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Is Twilight Eclipsing realistic expecations?
I wanted to vent a little bit about the Twilight series. What does everyone think? As an adult I didn't fall in love with the characters and become obsessed with Edward. However, I will say that I really loved the first book "Twilight" and did really love the slow unveiling of Edward's supernatural abilities and the relationship between the two. "New Moon" which is about to come out, made me ill. For Bella to so shut down when Edward left and become less of herself made me so ANGRY! Although I can empathize with your first love and the first break up seeming to be so important when you are in High School. Being young does seem to elevate everything.
Is Bella a good role model for girls reading these books? Should book characters even be considered role models? Is this idealizing romance with the “bad boy” where you stick it out despite everything telling you not to? How are girls supposed to learn what is too much and what is something that can be overcome in a relationship? Did you like the books?
I almost threw the fourth book away when Bella got pregnant. I didn’t understand why that had to happen and I didn’t like it. Anyway I will chime in with more comments later. I have many thoughts. :)
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Hey, Koala Heidi!
ReplyDeleteThought-provoking post. I've only read the first book, and that was a couple of years ago, at the insistence of my then pre-teen daughter.
I found similar elements as you appealing: the intensity of first love, the feeling of a misfit belonging, of being a part of someone else. I thought it very smart of the author (not coincidentally a Mormon woman) to create the analogy of the ultimate sacrifice of love: the denial of selfish needs and pleasures. I liked how Edward was tortuously tempted by Bella's blood but had pledged never to bite her. (I even applauded, at the time, the underlying message of sexual abstinence, seeing that my daughter was only in 6th grade!)
I tried to get into the second book but could not. I understand that the author wanted to explore the "bad boy" theme. Since then, my daughter (now in 8th grade), has long ago read all the books in the series and recognized them for being certainly compelling but not the best-written or plotted novels of their kind. Her enthusiasm has somewhat diminished (although I'm sure it will be renewed somewhat with the movie opening in a week or so).
Not having read the 2nd book, I'm not sure if Jacob represents good or evil.
As far as Bella getting pregnant at the age of 18, without knowing any of the circumstances, I can say that I find most unsettling the whole culture of girls feeling its socially acceptable to become such young mothers (when most of them are not at all ready).
With all the young celebrities popping out infants as if they were items acquired on a shopping trip or else proof of how strong a hold they have on their man, there are going to be a lot of unwanted and messed-up children this next generation.
I don't know if Bella belongs in this group or not. I would love to hear more of your many thoughts on this series of books and its effect on the generation which has read them.
Oops -- need to stop typing so fast and go back and edit.
ReplyDeleteIt's socially acceptable... NOT its socially acceptable.
So, Twilight. I avoided it like the plague until my then co-worker, a 60year-old, English teacher of 30 years, slid the first book across the table, instructing me, "You have to read this." When she tells you to do something, you do it. To make it even more inevitable, to celebrate the closing of the business, that night, my 60 year-old English teacher friend decided to take me to the movie. Needless to say, with my OCD tendency to need to know a topic thoroughly before I can toss it out the window, I started reading the damn series.
ReplyDeleteWith each page, the very questions you posit, Heid, I considered. At 28, I was able to distinguish between healthy love and co-dependent, intoxicating, teenage lust/love. I worried about girls falling head-over-heels for this mysterious, kinda jerky, then kinda dreamy guy. I actually was drawn more to Jake than Edward, so I LOVED New Moon. The Jake/Bella dynamic balanced out Edward/Bella and is the relationship I wish had been idolized.
Let me think some more about this series...
Marianna,
ReplyDeleteI whole heartedly agree with you about the teenage mother at 18 scenario. What was more disturbing is that Bella was not even really a "mother" to the child. The entire clan of Vampires pretty much took over the care of the child, while Bella and Edward celebrated their love and her new identity. I think it was important to them that they did so, but you are right, it made Renesmee a disposable accessory.
Leen - Bookwise I too was drawn to Jake! 6'8 and is WARM! Sign me up! LOL. I loved the idea of the imprinting, but imprinting on children was bizarre to me. Movie-wise I have to say Edward is way hotter. Robert Pattinson could lurk my way at any point in time.
For me book 1 was very typical of a teenage romance type book. I really enjoyed it. It was the later books with the unhealthy twists and then the pregnancy that did me in.
I just wonder if young girls feel that letting a guy they are crushing on become their entire world and reason for being, is ok?
:)
Hey Heidi,
ReplyDeleteSadly, children may indeed have become a disposable accessory to so many these days -- led by the followers of the cult of "manufactured celebrity". I'm talking about the attention given to the Octomoms and the Jon plus Kates and to all those B list celebs under 25 who are popping out kids as a way to get themselves into the pop tabloid media headlines and to justify their parasitic and wastrel existence.
And as for your last comment, about young girls letting a guy become their entire world: you are quite right; gender inequality still reigns in the pop media culture. Young women are too often relegated to second-class citizenship.