Twilight

[Foolish Catalyst]

There's a movie coming out soon.
Theres no way it'll be as good as the book.

I mean, I saw a photo of Edward in a hoodie!
It was navy too, not brown, or beige, or cream...
Now, I may not be much of an Edward fan, but thats just wrong.  

[Exo-Polition]

Twilight is an unreal book!!! i absolutly love it! completly obsessed! twisted i realy think people who like Romance, Fiction and a little bit of horror should read it 3nodding everyone i know who read it loved it so i dont know what freaked you out...read the whole series 8 times biggrin  

[Foolish Catalyst]

Exo-Polition

Twilight is an unreal book!!! i absolutly love it! completly obsessed! twisted i realy think people who like Romance, Fiction and a little bit of horror should read it 3nodding everyone i know who read it loved it so i dont know what freaked you out...read the whole series 8 times biggrin

Yeah, I'm betting you chose that hairstyle for your avi 'cause it reminded you of Alice...

People who like awesome cars should read it too... Lots of awesome cars. xD  

[Exo-Polition]

hee hee! yup.. well no i just liked the hairstyle....AWSOME CARS!!! yeahh i liked Jake in BD better than the other books...  

[Kahahana]

Guh. I once thought those books were good in the shock of just reading them, but a few weeks passed and I realized what was bothering me in the back of my mind- they suck. It's the abuse of Bella by Edward and the constant perfection of the vampires and the fact that we need to describe every detail of how Edward sparkles in the light and he's just SOOOOOOOOO perfect that I hate. He's not even attractive to me from what is described.  

[Minerva the Bookwyrm]

Have I posted in this thread before? I know I've ranted about Twilight on Gaia, but it might have been in a different guild...*checks thread*...I don't see anything by any of my avatars (unless I overlooked it) so I'll presume that I never posted here before and do so now:

Thanks, Kahahana, at least someone else didn't like Twilight. I only like romance as a subplot, not a main plot, because it's ridiculously annoying how obsessive the main character becomes about his/her love interest. What about friends, family, career? Oh, you don't care about any of that? Your entire reason for existing revolves around one other person? Pathetic.

Also, it didn't make any sense at all when Meyer randomly took her sappy-romance plot and tried to make into an action one. There had been no foreshadowing or previous mentionings of "hunter vampires" or of that particular character. Then, he just randomly shows up to abduct the heroine (I use that term loosely with Bella, by the way.) because the author was so obviously trying to give her book some excitement in a manner that was completely tactless.

Meyer feely admits that she doesn't know anything about classice vampyr legends, and that is very apparent in her work. They don't look more beautiful in the sunlight. They turn to ash or at least become weaker. Maybe some poeple consider her drifting from the original myhs "creative," however, by eliminating their classic weaknesses and not giving them new ones Meyer makes them supremely powerful, and therefore utterly boring.

The characters are all shallow and underdeveloped. Readers are expected to accept them at face value. The heroes are far too perfect. A good author has her characters develop over time; not be flawless from square one.

When I first read the book I merely disliked it. It possessed all of the bad qualities that I mentioned above, though it wasn't absolute torture to get through, hence I saw no reason to abhor it. However, I have come to despise Twilight due to the hype surrounding it. It is not a good book and doesn't deserve all of the attention that it receives. Other books that are far superior might be best-sellers, but they aren't as well-known. (Examples: Bartimaeus trilogy, Artemis Fowl, Guardians of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, Liveship Traders, The Adept, Death Gate Cycle...I could go on.) I know why Twilight is so popular; it takes no intelligence to read it. The plot and characters are completely straight-forward and the vocabulary is simple. it's an easy read filled with romance, and because of this it appeals to many teenagers.

I'm not saying this to offend any fans of the book; I'm simply presenting my honest opinion, which I understand is different from most people's. If you choose to be offended I cannot stop you, but that wasn't my intention.  

[Kahahana]

Minerva the Bookwyrm

Have I posted in this thread before? I know I've ranted about Twilight on Gaia, but it might have been in a different guild...*checks thread*...I don't see anything by any of my avatars (unless I overlooked it) so I'll presume that I never posted here before and do so now:

Thanks, Kahahana, at least someone else didn't like Twilight. I only like romance as a subplot, not a main plot, because it's ridiculously annoying how obsessive the main character becomes about his/her love interest. What about friends, family, career? Oh, you don't care about any of that? Your entire reason for existing revolves around one other person? Pathetic.

Also, it didn't make any sense at all when Meyer randomly took her sappy-romance plot and tried to make into an action one. There had been no foreshadowing or previous mentionings of "hunter vampires" or of that particular character. Then, he just randomly shows up to abduct the heroine (I use that term loosely with Bella, by the way.) because the author was so obviously trying to give her book some excitement in a manner that was completely tactless.

Meyer feely admits that she doesn't know anything about classice vampyr legends, and that is very apparent in her work. They don't look more beautiful in the sunlight. They turn to ash or at least become weaker. Maybe some poeple consider her drifting from the original myhs "creative," however, by eliminating their classic weaknesses and not giving them new ones Meyer makes them supremely powerful, and therefore utterly boring.

The characters are all shallow and underdeveloped. Readers are expected to accept them at face value. The heroes are far too perfect. A good author has her characters develop over time; not be flawless from square one.

When I first read the book I merely disliked it. It possessed all of the bad qualities that I mentioned above, though it wasn't absolute torture to get through, hence I saw no reason to abhor it. However, I have come to despise Twilight due to the hype surrounding it. It is not a good book and doesn't deserve all of the attention that it receives. Other books that are far superior might be best-sellers, but they aren't as well-known. (Examples: Bartimaeus trilogy, Artemis Fowl, Guardians of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, Liveship Traders, The Adept, Death Gate Cycle...I could go on.) I know why Twilight is so popular; it takes no intelligence to read it. The plot and characters are completely straight-forward and the vocabulary is simple. it's an easy read filled with romance, and because of this it appeals to many teenagers.

I'm not saying this to offend any fans of the book; I'm simply presenting my honest opinion, which I understand is different from most people's. If you choose to be offended I cannot stop you, but that wasn't my intention.

You deserve a high-5 for that wall of text.  

[NightIntent]

Minerva: Actually, there are quite a few of us Twilight-haters here. XD For most of the same reasons that you listed.

And I agree, I didn't hate it much until everyone was all like, "THIS IS SUCH A GOOD BOOK!" when it really isn't. I rather dislike Harry Potter for that reason, too. It's a good enough book, but not worth that much attention. There are so many better books by better authors (who actually do the research on what they're writing about) that don't get an ounce of the attention that Twilight gets. It's highly annoying.  

[violeteyes77]

At school, everyone was saying the Twilight series was the best series they've ever read. Well, my friends aren't exactly literate (some don't own a single book) so I didn't get the first one until I found out it was going to be a movie. I can't watch a movie before reading the book first, so I of course read the first one. I was a mindless zombie for them until I had to wait for the fourth one. I contemplated it for a while and realized it was a truly horrible book and Stephenie Meyer doesn't know how to write a novel at all. Like Minerva said, the characters are shallow and too perfect. I REALLY hate how she took every single weakness away from them and added MORE perfections! That's just a stupid move for ANY writer, for to be a good writer you must be morbid and give your characters flaws that come from past experiences and effect the future! I also really hate how in the last book Bella didn't even have difficulties with her daughter when she was a vampire! There should be a struggle to hold on to some type of humanity there instead of taking the easy way out by giving her a "thick skull".

Well, enough of my nonsense-ramble. I know a lot of people loved it, but I'm not impressed and will never read a single book by her again. She has no sense of vocabulary... No wonder over 75% of my school is in love with the books.  

[Merriara]

....I really liked the twilight series and I am very literate. *offended* but then again, I guess it's just your own choice if you like it or not. I did like Jake a little more than Edward, but I like it just the way it is.  

[Nimue_of_Avalon]

Interesting. It seems that most people either love or hate these books and I've heard so much about them I guess I'm going to have to get one and try it. I can't stand seeing a movie without reading the book first since the movies normally pale in comparison. biggrin  

[The Ghoul In Pajamas]

Must resist the urge to .. shoot .. self in the head.. *takes a deep breath*

Oh gods, this demonic, terrible book is following me EVRYWHERE!!! I can't stand it anymore. I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS.

This is the worst book ever written. Notice I didn't say "This is my least favourite book ever." Because the absolute truth of it is: This Is The Worst Book Ever Written.

Now, don't take offence to this very direct and blunt statement. I can very easily explain every single reason these books are as awful as I claim. With direct quotes and situations from The Books Themselves, Nifty Diagrams and Substantiation from Leading Thinking Persons.  

[NightIntent]

The Ghoul In Pajamas

Now, don't take offence to this very direct and blunt statement. I can very easily explain every single reason these books are as awful as I claim. With direct quotes and situations from The Books Themselves, Nifty Diagrams and Substantiation from Leading Thinking Persons.

Please do. I'd like to see the reasons. n.n  

[The Ghoul In Pajamas]

Alright then. Teehee.

1. First point of discussion. The books are very poorly written.

The books do not have an original storyline, there is nothing extraordinary about the plot, and in fact, many argue that the books indeed have no plot. The first book is about a girl starting a relationship with a vampire, another vampire comes along and threatens them but it is all dealt with quickly and they go home without going through any character development or significant changes.
Plot is mutually linked with conflict, and overcoming conflict in a way that allows characters to go through an arc. The conflict of Bella and Edward is resolved in a flash, he glares at her a few times, he becomes her bff, she finds out he is a vampire, is instantly fine with this, James comes, growls, and is then killed. This also happens in the last 100 pages of a 400+ page novel.

Meyer “takes inspiration (*cough*rips of*cough*) several classical novels/plays etc. Twilight was Pride and Prejudice. New Moon was Romeo and Juliet. Eclipse was Wurthering Heights. Breaking Dawn was Merchant of Venice/Midsummer Nights Dream. Basically, Smeyer steals ideas from classic stories in place of actually having to do any work.

SMeyer has also stated that she didn’t write the book with an intentional theme or message. Therefore, the book has no artistic value, and was written simply to satisfy her own sexual fantasies, she had nothing to say to the world by writing this book, or at least, not consciously. More on this later.

The writing itself, of course, for the most part is subjective. However, the books are filled with literary cliches, purple prose and poor grammar.


Just check out this woman fixing grammar, pointing out stupid logic etc, she isn’t an editor, she is an artist. Also, the summary is just loltastic in on itself.

More support by other people, a Reader's Digest article "What Agents Hate"

Now, this will not exactly prove that she is a bad writer, but will show that she has a highly amateur writing style, and uses techniques that normally would not be accepted by agents.

Quote:

"I dislike endless 'laundry list' character descriptions. For example: 'She had eyes the color of a summer sky and long blonde hair that fell in ringlets past her shoulders...blab, blah.' Who cares! Work it into the story."

Quote:

"I don't like descriptions of the characters where writers make them too perfect. Heroines (and heroes) who are described physically as being virtually unflawed come across as unrelatable and boring. No 'flowing, wind-swept golden locks'; no 'eyes as blue as the sky'; no 'willowy, perfect figures.'"

This is a direct quote of Bella first seeing the Cullens:

“Of the three boys, one was big – muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. Another was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blond. The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy, bronze-coloured hair. He was more boyish than the other, who looked like they could be in college, or even teachers here rather than students.
The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just be being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixielike, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction.”

“.. I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful – maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-haired boy.”

Also, the word perfect is used to describe Edward over fifty times, the word beautiful? Also over fifty times. Altogether, Edward’s beautiful appearance is mentioned a total 165 times. Other favourite adjectives are glorious, heavenly, seraphic. Every single aspect of Edward is described as beautiful, his face, eyes, voice, movement, smile, teeth, breath, scent, handwriting etc.

This brings me to my next point.

2. All the characters are flat, two dimensional, cardboard cutouts.

Aka Mary-sues and Gary-stus. At least, Bella and the Cullens are. And the humans in the story are just ugly, boring people with no personalities that Bella would rather kill than talk to.

Bella is instantly adored by all her peers, she already knows all the school work, is asked out/lusted over by FIVE guys. She is also the most special person, being impervious to Super Powers possessed by some vampires. Her only flaw is her over-the-top clumsiness. Which, any Mary-sue dictionary will tell you is NOT a flaw at all.

As well as all the Cullens being perfectly gorgeous, they also have no characters. They are said to have defining qualities, like Edwards love of music etc. But he never talks about it in other conversation, never acts like he knows trivia or tidbits, his love of music is only ever used as plot devices. Same as Bella. She loves Jane Austen so much, yet only reads her books once, she doesn’t even remember the characters names (again: device for her to bring up Edward)

Bella lusts Edward because he is hot, he lusts her because she smells good and he can’t hear her thoughts. They aren’t in love. Their relationship is entirely shallow, and has nothing to do with compatible personalities or admiration of personal qualities.

Speaking of their relationship brings me to my next point.

3. Edward is an Abusive Boyfriend. The portrayal of their relationship is unhealthy and disturbing.

For months, Edward followed Bella home, broke into her room and watched her sleep. He also followed her around Port Angelus in his car and watched Bella arrive at school through the bushes. (Some of these only became apparent in Midnight Sun). Yes, this is most certainly stalking.

He also takes apart Bella’s car engine and has her kidnapped so that he can keep tabs on her while he is gone. (Seen in Eclipse)

Edward lies to and keeps secrets from Bella. He isn’t open with her, yet expects her to bear her soul to him. (How are you supposed to be close with someone if you don’t talk about uncertainties, aspects that could have drastic effects on the relationship) He also controls every intimate act that they share. Not allowing her to kiss him, he always has to kiss her, withholding sexual intercourse from her (“for her safety”) but then manipulates her into marrying him so that she can finally share sex with him, despite the fact that she will still be human. Every time she tries to take hold of the relationship and initiate intimacy he belittles and insults her.

His has control over her, they do not have equal authority in the relationship. She is always compromising herself to please him, rather than being herself and hope he likes her anyway. He takes, takes and takes from Bella. She gives up all other social contact to spend every waking minute with Edward.

The books are glorifying unhealthy, abusive relationships in which men dominate over weak willed women.

Which, again, brings me to my next point.

4. The women in the books are all weak willed and overly dependant on protective men. The books are very sexist and misogynistic.

Bella is always in need of being saved by Edward/ *insert other man here*. Examples – almost being attacked/raped at Port Angelus, walking right into James trap. She needs saving by Jacob in New Moon, first because Edward leaves, later because she falls for Victoria’s trap. She needs saving again in Eclipse, again, from Victoria and her legion of New-borns make JUST TO KILL HER.

Bella gives up dreams, aspirations in order to be with a man. Ie; Bella gives up College and the prospect of furthering herself academically and for the chance of being highly qualified because of Edward.

All women are shown as superficial and obsessed with material things such as looks and clothes.

They are also all obsessed with being with a man to complete them, and preferably having children. Esme longs for children so much that she basically commits suicide because she loses hers, Rosalie is the pinnacle of baby obsession. Bella goes through with a pregnancy despite the fact her child poses a grave threat to her very life. The books are in this respect promoting the ridiculously outdated beliefs of Pro-life (aka the rights of the child before the rights of the mother) and even promoting teenage pregnancy. (I’m Pro-choice, and have nothing against a woman going through with an unwanted pregnancy, and I realise that many women would feel the need to protect a child) However, Bella not once shows any motherly instints, she is very selfish and never mentions wanting a child before she becomes pregnant. And, as her pregnancy lasted a few weeks, she had no time to do a 180 about how she felt about babies and thereofere putting the baby above herself.

Speaking of babies as the greatest, most important thing to ever happen to women. Female Vampires can’t have them. Female vampires are infertile, because their bodies “can’t change/ are frozen” and yet male vampires can have as many children as they want with mortals. Despite the fact that men have to change to .. you know .. get it up. Female werewolves are also infertile, can’t have babies and therefore can’t imprint. Aka – find their true love. Female werewolves are instant spinsters/crazy cat ladies.

Speaking of imprinting – Two characters in the books imprinted on INFANTS. How many ways can you spell *****?

The books promote the idea of a woman “barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen” as the ultimate way to live your life, the dream of every young girl; to leave high school, get married and get knocked up.

Also, many of the female characters endure all kinds of abuse from boyfriends, because the male "loves" her. Emily is even physically abused when Sam attacks her, leaving her face horribly scarred forever. Edward and Jacob are both emotionally manipulative in order to get Bella to do what they want, and Bella is AWARE of this, yet does nothing.

The constant theme in the book is that women are stupid, weak objects that should be treated as such. Not a good message at all to send to readers as young as 12, who are very impressionable. Can you imagine what messages like these will do to the next generation? A hundred years of Feminist activism and fighting for women’s rights has been thrown down the pooper if all young girls are going to be brought up thinking that they should be just like Bella.

THAT is why I hate the books. Add in some long winded comments about the complete absence of logic and horrid disregard for traditional vampire lore. Which I won't do actualy, I've already written about 5 pages.. Instead, another link for your perusal . Infact, just read the entirety of that thread, they say everything I feel, only better.

So yes. That is why Twilight is the worst book series ever written. They are sexist, glorify abusive, controlling relationships, are poorly written and the characters are all retarded. It's mainly the sexist and misogynistic themes that get me though. And the fact that the fans defend SMeyer for being sexist, claiming she's allowed to because they are "just books" and that she writes about hot guys.

You read the whole post, you get a cookie.
Also, my apologies for including no diagram. Let prancing Squidward found in the first link be enough to numb the pain of my broken promises.  

[Flitterbye]

I borrowed, read, and enjoyed the first two books in a couple of weeks. When I got to the third book I admit I was slightly annoyed with the plot already, but I chose to borrow it from the same friend anyways. I got about a third into the book and decided this really isn't worth my time. The relationship between Bella and Edward annoys me. It doesn't bother me that he is to perfect. However the fact that he won't even let her go see Jake pisses me off. So he claims that he just wants to protect her. I just never really saw it as very caring and more controlling than anything else. I figured since so far the series had been mostly about their relationship there was no point in reading the rest.