Ok...so I managed to find an ebook Twilight online and managed to finish it last night. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that I've been expecting the writing to be bad that I found it bad or not. But seriously, about 3-4 chapters in, the book was already getting on my nerves. Up till the part where they had that conversation in the forest (chapter 13 I believe) and Bella really finds out that Edward is a vampire, the whole story was dragging incredibly boring and full of whining Bella that just totally drove me mad. But having read the Midnight Sun draft (which, considering Edward's deeper emotional struggle than Bella's constant
Why does he hate me? whining, was much more interesting), I made myself read on.
First, I know Bella's a teenager, and teenagers tend to moan a lot, but is it really necessary for us to be subjected to 25 pages of Bella going on about her move to Forks and how miserable it was there before we actually got to the crux of the book - the vampires?? Ok, grant you, considering the book was aboug a few hundred pages, half of the first chapter wasn't that much. But seriously, when I read it, it seemed to be so much longer because quite frankly...all it tells you is that she moved to Forks, her father doesn't talk much and it rained a lot there! And you know what? These facts are repeated throughout the book. As if we might forget! Yes, we know it's cold, wet and miserable in Forks! That's why the Cullens are there!
Which brings me to the next point...which is, Meyer just needs to learn to get to the point! Hasn't she heard of 'less is more'? There has to be ooh-aahing over how beautiful, angelic, godlike, wonderful Edward is in every other page (if not every page).
He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare.
This really really really cracked me up. It really sounds like the author was trying to throw big words in to make the writing sounds more intelligent, basically making the whole description a huge joke, because the whole description just becomes totally unnatural. But then maybe that's the point and I'm missing it. He is unnatural.
So some might say she uses vivid description, but I beg to differ. When you overuse words like Adonis-like and whatever other term she uses, it's over-pushing the point and generally annoying. Yes. we KNOW he's gorgeous, quit harping about it already!
Please, for the sake of teenage girls everywhere, there
has to be more to Edward than just being beautiful. ...Oh. Right. He's also awesome at everything and there isn't anything he can't do. Gary Stu much, anyone?
I wouldn't say Bella is the incarnation of Mary Sue, but she does have some glaring Mary Sue traits. Let's go down the check list.
http://www.springhol...zes/marysue.htm >> Edward actually passes (or fails, depends on how you look at it) with flying colours.
He, at least, is definitely a Gary Stu.
*Her name: Bella Swan.
Beautiful Swan? Yeah. Well. (Makes me think of Elizabeth Swann as well.) -- Bella is also the name Meyer wanted to use for her own daughter and apparently Meyer loves Bella "like her own daughter". One could say that Bella is what Meyer wants her daughter to be if she had one? (Though honestly why anyone would want a daughter like Bella...)
*Considering the number of guys who fall over at her feet, we can say she's pretty, if not beautiful - Edward says she is but let's just say, for the sake of argument, that he's biased.
*Yet, at the same time, Bella goes on and on about how she's clumsy, never had anyone attracted to her, never had a boyfriend ad nauseum.
*At the same time, no one seems to mind/tease her about her clumsiness.
*Everyone
loves her, for whatever reason. I mean, come on, the whole school gathers at the hospital when she had that accident. (Does no one make them go to school?!? Where are the teachers?)
*She's
smart and ahead of all her classes. Wow.
*Her family situation is pitiful (and everyone must pity her for it) because her father's emotionally distant and her mother's immature.
*She's free to do practically anything she wants because her father is always away and her mother doesn't live with her.
*Point 22 of the Mary Sue test, you answer.
Does your character become a genetically, scientifically, cybernetically, or magically altered/enhanced being, possibly with new powers?
Is he/she happier this way?
Do people like him/her better this way?
Do you wish it would happen to you?
Was your character kidnapped specifically for some type of experiment or project in order for this to happen?
Sigh. I rest my case.
You know, this series is targeted at teenage girls but the message it gives really really worries me, though I would like to think readers are mature enough to see through it.
I shouldn't have to say this, but let me keep some faith in human intelligence.
Please. Tell me that the girls who are just
totally in love with Edward Cullen and Twilight realise that Bella and Edward's relationship is totally superficial. Why is Bella in love with Edward? Well, he's hot, you see. Does she wax lyrical about anything else about him that isn't his physical beauty? Erm...no. Yes? Care to point it out to me? I thought not.
I couldn't allow him to have this level of influence over me. It was pathetic. More than pathetic, it was unhealthy.
This is perhaps the most sensible thing that Bella ever uttered in the entire book. And she realises for ...how long? Oh, a couple of seconds. Then she goes back obsessing over Edward and how he much he hates her and could
never love someone like her. While I wouldn't say I'm a feminist activist but really, what is the point of fighting for gender equality when the result is this? Bella practically clings to Edward because the moment she meets him, she doesn't care about thing else other than him. It's more than pathetic. Well said. Pity she forgets it moment she remembers just how unbelievably angelic, godlike blah blah blah Edward is.
Let me just take a break to say that I can be romantic. Actually, if you read my fanfics, you'll see that sometimes I'm overly so. I more often than not write romance stories and I understand the fascination and attraction of a story of true love that could lead to the lovers be willing to die for each other and all that. That's not what annoys me with Twilight. It's the fact that's there's nothing but Bella-Edward in Twilight.
Nothing. Bella's father hardly even knows she's dating him. Edward's family accepts Bella and doesn't give her any grief. There's no struggle from Bella of what will become of her parents/friends/family etc if she becomes a vampire. Just Bella and Edward teen-angsting over how beautiful each other is and how they love each other and the only thing that stand between them is that he wants to eat her. Yes, there's finally an evil vampire that is out for her blood in the end but that's just a ploy to show how
great and
noble the Cullens are their willingness to protect her (even Rosalie!) and how Bella would be more concerned with Edward than with her own life. Maybe that's because
she doesn't have a life? Sigh.
I could go on, but quite frankly I have lots to do right now so I think I'll conclude.
You know, maybe the fact I didn't enjoy this book wasn't really the author's fault, but my fault for putting too much expectation on it. It's a (as some have said, very superficial) romance, and that's it. Is Twilight good literature? Hell no! All it tells you is that, as a teenage girl, you should go after the hot guy and have no life that is not about him and become obsessed with him then he'll become equally obsessed with you. This is very obviously targeted at teenaged girls still actually believing or fantasising that a romance like Bella's and Edward's was actually plausible in real life. There's isn't much wrong with that, if you could separate fantasy from reality. But I was probably looking for more substance, and Twilight just didn't give.
PS: I liked the movie. At least it got to the point, no rhymes, no adjectives.
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HMSChocolate, on Dec 23 2008, 05:35 AM, said:
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For the Lulz at least
but I really can't stand bad books...and this series, regardless of the good idea, is just badly written.
