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Twilight tries to make absteince 'cool'
After all the fuss about Twilight I finally decided to read it. Originally, I pushed it off as nothing more than a fad book, that is mediocre at best, my expectations were not quashed as I read through this book.
Myers had other motives for this book, obviously and her Christian faith had a strong influence on the behavior of her characters.
The basic plot of the story is, Bella, a 17 year old girl, falls "in love" (more like becomes infatuated with) Edward Cullen a 104 year-old vampire. Edward in turn, falls for Bella too (can you say super-pedophile?) . It is because her blood smells so good to him, but he chooses to abstain from drinking blood. This all seems to be a metaphor for abstinence, Myers is obviously pleading with teens to abstain from their 'instincts' to have sex, no matter how strong they seem. Edward speaks of a time when he rebelled, and killed murderers.
"But as time went on, I began to see the monster in my eyes. I couldn't escape the debt of
so much human life taken, no matter how justified." This is an obvious metaphor for teen rebellion.
Bella's relationship with Edward bothered me a lot. Firstly, Bella nearly instantly falls in love with Edward after only dating him merely for a few days.
Secondly, she drops everything in her life for this new romance. This is were I become concerned, my sister loves these books,and she has stopped talking to me because her boyfriend "Is the most important thing to her right now.
"You are my life. You're the only thing it would hurt me to lose." -Bella
Why is Myer's teaching teens that a high school romance, above all else should be the number one important thing in life?
Creepily, Edward confesses that he had been sneaking into Bella's room and watching her in her sleep. She finds nothing wrong with this, and instead asks if he heard her talk in her sleep. Why isn't she finding this weird?
Edward can't kiss Bella the way she wants because he might lose control and go into a vampire frenzy and drain all of her blood. So, Bella must deny her own sexual desires.
I only partly read the second book, where Bella actually jumps off a cliff in order to hear Edward's voice, and nearly dies because Edward abandoned her in order to keep her safe. He changes his mind in the end of the book. The entire book also is a sort of bad rip-off of Romeo and Juliet, only no one dies and no sex. (Well until the last book,but its really bad.)
Edward is overly-controlling of Bella, she isn't allowed to really make choices of her own at all. She wants to see her best friend Jake, but Edward removes her truck's engine so she can't. This sounds a little more than just being 'protective'. He says this is because Jake is a werewolf and dangerous, but he is much better to Bella than Edward.
The last book is by far the worst ever.
"I stared at my naked body in the full-length mirror behind the door.
I'd definitely had worse. There was a faint shadow across one of my cheekbones,
and my lips were a little swollen, but other than that, my face was fine. The rest of
me was decorated with patches of blue and purple. I concentrated on the bruises
that would be the hardest to hide-my arms and my shoulders. They weren't so
bad. My skin marked up easily. By the time a bruise showed I'd usually forgotten
how I'd come by it." - Bella describing herself after having sex for the first time with Edward.
For some reason, she isn't angered, or sad that Edward beat the shit out of her, she's blissful, and happy.
Bella also is afraid to leave her father when they get married because he can't cook. Right... he some how fed himself before she got there, but she has to cook and clean for him because that's what good girls do,right?
These books are such garbage, I have no idea why any adults would like them besides the obvious fact that they are selling absence to teens, but they are still misinforming teen girls about how a relationship should be.
Myers had other motives for this book, obviously and her Christian faith had a strong influence on the behavior of her characters.
The basic plot of the story is, Bella, a 17 year old girl, falls "in love" (more like becomes infatuated with) Edward Cullen a 104 year-old vampire. Edward in turn, falls for Bella too (can you say super-pedophile?) . It is because her blood smells so good to him, but he chooses to abstain from drinking blood. This all seems to be a metaphor for abstinence, Myers is obviously pleading with teens to abstain from their 'instincts' to have sex, no matter how strong they seem. Edward speaks of a time when he rebelled, and killed murderers.
"But as time went on, I began to see the monster in my eyes. I couldn't escape the debt of
so much human life taken, no matter how justified." This is an obvious metaphor for teen rebellion.
Bella's relationship with Edward bothered me a lot. Firstly, Bella nearly instantly falls in love with Edward after only dating him merely for a few days.
Secondly, she drops everything in her life for this new romance. This is were I become concerned, my sister loves these books,and she has stopped talking to me because her boyfriend "Is the most important thing to her right now.
"You are my life. You're the only thing it would hurt me to lose." -Bella
Why is Myer's teaching teens that a high school romance, above all else should be the number one important thing in life?
Creepily, Edward confesses that he had been sneaking into Bella's room and watching her in her sleep. She finds nothing wrong with this, and instead asks if he heard her talk in her sleep. Why isn't she finding this weird?
Edward can't kiss Bella the way she wants because he might lose control and go into a vampire frenzy and drain all of her blood. So, Bella must deny her own sexual desires.
I only partly read the second book, where Bella actually jumps off a cliff in order to hear Edward's voice, and nearly dies because Edward abandoned her in order to keep her safe. He changes his mind in the end of the book. The entire book also is a sort of bad rip-off of Romeo and Juliet, only no one dies and no sex. (Well until the last book,but its really bad.)
Edward is overly-controlling of Bella, she isn't allowed to really make choices of her own at all. She wants to see her best friend Jake, but Edward removes her truck's engine so she can't. This sounds a little more than just being 'protective'. He says this is because Jake is a werewolf and dangerous, but he is much better to Bella than Edward.
The last book is by far the worst ever.
"I stared at my naked body in the full-length mirror behind the door.
I'd definitely had worse. There was a faint shadow across one of my cheekbones,
and my lips were a little swollen, but other than that, my face was fine. The rest of
me was decorated with patches of blue and purple. I concentrated on the bruises
that would be the hardest to hide-my arms and my shoulders. They weren't so
bad. My skin marked up easily. By the time a bruise showed I'd usually forgotten
how I'd come by it." - Bella describing herself after having sex for the first time with Edward.
For some reason, she isn't angered, or sad that Edward beat the shit out of her, she's blissful, and happy.
Bella also is afraid to leave her father when they get married because he can't cook. Right... he some how fed himself before she got there, but she has to cook and clean for him because that's what good girls do,right?
These books are such garbage, I have no idea why any adults would like them besides the obvious fact that they are selling absence to teens, but they are still misinforming teen girls about how a relationship should be.
Comment
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Comment by Hekate Moon on October 17, 2009 at 8:10pm -
And twilight tries to make it seem like Bella is the impure one because she acts on her desire for Edward, but Edward doesn't (he's probably secretly gay). The mystical romance is probably because of Stephenie Myer's is Mormon, which shows why the book is so backwards and stupidly pointless. I mean, it was written by someone who's holy book was read out of a top hat.
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Comment by Johnny on October 16, 2009 at 9:37am -
haha wow... glad my gf didn't pick up on the underlying abstinence message.
That's terrible... wtf... now i finally realize what all this mystical "romantic" shit that she was talking about really turns into. It's like disney and their "christian" appeal with celebrities wearing purity rings and shit. Makes me sick. Society thinks its ok to paint the picture of the "purity" of a woman by having her wait till marriage while no one gives a shit if guys do. IT IS DISGUSTING. it is womanizing, backwards, and for lack of a more insulting word THEIST.
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Comment by Jason Spicer on October 15, 2009 at 5:13pm -
Crucifux. Get's right to the point.
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Comment by Jason Spicer on October 15, 2009 at 1:58pm
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Well, first off, I want to stress that I also think people should abstain from drinking human blood, particularly to the point of exsanguination. Speaking of people who promote the drinking of blood and the avoidance of sex, Christ also has a habit of watching people while they sleep. And go to the bathroom, and have sex, etc, etc. Total stalker. And Myers is obviously saying that a crush on Christ is the number one important thing in life.
As to Tolkien, he was a lifelong Catholic, whereas C. S. Lewis was a late-blooming Protestant. Yes, they hung out together, but only Christians seem to be able to find any allegory in LotR. Tolkien was fascinated by language, culture, Norse myth, and the idea of creating worlds. Sure, there's the resurrection of Gandalf, but let's face it, Christianity stole that idea from lots of other places, so who's to say where Tolkien stole it from?
For a very interesting examination of Lewis and Tolkien (though primarily Lewis) from an atheist's point of view, I recommend The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia.
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Comment by Brookelynne Smith on October 15, 2009 at 8:25am -
I had much the same impression of the Twilight series. I remember when they first started being read my sister was trying to tell me about "this amazing book I've been reading" we used to read the same kind of stuff generally but she told me her friends had been reading it and I thought it was some kind of teeny drama trash.
She plead with me, "No! It's about vampires!" I nodded my head and gestured with my hands for her to continue, because there are a lot of teeny drama novels with vampires and she needed to make a stronger case.
"This girl, she is in love with this boy, they go to school together, but he's a vampire! And she's about to meet his parents but she is not sure that they will like her and it's a great book!"
"So it's a slutty teen porn novel?"
"NO! They don't have sex because the tempation would be too much for Edward to handle and he would eat her.."
"Uh-huh, so it's a woe-is-me novel." (I worked at a bookstore for a few years)
We pretty much grew apart after that. She got babtized, joined the absitence club and doesn't speak to any of her heathen family much lately.
On a different note, I have been stalked before... and trying to actually read the book set off all kinds of panic triggers. Nothing is awesome about a guy trying to break into your window at night.
Thank you for posting your review, it was well worded and insightful in ways that a lot of people overlooked.
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Comment by Stephen Moore on October 15, 2009 at 12:34am -
I have mostly ignored the Twilight hooplah, and thought little of it other than it being pop-vampire for the teens. There are far better examples of contemporary stories in the vampire genre. True Blood, anyone? Granted, TB has a similar 'love at first sight' thing going on, but the underlying message of the story is better.
Reading your critique of Twilight, Kristin, I'm shocked. I hadn't actually realised it was that bad in the message it is attempting to promote. I'm also a little gobsmacked, and the more I think about it the angrier I become.
How can people actually promote these kinds of messages? Sometimes I really, really do hate what religion does to people.
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Comment by Hekate Moon on October 14, 2009 at 11:10pm
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and Bella is such a boring melodramatic plain Jane. Her character is nothing special. She really has nothing to offer.
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Comment by Madeline (Brigit) on October 14, 2009 at 9:48pm -
I also read them all out of curiosity. I hated both principal characters. The guy was an arrogant jerk, and had super, creepy/ stalkerish behavior. The girl was a simpering doormat. The whole no-kissing, no-sex drama reeked of fundietude- do they really have to make that much of a deal about the fact that they're not screwing?
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