My wife (a rather well read and intelligent woman) has this theory that one of the things driving the popularity of the Twilight series is that it appeals to the outcast feeling that all women have.
She is of the opinion, after reading it, that the characters are essentially every fantasy cliche in existence. Men who would rather die than be without their one beloved woman, a rather plain and unexciting woman who somehow intrances a dark and mysterious man (boy).
She is enjoying them, but she is quite clear that the reason that they are popular is that they are tugging on the heartstrings of every female out there.
I haven’t read them, but I teach high school and my students are batshit crazy about them. Interestingly enough, a lot of boys read them. More girls, I admit, but they aren’t seen as “girl’s books”. I really need to pick them up just so that I get all the references.
I have read every Twilight book and the other novel Meyer wrote, and I teach middle school, which is the prime audience for these books. Boys are reading them as well as girls, and they are wildly, Harry Potter-level popular. I despise them but will read every single one. They are the McDonald’s of literature-- bad for you but tasty.
Why does everyone love them? It’s because they glorify romance and co-dependence and allow you to revel in the guilty, voyeuristic pleasure at watching a sickeningly cloying love affair unfold. In a way, it is a girl’s dream to have the most handsome, powerful, intelligent, enlightened, tragically sad and lonely boy in high school love you even though it’s killing him, even though his family and friends disapprove, even though it’s socially unacceptable. Edward would die for Bella, and she for him. Life is not worth living without each other. Each of the characters think they are bad, unworthy, only redeemed by their love–both such martyrs it’s vomit-inducing. Edward breaks into her house to watch her sleep, follows her around to eavesdrop on her friend’s thoughts, things that normally you’d think was creepy, but in this case, it’s just a sign of his undying devotion. It’s very much a love conquers all (including sense, reason, and healthy boundaries) theme.
The other appealing element is that yes, Bella is a Mary Sue extraordinaire. She has two awesome guys fighting for her, who love her more than their own lives… even though she is plain, narcissistic, self-pitying, and completely unable to take care of herself. Gives hope to everyone if someone like her can win the love of two incredibly hot, powerful men.
This is actually untrue. Bella is the narrator and she is plain and unexciting. The reality is that she’s very pretty and no less exciting than anyone else that lives in Forks. Perhaps moreso because she seems to have that “old soul” quality that drive some guys (read: geeks) nuts.
IIRC Bella is pretty but unaware of it, since her beauty is not the stereotypical blond, tan look of her hometown. Which is actually brilliant, because all of us want to believe that we are really beautiful, it’s just that no one ever noticed.
I’ve only read Twilight, but yeah–it’s every girl’s fantasy. Every girl feels left out and on the outside, and Bella is all about feeling totally lame and then having the most amazing guy ever fall desperately in love with you. (And, btw, he’s rich, so you’ll get your own tropical island paradise, too. And a super-special baby who loves you and doesn’t need diapers changed and is brilliantly gifted.)
Did anyone see this hilarious interview with the guy star? “She is mad…you feel like you shouldn’t be reading it…”
Also, is it just me or does sex with a guy who feels like ice-cold granite just not sound all that fun? Popsicle, anyone?
Wow. This says a lot about why my ex liked them, and why she and I couldn’t connect. A relationship eye-opener. I kind of feel like a bad boyfriend, all of a sudden, if this is what she preferred to me.
I didn’t read any of the books, but from the trailers for the movie I got the same impression that was expressed in the OP. I actually think that the lead actress is attractive in a brunette Alicia Silverstone sort of way, but apparently she has been directed to look as morose and uninterested as possible. It’s like emotional porn for shoegazers.
She’s pretty but not as pretty as the women her boyfriend Edward pals around with, and definitely not on Edward’s level of hotness. She’d probably look like she won him in a raffle if you saw them together. Being a cute girl in high school is not the same as being otherworldly gorgeous, the standard to which she is comparing herself.
But yes, several normal boys at Bella’s high school are competing for her aside from Edward, yet she still proclaims her unattractiveness and feels that she is an unappealing person. This is because she’s kind of a moron who has low self-esteem and is just dying to get into a co-dependent borderline personality type relationship, not because of any empirical fact about her appearance.
This is interesting, because I wok at a store that sells some Twilight stuff. Every girl who sees the movie pictures hates it because Bella is supposed to be ‘naturally’ beautiful, and shouldn’t be wearing make-up, or drop-dead gorgeous, or similar superlatives. Also, none of the cast is pretty enough to please them.
I think Kristin Stewart is good casting-- she’s pretty but she’s outrageously gorgeous. What are the girls saying about her? Though I have to say, every girl I know who is really into the books hates Bella. They hate her because they want to be her, and of course, they’d be her better than she is, if you know what I mean.
As for the rest of the cast, of course they’re not pretty enough. How could they be? In the books, they are described as being off the charts beautiful. The kind of beautiful that is hard to look at, if you know what I mean. It’s not a fair standard to hold anyone to.
Robert Pattinson is decent looking, if you give him ahaircut first.
As for the Mary Sue part, it’s Jane Eyre all over again–plain, unpresuming girl snags tall, dark, handsome, rich, tragically flawed but passionately devoted hero (except Bella is several levels less awesome than Jane). Edward is the Byronic hero; he’s an archetype, just as Bella is.
I think they’re wildly self-indulgent fantasy with some nasty, nasty backhanded messages about women, and I’m wrestling with my conscience as to whether I should go support my Twilight-loving friends at the premiere or watch the free screening, smuggle in some drink, and roll down the aisles laughing.
Not three hours ago while talking to friends I described Bella from the Twilight books as the biggest Mary Sue ever. (One other person knew what I was talking about when I said “Mary Sue”).
I’m reading them because I can’t stand not being up on any YA fiction trend. I’m a high school teacher; my female students are crazy about them. My little sister is a sixth grader, she loves them too.
The books are merely competently written and fairly artless. Why these particular books took off is mostly marketing; adolescent vampire romance is a cliche (I recommend Companions of the Night by Vivian Van Velde, and Silver Kiss, by Annette Curtis Klaus, which I read as a high schooler. If werewolves are more your thing, Klaus also wrote Blood and Chocolate).
As a genre though, I see the appeal: vampires are extremely sexual; even before Ann Rice and other modern authors altered the popular image. Dracula is not described by Stoker as anything approaching good looking, but he’s still got sexual power. Fangs are perfect Freudian phallic symbols. The Twilight series is pretty sexually charged even though
Edward and Bella don’t have sex until they are married; and the descriptions then are nowhere near as explicit as “adult” romance novels. Still, they take several chunks out of the headboard while in the throes of passion! The fourth book feels like Meyer is shoving a pro-abstinence, pro-life viewpoint down my throat.
The series is pretty much soft-core porn for the 11-17 year old girl demographic. Serves the same purpose Flowers in the Attic once did, except with no incest. It’s romantic in a very tortured, emo-y, angsty way- not really healthy. Interestingly enough, Meyers even explicitly mentions the Wuthering Heights Heathcliff/Cathy nature of Bella and Edward’s relationship in the books!
Well I totally agree with that. I find them to be full of creepy and unhealthy messages about women. Many of my friends adore them, though, even some of the tough ones who you would think would hate them.
a) No, not really, Bella. Catherine is spoiled and selfish and cruel, but she does not hang people’s beloved dogs in their backyards.
b) And yet, it’s still being held up as something Bella imagines herself in, something beautiful and romantic and epic and touching. I want to throw the heaviest copy I can find at Stephanie Meyer until she gets it.
And dangermom: I hear you. And don’t even get me started on imprinting, because I will develop an uncontrollable twitch in my eyelid and start muttering.
