Monday, December 22, 2008

Critiquing Twilight

Fillyjonk has a great post up on Shapely Prose about what all is wrong with romantic comedies in general and Twilight in particular. My own reaction to the book was that it was teenage narcissism at its worst, well-written but essentially vacuous, but I'm not always good at seeing the big picture. Fillyjonk sets it in a more feminist context. Here's a piece:
Twilight horrifies me, but it mystifies me not at all; I know exactly what the appeal is, not just intellectually but viscerally. When I was the age of Twilight’s target audience, I hadn’t had any of those defining relationships, of course, but clearly I had the capacity to find disdain, paternalism, and misused power attractive.
Now go read the rest.

2 comments:

  1. i like growdup books..
    never could get into harry potter either..
    I'm reading the new jeffery deavers book and it' super..

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  2. That's an excellent critique. I read and enjoyed the books and movie as pure escapism. If I want angst, I'll read my own journals.

    But I'm also taking every opportunity to discuss what's wrong with the relationship between the main characters. I'm also banging on about what a pile of crap is the idea of a soul mate.

    My kids are sick of hearing it, but I won't stop. Banning the books would be a waste of time. Using them as teaching instruments seems to make sense.

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My space, my rules: play nice and keep it on topic.