people just slagging it because it appears to be popular to hate it. I was at a party the other night and people just started laying into Twilight without even thinking about it, it was very much "jump on the bandwagon and bash the sparkly vampires". Their main objection was the abstinence issue, which I do have a problem with - not saying that abstinence is the best way forward of course, but it is nice that her 17 year old protagonist doesn't start fucking him straight away :)
Anyway, yes, there's a lot wrong with it but I like the novels and think it's sad when a person's only argument is "it's just shit!". I wanted a debate, damnit!
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