I investigated/read ALL the books AND watched BOTH movies, and, my final answer is: NO. TWILIGHT is vapid, misogynistic and dilutes the very definition of "good literature", which means I’m baffled by all the fuss. Yes, I've read all three books AND watched both movies (and I'm here to say, I'd like my money back, on both accounts, please).
Isabella Swan is a disgrace of a ‘heroin’. I don’t think I’ve ever wished real harm on anyone in my life, BUT, her character is so shallow, so indescribably vapid that I agree with anyone who says that Bella was made to be a stand-in for the reader. Unlike good fantasy books, where you want to step into the characters, to become "Harry", or "Lyra", or "Frodo". Whereas, Bella is made to be you. The sad thing is, it’s not just Bella. None of the characters have any growth in the four books. Bella remains the selfish girl she was at the start, Jacob remains creepily infatuated with her, and later, her baby.
Edward remains controlling and condescending (and YES, gosh, we get that he’s hot, she only repeats this every other page).
THE CINDERELLA SYNDROME
The most infuriating thing about the series, however, is just how misogynistic it is. I will excuse Bella’s clumsiness (even though author, Stephenie Meyer, has tried to make this her only ‘flaw’, which of course makes the character unrealistic, really) but I refuse to excuse how Belle forces or finds herself in these situations EXPECTING Edward/Jacob/insert-hot-male-character-here to come to her rescue! Hasn't Ms. Meyer's heard about The Cinderella Syndrome? (EDITOR's INTRUSION: those FAIRYTALES where the maiden needs to be rescued by the Charming Prince, that don't relate to life, MAYBE because boys don't read and want to become the Prince in those stories, leaving the girls to grow up expecting to be rescued by ... Godot!)
In fact, most of Book Two is devoted to Bella recklessly putting herself in 'rescue me' situations (to see hallucinations of Edward, - I swear I’m not making this up) only to be saved by Jacob. Heck, there are several pages in Book Two which consists of blank pages, maybe to show us just how empty her life is without Edward.
Anyone who has ever been in love and had their heart broken would sympathize with Bella… if not for the fact that she’s only known Edward for a few weeks, is already ‘falling in love’ with Jacob, and has zero backbone of her own, which makes her not all that likable, in my estimation.
Bella is willing to give up her mortal soul for her man; give up her life, her family, her education… where’s the quid pro quo here?
The only thing she does "fight" for in the book is to become a vampire, which HELLO - "IRONY"! Frankly, it is disturbing how Bella allows herself to be controlled by Edward and his stalk-you-for-3-months-psychopathic tendencies in their flawed relationship.
THE DECLINING STANDARDS OF LITERATURE
This all brings me to a rather sad fact:
what was once good literature is now no more. Standards for what made a good book or series has now been lowered, thanks to publications like TWILIGHT, or ERAGON for that matter.
Twilight (and Eragon, another horribly written fantasy book) are books the younger generations hold up as paragons of good writing - they are best-sellers after all - unaware of the richer works by authors like David Eddings, Philip Pullman, JRR Tolkien, Anne Rice and many others.
Twilight took a popular and loved concept – unbidden love between an immortal vampire and mortal human- and used dreary pacing with more tell than show (how many times are we told Bella is smart, and how many times in the book does she actually exhibit said quality???) and tried to pass it all off as an ‘epic love story’. To add insult to injury, too many words in the book seem to be plucked out of the thesaurus without regard to their context, leaving proficient readers confused and annoyed. I’d also like to note that the series suffers from the Too-Famous Syndrome, that is, too famous to be edited. Like some portions of the Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings and Wheel of Time books, the editors of Twilight feared the wrath of omniscient fans and instead of killing one tree per book, the left enough words in to kill two.
Now, one can wax lyrical about how easy it is to despise these books, but hold on, why are people still nuts over them?
Simple. Twilight is a brainless read; Edward is hot, AND every male character in the book is salivating over "you" (and by "you", I mean Bella), "you" get to be a vampire (and live forever!), Edward is hot, "you" get to sparkle (omg!!), you have all these adventures, and oh, did I mention "Edward is hot"?
It’s simply too easy to insert yourself into this world, without caring about anything else. Don’t take my word for it; just ask anyone who is a fan. Their answers will probably hit on one of the points above. (Bonus points for them if they tell you "Edward is hot!!!")
With that said, I don’t think that all books need to be our moral compasses, nor do all characters need to be examples to follow. However, I do think that anything that gains such a momentum with people, especially with teenagers who dump their boyfriends because "he isn’t like Edward enough" (again, I am not making this up), deserves to be looked at more closely.
Discussions should ensue on the values which are being impressed upon young fans, so that even if you read the books, at least you think about what messages you're absorbing.
Books are meant to be fun thinking gears, so whether you’re using your Twilight book as a brick or a book, have fun. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to exchange my set for a new His Dark Materials box set.
COMMENT BELOW: Sounds like Kavidha just isn't feeling it. Bella isn't anyone she wants to be, and Edward not someone she wants to date! Do YOU agree? Log in and comment. Read more below...
For anyone interested, The TWILIGHT DIS FEST, click HERE
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