posted March 02, 2010 07:47 PM         

There was another LL thread in which someone asked me to think of something as I read the book, a thread about Edward as a stalker, but for all my effort I couldn't find it again.

Anyway, I read it, and here are some of my thoughts on it.

I LOVED the descriptive writing of the scenery bringing it vividly to life for me. I can't help but think SM sat on a beach or walked into the woods or even sat in a school in making her descriptions.

But despite the details she goes into, to the point that she's even describing how characters breathe, she leaves some details blanks. For example, Bella doesn't bring up Google or Yahoo, she brings up her "favorite search engine." She doesn't listen to Kelly Clarkson or Nightwish or Evanescence, she listens to her "favorite CD." That was just brilliant to expanding her potential audience and giving the book a longer expiration date.

And speaking of Bella using the search engine, I see SM did do some research into vampires. I liked how she squeezed some quotes in off the net. But all the same, I like how she gave vampires her own special twist that seems fairly original to me.

Another brilliant move, IMO, in terms of making the book marketable is how religion pretty much kept out of it, but there was even connecting vampires to God's creation in one scene that would give permission for many girls to rationalize the "demonic" aspects into something to accept without feeling guilty over, while those who developed a grudge against Christians wouldn't be alienated. I can think of all kinds of girls in the Bible Belt who'd not be able to get into if it wasn't this way.

But that all said, I'm not the target audience. There were times I wasn't sure who I found most annoying, Edward or Bella. And things like someone like Edward watching me while I was asleep would seriously freak me out and would be very unwelcome. I also found much of it predictable so the building of tension and all, while I'm sure very good to those less familiar with this style, got me impatient at times.

But toward the ending, once Bella meets the rest of the Cullens, I found it more interesting, though I have no plans to read anymore of the books, and I'm not going out of my way to see the movie.

Yet I can see why this appeals so much to tween girls. It's the world they dream about (in the case of high schoolers, actually live in to some extent), and Bella quite cleverly is much of what many want to be: beautiful--though she doesn't know it pulling an "ugly duckling turning into a swan" (hey, Bella's last name!)--when she moves, and petite and desirable while giving her a flaw to be self-conscious over (in addition to not being aware of how beautiful she really is) so as to be relatable. Clumsiness was especially good given how clumsy so many tweens & teens feel, both literally (growing bodies!) and metaphorically, and I think a great many know they aren't the amazing dancers who go to school dances on TV & movies and feel bad over it.

There were times that I felt how Bella was treated by Edward and the other vampires was demeaning, but kids (especially tweens) would be used to that anyway. At least they meant well and were honest about their bad side which is more than most adult authority figures can say.

I'd also wondered why some especially brutal prisoners loved this book, but I believe that they can sympathize with Edward (and other vampires) as tweens can with Bella, in how its hard to control dangerous, murderous, violent impulses, how one must keep a distance from society, and a beautiful girl not afraid of him at all no matter how much she SHOULD be. Add in that the vampires are near indestructible, beautiful in a predatory way, and no prison could hold them, I'm sure its as potent escapism for them, too.

Since the story itself didn't particularly appeal to me, I couldn't figure out why there are the "Twilight Moms," but this sounds plausible:
http://nymag.com/movies/features/62027/

As for the claims of Edward being a stalker...I can see it. From reading the book, Bella seems as much of a stalker as Edward, just too inept to be dangerous about it. But if a normal person acted like Edward, that would definitely be stalkerish, and I could see how he might come off the way in a movie that would cut much out. 'Course some say, "But he loves her!" Well many stalkers are obsessed and in love with whom they stalk so that's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. Still, that aside, it makes for a nice story and just one more way to appeal to so many with its motif of "true love" and "soul mates" and similar themes (and how Bella & Edward got along, including the fighting, was pretty standard to many in the romance genre).

I should add that some stalkers are under the impression that their stalking is "romantic" rather than scary, and this book could encourage them in that belief, which I don't like.

posted March 03, 2010 11:27 AM         

The books that I love most are the ones that I can go back to time and time again and they never lose their magic. Like East of Eden.

posted March 03, 2010 11:37 AM         

Isn't that the nature of all enthusiasms?

Except for the flame of true love,
don't they all burn out in no time,
and leave us wondering what gave them
the power to inspire us the way that
they once did?

I remember falling in love with writers,
and I still love every one of them, but
they don't enchant me as they once did,
and I'm almost embarrassed to reflect
on the power they once had over me.

But now that just seems a matter of course.
The spell once cast, has done its work,
and can never be cast again -- not
as it was the first time.

Anyway, "The Lost Boys" is way cooler.

None of today's pretty-bad-boys are half
as cool as Jason Patrick's "Michael":

posted March 03, 2010 11:43 AM         

lol

Just saw your last post (at 11:27).

I know what you mean.
There are distinctions
that I see now between works
which once equally enchanted me,
and now I view them with a sober eye,
and only the best parts of the best of them
can still move me to laughter or tears.

Only a handful of writers do that for me.

posted March 03, 2010 11:48 AM         

quote:

---

Valus, the thing is:
I read the Twilight Saga, wished really hard I could have that feeling burn in my heart and then I met... you... about two weeks later.
Coincidence?

---

hmm, the law of attraction, maybe?

well, anyway,
now i hope edward and bella turn out alright.

reminds me of this:
"now we see through a glass darkly
but then face to face..
now i know in part, but then shall i know
even as also i am known."

It's nice knowing you.

posted March 03, 2010 11:51 AM         

quote:

---

now i hope edward and bella turn out alright.

---

posted March 03, 2010 12:07 PM         

I have the same problem with many books I loved at first read. There is never a "first" time to read a book a second time, but it's great when you dive into one, again and again, and can evoke that "first" feeling more than once.

Also, when you have attained something in REAL life that you were lacking and searching for when you first read something that contained something like it, it's hard to see the writing as anything close to what you ACTUALLY feel now.

East of Eden...

I can read Wuthering Heights a million times.. I'm just a geek like that... Ohhhhh Heathcliff!! (I must relate my stupid foibles in romance with this disaster lol)

posted March 03, 2010 07:28 PM         

quote:

---

Valus, the thing is:
I read the Twilight Saga, wished really hard I could have that feeling burn in my heart and then I met... you... about two weeks later.
Coincidence?

---

Let me get this straight: you read about vampires who in order to escape their nomadic lifestyle and not be monsters had taken to eating ANIMALS instead of people (because it's different...like the one vampire who started that coven said, "I ate venison as a human, why not as a vampire?") and then you wished really hard and met VALUS?

posted March 03, 2010 08:10 PM         

Makes perfect sense to me.

posted March 03, 2010 08:54 PM         

Besides eating animals, he was a major control freak (and didn't use guilt, just his own power) who had a very hard time controlling his temper (among other impulses) and could kill you accidentally. He also wasn't a deep thinker, though he had a talent for reading minds. Despite realizing the importance of not standing out he couldn't resist getting a super fast hot car and putting the pedal to the metal (even though he didn't even need a car at all), which just goes with his being a show off (hmm, maybe he should be seen as having a Leo sun sign or ascendant?).

posted March 03, 2010 09:06 PM         

I suppose I should expect that. I've gotten in trouble my entire life because people hate it when I ask questions trying to understand.

Rereading the thread, I would GUESS that what you get out of it (you really don't say that much, btw) that matches up with Valus is that you'd like to feel a flame like Bella did and that never ended, and you're hoping that such never ends with Valus. (I'd HOPE Valus wasn't like Edward in the ways I pointed out, the ways that jumped out at me while reading it.)