Twilight Haterade...

Granted, I love trashy romance novels just as much as the next girl.  Maybe more.  Still, despite this fondness for the pinnacle of literary achievement, even I found Twilight to be bad.  So much so that I talked through reading the book, which my neechan found endlessly amusing.

Lately, I've been listening to it on audiobook whilst knitting, and reliving the horror.  (as someone I read today put it, it's a special kind of masochism to rearead them.  Listening is worse, trust me.)  And one thing led to another, and I've come across some amazing articles that I felt the need to share. 

First up, because it is omfg amazing and the best thing out there:

LDS Sparkledammerung is here!!!


This is a series of articles recapping the Twilight series.  And they are hilarious.  Also, written by a former LDS member, so with lots of interesting tidbits about the stuff Meyer threw in that relates to the LDS church...  Also, did I mention hiliarious?  Complete with images.  The author put a lot of work into this... And her icon (the one at the top of the page) is great too...

This I found in a link to a site called Smart Bitches , a trash novel review site which I will probably be visiting in the future.  When paired with the real trailer, it's pretty awesome. The guy who plays Lawrence is hot.  Also, the last scene makes me snort and roflmao every time...

Twilight Parody Trailier
To be fair, the link to Smart Bitches came from another LJ post,   Ask Doctor Science! - Twilight fun and even thoughts.  The author of this is a bit more serious that Sparkledammerung, but she does explore some interesting thoughts on Meyers' depiction of pregnancy vs. LDS teachings, which the other post doesn't get to until her review of Breaking Dawn. The comments are pretty insightful too.

Here's a comic Nick sent me.  I find it funny, altho a bit inaccurate re: Twilight's fanbase.  But then, the artist fully admits he's never read the books.  Still I think what annoys me is the idea that anyone who enjoys vampire romance is a 14-yo Hot Topic goth/emo junkie.  But then, that attitude has always bothered me, and it's one of the many annoying stereotypes at which I scoff...

Hijinks Ensue - Twilight Comic

Lastly, and kind of entirely unrelated, but from a link in Sparkledammerung (I believe in response to Meyers' comments on feminism), here's Barbie Liberation!  Sounds awesome.

And though I read comments about it, I didn't take the time to look it up cause I am lazy.  So, if anyone has seen the video interview of Robert Pattinson talking about how much he didn't like the books and found them disturbing, please link me!! I want to see that.  Masochism, I know.

Going back to bed now I think.

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alpha5099
I really liked that Sparkledammerung link. Now I never have to actually read the books. Hurray.

Although, there is a reference to Hot Topic in that link, and I really do think it's not inaccurate. I don't think anyone is saying that they're the sole audience of the Twilight books, but they certainly make up a significant enough portion. It's like objecting to people categorizing the readership of Harry Potter as children. Sure, plenty of older teenagers and adults read those books, but they're kids books. The Twilight books may have a wider readership, but it seems like a lot of it is marketed toward the Hot Topic crowd.

Looks, here's almost a hundred pieces of shit you can by at Hot Topic branded with Twilight:

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/store/nodePage.jsp

Maybe a better way to put it is not that the Twilight readership is the Hot Topic crowd, but that the Hot Topic crowd reads Twilight.
Cinnamingirl
They are NOT kids' books. Anyone thinking about the marketing put into the covers can see that. Salon did a good article about the series that mentions that point.

Also, I think a lot of times people confuse books that don't have as many adult themes in them, at least surface-wise, with being 'children's literature', or more derogatorily, "kids' books." The vampire mythos has rarely (if ever) been used for a children's audience, simply because of the whole weight of literary connotation that resides behind it. If it's not violence/blood, it's sex, and usually pretty kinky sex, so that's in no way suitable for children. Just because Stephenie Meyers' fantasies happen to involve not having sex until marriage and not doing much beforehand doesn't make them books for kids. Cause essentially, that's what these books are - the fantasies of an unhappy middle-aged woman. And if she's not unhappy, she's certainly been disillusioned by marriage in some ways, as comes out quite often. You did read the 4th chapter of Sparkledammerung, right? No woman who was happy with her life would describe pregnancy/birth like that.

Okay, that's enough of my rant. Don't get me started on vampires, lol...
alpha5099
I was actually saying that Harry Potter was children's literature, and I didn't mean anything derogatory by it. Twilight, on the other hand, is a "Young Adult" (i.e. teenagers) series. I don't think I'm making any great leap when I say that a very large part of the audience, probably even the majority, is teenage girls. They certainly are the target audience. I'm kinda surprised how defensive you seem to be on this.
sillymharia
^_^;;; A lot of fans don't consider HP all that particularly children friendly - even the author has stated on several occasions that she would wait a couple years before cracking one of the books with her children. There are plenty of grown-up themes in those books. Unfortunately the biggest reason so many people consider HP straight children's lit. is because of the NYTimes Best Sellers List. The first three books dominated the top three spaces for so LONG that NYT created a children's list so they could shove them off there to be on the top of the list. For the most part, this was a marketing scheme for other authors who felt a bit shafted, as it were, for not getting anything higher than the fourth spot on the list. Of course, that's not to say that HP is NOT kid-friendly. Perhaps it would be better to make up a new list for the New York Times - The Wide Range of Age-Friendly Best Sellers List - since they felt it was necessary to make a separate list (because why would anything popularly read by children be of enough literary merit to deserve the TRUE fabled NYTBL? Bastards).
sillymharia
Speaking of - I WANNA READ CORALINE I WANNA NEECHAN!
Cinnamingirl
Yeah, well I've never really been convinced bu the NYTBL, considering stuff like Tom Clancy and those other crappy suspense/crime novelist shows up on there with some frequency, so I tend to take those claims with a grain of salt. Also to look for - what newspapers endorse the book.

Yeah, but I feel like marketing them as children's novels, at least in terms of the list, was convenient. there will never be a list such as you describe because people like categories and that sort of list isn't exclusive enough. Books become classics on their own merit anyway, not based on the NYTBL.

Then read Coraline?
Cinnamingirl
But if you go by the whole age differentiation, then Harry Potter is technically more YA. And I'm not denying that a large part of the Twilight readership is composed of teenage girls. I just get defensive because a)it annoys me when people stereotype fandoms as being for a certain group of people; b)children's lit is my thing, and most people derogatize it; and c)vampires are also a specialty of mine.
harrier
Perfectly written. It is lacking some positive elements, but I've it read in one breath
Cinnamingirl
Are you referring to the Twilight books or my blog posting?

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