ussusimiel wrote:
The Twilight series may have arrived too late for you. I have been told that the it holds such a fascination for young teenage women because of the unmistakably sexual overtones. The attractive vampiric/wolfish young male figures reflects a balance to the overly romantic idealised female version of sexuality. This is a good thing I am told as it may lead to a more realistic midrange version. Don't see it myself, but what would a cynical older male like myself know about such things
I doubt it--considering that I've never been interested in the so-called chick lit, and before my mid-to-late-teens classics phase, ranging from various Russian authors to Victor Hugo to Cervantes Saavedra, I mostly coveted authors like Lovecraft and Poe.
I can enjoy good romance as much as anyone--provided that it twists out into some extra dimension from the usual 'a pretty girl finds a handsome boy', or completely overthrows existing tropes. This is probably why The First/Pitchwife turned me into a puddle of pink mush: it's so
different, aside from the obvious fact that the characters' inner natures lead the way, rather than all attention revolving around Gossamer's pretty keister. Almost the same I could state about TC/LA; it's certainly much more interesting than something dragged out of a typical soap opera episode. Moreover, I've
never liked teen romance, not even at that crucial age, preferring to read about mature characters with some life experience.
Bella/Edward, now...the previous is interested in this sparkly-warkly piece of mythology-mangling merely because he's
so handsome (and/or smells good, don't recall exactly whether this was Bella or Edward's excuse). There's no intellectual connection or simple friendship, nothing beyond the shoddily depicted hankering for some horizontal humppa. Besides, Eddie floats far off from the shores of this 'wonderful, desirable model of a man' he's claimed to be; in truth he's jealous, possessive (for instance, at one point breaks Bella's car, so that she can't visit her friend...), drives Bella suicidal, among other idiotic things. Jacob Black seems like the only character that might've had some potential--but no, since he can't win Bella to his side in the end, he imprints himself with her infant daughter (ie. decides that Renesmee is his future mate. O_o). Incidentally, this is why the anti-fandom has named Jacob 'Pedowulf'. Indeed, in Breaking Dawn, the plot becomes such a huge, blinking incarnation of WTF that I kept bursting into involuntary fits of snerking over the sheer ludicrousness of it all.
I agree it's important to get kid poring over books. I've heard that in many countries reading has become a boulder-like yoke for most youngsters. TV and computer games don't expressly explain this phenomenon, though; it's more like the encouragement or the lack of it children receive from home.
Yet Twilight I wouldn't recommend to anyone; it reeks of plain bad writing and germinates grammar errors in every other paragraph. If asked, I could fairly fast produce a list of other YA/children's fantasy fiction with intelligent, vocabulary-enhancing content, although rather meager on the subject of sex/romance. XD I don't have children myself, but I read such novels every once in a while just to lighten up or enjoy the quirky humor of some authors (Jonathan Stroud's
Bartimaeus series being one of my present-time favorites).
As to Harry Potter, I acknowledge the richness of the world and the characters. What I personally can't take is the writing which is obviously for teenagers. I suppose what I don't understand is why so many adults enjoy them so much. I am instantly bored by the writing and the story.
Well, I have several friends of my own age who love the Potter series, and much of this has to do with the wealth of characters and humor. Any work containing such intentional jokes and punditry that make me repeatedly laugh so much that my cheeks ache receives a fair deal of appreciation from me. Suppose this again comes down to being best pals with my inner 12-year-old.
Yet I'm similarly baffled by the massive popularity of Twilight among 30-something women, so-called Twimoms, many of whom decide to name their kiddies after the main characters or even decorate their skins with tattoos of 'touching quotes'. Believe me; these do exist in ample amounts. I've often heard the phrase that HP fans will like Twilight, but none of my friends has done so; where HP brought actual tears into my eyes, Twilight merely induced incessant groaning, headdesking, and, well, what I mentioned above about unwittingly ridiculous passages. The same I could express about identifying with characters. The main trio of Twilight radiates such blatant marysueness that they don't feel like real people.
Nevertheless, regarding the simplicity of the language/storytelling in HP, I might understand why someone favoring more complex texts could be turned down by it.
On some level, I'm still glad that I suffered through the ordeal of reading those bloody tree-killers; elsewise, I would've missed slews of hilarious or insightful conversations, including this.
) then we'd have had the whole set.
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