Twilight As Romantic Hope

Well, we have spent a ton of time talking about how poorly written Twilight is and that it doesn't hold a candle to Harry Potter. While I agree with both of these statements, I would consider this a very successful series of books. The reason I say this, is because it has sold millions and millions of copies. The movies are sold out weeks in advance, and it has become the biggest literary trend since the start of Harry Potter. The books, were okay, in my opinion. They may not have been challenging to read and all, but they were different from anything I have ever read before. The movies, however, ruined the whole thing for me.

But that is besides the point.
Where was I?
Right....

I think the reason I was so hooked on the books in the beginning is because the romantic game of tug-of-war between Jacob, Edward, and Bella kept me on my toes long enough to read the entire series (even though I was extraordinarily disappointed when Bella chose Edward). Beyond the struggle though, I think Twilight, for me, was a hopeful story of romance. I believe it could instill hope that there is that someone out there that we are supposed to be with forever. I don't know if Stephanie Meyer had intended on doing this, but I found it kind of comforting that despite all the fights, danger, and near-death experiences Bella encounters, that the love between her and Edward prevails...

I don't know. That could sound totally cheesy and pathetic and lame. But hey, I'm just a sucker for romance....

In a nutshell, the book was poorly written, it doesn't hold a candle to Harry Potter, but the romance had me hooked from the beginning.

Last, last chance: post your comment here....

** don't forget to choose a profile below the box (anonymous is fine) and then click "post comment"

Never let me go

So I wrapped up what scared me most about Never let me go, and what really moved me about it, in a little paragraph that could have gone at the end of the book. It's a little vague so you may just have to roll with it.

"Through this story you have come to know me, my friends, you have felt as we did, seen our fate. Now they are all dead and I shall follow them in completion with the completion of this story. What horrors await me I cannot escape." Kathy H

Last Chance!!!!

Hi all. This is your last chance to add to our fabulous Twilight blog. Feel free to use this space to share your ideas about our final novel of the semester and how it relates to Never Let Me Go, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc.



To get you started, you might want to check out this spirited repartee on two popular culture blogs:

"Why Don Draper Is a Far Better Vampire Than any of Twilight's or True Blood's" (NYMag.com)

"The Emasculation of the Modern Vampire?" (Salon.com)

If you want to find a real vampire, according to these critics, look to Don Draper not Edward Cullen.


 

You can post your comments about Twilight here!!! Just type your comment in the box below, choose a profile (anonymous is fine, but put your name in the post) and hit the "post" button. 

Idea for a thesis for final paper

Thought I would run it by you guys sense I have not posted for a while. My idea is that the clones are similar to the Cullens. Both are sheltered, either by others or by themselves, the fate of both is decided with little if any room to move, both are hated and feared by the society they live in, and both are looking for a way out of what they have. Also include they both share Gothic setting and several other Gothic features. I just enabled the e-mail updates so I should be able to see if you guys comment and get back to you; Or you can tell me in class. If I follow this idea, one could assume that twilight is a Gothic novel in the same sense that Never let me go is, because of similar character setting and a Gothic style control of the character.

Micah Corey

Twilight in a Nutshell

So, basically, I burned through Twilight faster than I really think it was advisable to do for the sake of my mental acuity. Oh well.

Since... there really isn't that much for me to write about, I thought I'd take up more space on your monitor by interjecting nice doodles into my post inbetween tiny paragraphs of text. If you've ever perused the blog "Hyperbole and a Half," you know the sort of thing I'm talking about.

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Once upon a time, a teenager named (Isa)Bella Swan moved from Phoenix, AZ, a place she loved and wanted to live in forever, to Forks, WA, a place she hated, by her own free will.

She spent the first hundred pages of her story complaining about how much Forks was not like Phoenix.

 

But wait! It's not all bad! Her first day at school she meets a handsome devil of a man to distract her from her abject misery. So she also spends the first hundred pages of the story agonizing over whether he likes her and whether he'll be her boyfriend or not.

(Okay; I confess I can't help liking the development of Edward's character. Would I want him as a boyfriend? No freaking way. But he appeals to the hopeless-romantic part of me that refuses to die.)

Goffik Recap: We have our helpless female character (if you've forgotten that Bella is extremely clumsy and accident-prone, don't worry -- you'll be reminded on the next page; same goes if you've forgotten that Edward is beautiful, gorgeous, glorious, scintillating, captivating). She feels trapped in this tiny "backwards" town of Forks with all of its rain and cloud-cover and lack of sprawl and general rainy cloudy oppressiveness. Not to mention all of the other boys won't leave her alone.

Now we have our mystery in the form of the Cullens -- they look human enough, but something about them is just different. Basically; they're all really pretty. But Bella is obsessed intrigued, and she's our narrator, so we have to take an interest, too.

After Edward and Bella agree that he's a vampire, most of the rest of the book is pretty much hyper-sensualized smut.

[Insert erotic makeout scene here. Cos I'm not gonna learn how to draw those here of all places.]

Edward's family (except Rosalie) loves Bella. Charlie accepts him as her boyfriend. Bella gets put in mortal danger because she listened to her hormones when she's old enough to know better.

There is presumably an epic vampire fight at the end, but Bella spends that part of the novel dying, so we don't get anything awesome there.

Stephanie Meyer, we are unapprove

And then Bella goes to prom with a leg cast.

The End.

Goffik Recap 2: Um... Helpless female character who has a near-death experience... Danger... Handsome male character who comes to the rescue... Supernatural abilities... Oppressive setting (like a city three times the size of Seattle wouldn't be oppressive?!)...

Umm... Yeah, okay; I'm admitting here that there are some elements that are in common with Gothic fiction. But honestly, I don't see Twilight as a Gothic novel at all, not compared to everything else we've read this semester. There is too much focus on how Edward's touch makes Bella's heart stop for it to be taken seriously as a Gothic work.

Compared to other vampire-human-forbidden-love things I've seen (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Moonlight)... Really, I don't feel like the Twilight vampires are proper vampires at all. They're just not scary. Okay, when I stop to think about them, they are scary -- anything that can outrun you and kill you before you can blink is terrifying. But Meyer doesn't describe them scary. Not even James and Victoria are remotely frightening. I read and I thought "Oh; antagonists. Look at that." Dracula; Dracula was scary; he didn't wear any of his emotions on his sleeve. You never knew where he was going to be. Twilight doesn't have enough mystery to keep me intrigued. The novel functions on eroticism, really. That's the only reason I can see for someone to keep reading. It's smut.

I'll probably have more to say when we discuss the novel properly in class, but for now, this is my two cents.

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PS: Read "Hyperbole and a Half" here!

Kind of 'Twilight', Kinda just fun

I created this chart for another class (Psych in Fiction), these are the 12 character archetypes found in literature, especially fantasy. The idea is you can apply them to anything, even real life. Of course, no one is really just one on it's own, we are usually combinations of a couple of them. I've been going through and applying them to characters from the books in class, it's pretty fun. :)

I believe I got Creator-Sage (28) tied then Destroyer-Orphan-Warrior (27), all tied. Like I said, hardly anybody is ever just one. XD

If I can find the quiz I can upload it, too.

(Also, there's a typo, 'caregiver's first one should rea "help others")