This is OT, but I’ve never heard of a kid who prefers Voldemort to Harry. Or Draco. Some of them might sympathize more with Ron or Hermione than Harry, but that’s been the extent of it.
I don’t think I saw anyone in this thread at any point say the books were too X for teens or suggest that that anyone should be prevented from reading it. A lot of people are saying the books are crap and rather revolting from an adult perspective. The kids read them, you read them, you talk about it.
My feelings aren’t limited to the Dope. When I discuss the books with my students, I tell them what I think and why. We discuss it. Many of them have similar perspectives on things and can see the story for what it is and enjoy it on that basis, as I do. But deny them reading? No one suggested that at all.
I suppose I’d better read one. I’m curious how they play for a female reader who doesn’t go for romance novels or men, and doesn’t feel like an outcast. I like YA fiction, though.
I’m an adult, have taught high school and middle school, and I love the series. Is it great literature? No. But it was fun, there were a couple of places where I love the author. The biggest score for me is that it had kids reading. That in itself is enough to have me carrying the flag.
I read the first two and a half because my sister threatened to quiz me on them if I didn’t (yes, even at 33 and 34, we still do stuff like this), and I enjoyed the story but HATED Bella. She was so needy and so willing to discard her family over this guy she’d just met. Irritating as all get out. Plus, I know she’s supposed to be a klutz, but the author went really over the top in that respect.
My sister loves the books because, with a full-time job, she’s also commuting to her MBA every third week and is really stressed. She needs an escape, and this is a good outlet for her.
My mom loooooves these books and gave me the first two for my b’day. I’m about 1/2 way through Twilight.
The book is…interesting. I like vampire stories, so it has held my attention despite the clumsy writing. But I don’t see what Bella sees in Edward other than prettiness, and I see zero chemistry between them. And honestly, I think Bella’s kind of a bitch. She does nice things for people but then thinks nasty thoughts about them and treats them like shit when they’re nice to her.
I’ve had to wonder about her future plans. I mean, obviously she’s smart and could go on to college and a career. What I’ve read here tells me she opts for young marriage and baby. That, as much as the creepy relationship, is disturbing to me.
Hey, why have a career when you can spend eternity frolicking on your own island and doing whatever you want, since you are rich? Vampires are apparently in the habit of getting multiple degrees and studying or creating art all night long, so marriage won’t hamper her education any.
I’m not sure I’d describe it as ‘opting’ for a baby. I haven’t read it, but this is what I know. Don’t read it if you want to be surprised.
After much angst, Bella and Edward get married, thinking that a vampire and human cannot have a baby together. Bella IIRC wants to experience human sex before becoming a vampire, or something, can’t remember. So, surprise, she gets pregnant and the baby is a bizarro semi-vampire that takes only a couple of months to gestate, good thing too as it’s killing her. In what sounds like an incredibly creepy and disgusting episode, she gives birth, dies, and gets changed to vampire approximately simulateously. The baby is superintelligent and Jacob promptly imprints upon her (SKEEVY!!). Now that Bella’s a vampire and they have a superbaby and even Jacob is happy, everything is perfect and they go happily skipping off to Elysian fields of eternal vampire joy. And there’s a battle or something.
I wanted to open a thread about Bella’s baby but had no idea how to title and spoiler it appropriately so…
How many times has this cliche cropped up: the super-hybrid-magic-baby who gestates and grows up at an accelerated rate? The ones that come to mind immediately are V, The 4400, Angel, and Twilight. Any I’ve forgotten?
Connor wasn’t accelerated in utero, was he? Darla was pregnant most of a season, although she didn’t come find Angel until she was about ready to pop. He was raised in another dimension and came back all growed up fast to the audience, but lived a normal rate life to himself and those around him. The only think super about him was apparently his Goddess-producing sperm. (Ick.)
Just to nitpick, a Mary Sue is a perfect female character, what you’re referring to is a self-insert. Most self-inserts are Mary Sues, but not all Mary Sues are self-inserts. Although I do believe Bella is a Mary Sue self-insert.
This is the exact problem I have. Sometimes I want to slap her. And she’s so freaking single-minded. Her boyfriend has one idea - wants her to enjoy her human life, yada yada yada - and she doesn’t care. It’s like even her boyfriend’s wishes don’t mean jack, much less her family’s.
With respect to the baby, eh, if she does become a vampire, it won’t matter one way or the other whether she goes to college now or 100 years from now, but still… She’s got no problem causing her parents mental anguish as long as she can stay with this guy she’s known about a year.
Urgh. I knew I shouldn’t have read part of this book last night. I think I should put my Kindle down and step away slowly.
Demon Seed, an awful Dean Koontz book made into an even more awful movie. The father of the baby is a supercomputer! “I have prepared a nutritionally exquisite breakfast for you”! God, why did I watch that movie? ICK!
First, the biggest Mary Sue ever has to be the doctor in Uhura’s Song. If you’ve never read the book, you wouldn’t understand.
Second, I was extremely turned off by the creepy in Twilight. Bella is so desperately stupid and needy and Edward so desperately creepy and needy and they both mix together for a sandwich cookie of need with a creepy, stupid filling. When she is cornered by him in the parking lot and realizes that she can’t physically escape him? That’s nasty.
But it is something that crops up in romance novels, maybe not as much now as it used to be. I don’t know if there are any new Rosemary Rogers getting published. Urg.
I should make a Twilight bookbag. Someone would want that, I bet. (It might even sell better than the one with Saberhagen’s Brother Assassin on it; I love that one.) Anyone want to send me a dust cover?
This is the best description of a couple of characters that I’ve read in a long time. Of course, now I need a sandwich cookie. With creepy, stupid filling. Mmmmm…
Rubystreak, the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess did the quick-grow baby in its third season (1997-1998 – long enough ago that I figure this is no spoiler to anyone who cares). Xena’s common-law sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) became pregnant in a Rosemary’s Baby style scenario and gave birth after one episode. The child was a full-grown adult by the end of the season.
Renee O’Connor wasn’t actually pregnant or anything, someone just thought this was a good idea for the show. (It wasn’t.)
A few seasons later the show had to resort to the “magic baby” device again because star Lucy Lawless actually DID become pregnant. But that magic baby naturally had to gestate for the usual period of time.
