Is Twilight Bad?

Ninva

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People love to complain about Twilight. Aspiring writers shun it thinking they're being unique and original, when in fact, they're just jumping on another bandwagon. The author of Twilight used a wonderful writing ploy. It is a novel series about a girl without a lot of distinct characteristics, so anyone can imagine themselves as Bella as she meets a perfect guy in a perfect world. This artless tale may have been inspired by none-other than Treasure Island. Surprised? You shouldn't be!

Treasure Island is a pirate adventure where a young boy meets fantastic characters. He is also very bland, so the boy/girl reading this book can put themselves into Jim's shoes. The famous character Harry Potter also started out in the first book as both a vehicle and a growing character. This twist gave the reader passage into a magical world with a very entertaining and meaningful plot with enriched themes that everyone can benefit from. This is what I believe made the book series very successful. Also, J.K. Rowling is a eloquent writer!

What makes Twilight bad is the tackiness and the unrealistic presentation of both characters and environment. The author totally disregarded many elements in the story, and she single-handedly reforms the vampire lore with her books. This setback is also her hook to readers who yearn for an escape or hope in a stormy future.

I believe Twilight could possibly be our novel of the decade, which I hope you disagree with. It inflects our thoughts and ideals within these troubling times of global terrorism, world hunger, war, and political and economical change. Scholars may say that the reason Twilight became so popular is because we wanted it to. We wanted someplace where there is no person to say no; you can't make your vampires sparkly or eat vegetables. Our fear and doubt and worry made the nonsensical amusing and meaningful. Therefore, if there's ever an official vote on novel series of the decade, vote Harry Potter. I don't want my society's historical male figure to be represented by Edward Cullen. Ron Weasley makes a better post-modern Romeo. Amen.
 

Jimpy

The Invisible Observer
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Treasure Island is a pirate adventure where a young boy meets fantastic characters. He is also very bland, so the boy/girl reading this book can put themselves into Jim's shoes.

Its even easier if your names Jim Hawkins and you think its a book written about you.

J.K. Rowling is *an eloquent writer!

:cool:

I don't want my society's historical male figure to be represented by Edward Cullen. Ron Weasley makes a better post-modern Romeo. Amen.

Amen.
 

Krys A Night

Writer
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It is a novel series about a girl without a lot of distinct characteristics, so anyone can imagine themselves as Bella as she meets a perfect guy in a perfect world.

Bella, though she is a distinct character, is only distinct because she falls under the characteristics of a Mary-Sue. A character who is perfect in many ways, and her flaws are too simplistic.

What makes Twilight bad is the tackiness and the unrealistic presentation of both characters and environment. The author totally disregarded many elements in the story, and she single-handedly reforms the vampire lore with her books. This setback is also her hook to readers who yearn for an escape or hope in a stormy future.

I believe that the main reason why her books took off the way that they did is because Stephanie Meyer as an author took the easiest route to writing a novel. If you look closely at the plot line of the book, you see that it is actually a series of cliches of high school strung together.

New girl moves to town and doesn't fit into what is generally thought of with people who come from her home town, she is instantly popular with the other students and has a few boys crushing on her, she leaves this all behind when she falls in love with one of the most popular boys in school who just happens to have a deep, dark secret and so on.

From a literary stand-point, the novel really has very little meat to it. Everything is laid out in such a straight forward manner that it doesn't take much thinking to get to the main plot line because it is pretty much just shoved down your throat, more telling than showing.

I don't want my society's historical male figure to be represented by Edward Cullen. Ron Weasley makes a better post-modern Romeo. Amen.

I couldn't agree more.
 

Ninva

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I think you're restating what I just wrote, Krys. I thought you were going to challenge me with some witty information, knowing your interest in literature. I just want to point out that I wrote "without a lot of distinct characteristics."

But I agree with you, Krys. We can hate Twilight together. :thup:
 

Monsterous

In the Shadows, Lurking.
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I have no interest in reading Twilight, or even watching it, but from knowing the plot, i dislike it. Fuel from other sources flaming it has put me off it as well. Of course i cant praise it, or criticise it from my standpoint.
In my school, nearly EVERY female has read the book and loved it, whilst nearly no males have read it. It puzzles me so ._.

But yes, vote for Harry Potter if you must, rather than Twilight.
 

Ninva

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In my school, nearly EVERY female has read the book and loved it, whilst nearly no males have read it. It puzzles me so ._.

I remember at a book store, I was standing in line while a preteen rambled on about Twilight to her mother. I was holding a copy of First Love by Ivan Turgenev, which I concealed with my version of a late Leo Tolstoy story. As I stood uncomfortably with my liberal Russian novel, I had to chuckle to myself with this girl's outspoken behavior. Her mom then told her daughter that she has major issues. This only encouraged me to smirk as I brought my books to the check out desk. The girl then exclaimed that she was random, which she proved by spontaneously rating all the men on every book cover she saw. Thankfully, she didn't see my book First Love, which included two characters painted in a romantic style. She'd probably loudly rate the man on the cover with a score of 3 for his pale skin and plump face and fingers.
 

Zakyath

Member
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it came as a chock to me that my step brother, my age, reads twillight. I asked "why the hell are you reading twillight?"
"it's good =)"
I figured I really had nothing to say, since I actually haven't read it. I reckon most haters don't know much about it at all. It's just popular to criticize it, so people do.

Then again; who can blame someone for not appreciating the real art of writing? Twilight is entertainment, not art. That's probably the biggest reason writers dislike it. It's so simple and bad in their eyes they feel hate for it.

I dislike bands that focus more on entertaining than the art within music - is it because I feel that I deserve the attention more? May just be. I think it might just be the same with writing.
 

ElderKingpin

Post in the anime section, or die.
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I remember at a book store, I was standing in line while a preteen rambled on about Twilight to her mother. I was holding a copy of First Love by Ivan Turgenev, which I concealed with my version of a late Leo Tolstoy story. As I stood uncomfortably with my liberal Russian novel, I had to chuckle to myself with this girl's outspoken behavior. Her mom then told her daughter that she has major issues. This only encouraged me to smirk as I brought my books to the check out desk. The girl then exclaimed that she was random, which she proved by spontaneously rating all the men on every book cover she saw. Thankfully, she didn't see my book First Love, which included two characters painted in a romantic style. She'd probably loudly rate the man on the cover with a score of 3 for his pale skin and plump face and fingers.

Oh. i loved Leo Tolstoy stories. They hold a lot of moral truths
--
I have never read the books (i doubt they are any good) but since a lot of teenagers like the movie, that just gives me more reason to NOT like the book (even though i have not read it).

There is nothing wrong with a person's opinion. I just do not like how people are giving it more then it really deserves.

A book shouldnt be good only because it was made into a big selling movie.
There are old classic books where i hold respect for the authors, and there are even more recent books that i think are written well that i dont hear people talking about it. Who decided that Twilight was a good book series? Why is it so big? I have no idea
 

DogOfHavoc

Future Tragedy
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People need to stop bashing Twilight. Sure, it's purely written and chockful of cliches, but no one is trying to contend that it's literature. It's pop entertainment for teenage girls, and there's nothing wrong with that. From what I've gathered, Stephanie Meyer is a very poor writer. Who cares? Her books are popular, better yet, they are encouraging kids to read, which is rare these days.

Am I fan of Twilight? Hell no. Do I hate it? No.
 

DM Cross

You want to see a magic trick?
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When Twilight first started becoming popular this past year, I picked up the first book in hopes to enjoy another Vampire novel... I tend to collect them, new and old. Even when there really is NO vampire in the story [Dammit Warhammer Vampire Wars crap -.-]

I picked up the book and opened it. 30 minutes later, after having read the first 4 or 5 pages a couple of times over and over again, I put the book down and realized that the book was not written in a way that I could enjoy it. When the movies came out, I had heard very little of the story past it was a "teenage love novel with Vampires". That didn't encourage me, but I planned to see it with Danny, who had taken up reading the series.

Upon seeing the movie, I came away with many different thoughts... I was confused and unsure of what I really thought. There were things that I definitely did not like and things that I thought were interesting.

I liked Meyers idea to use the setting to hide the Vampires. I vaguely wondered if the traditional "sunlight turns me to ashes" style Vampire could survive in a town like that and it gave me the idea of a story where most of the state was actually of the Vampiric variety. I haven't developed this idea, however. Kind of a flash in the pan idea.

I definitely did not like the fact that the Vampires sparkled in the sunlight. For one, they were being displayed as monsters in their own eyes, blood thirsty and hard to control, yet they were made to look delicate and/or beautiful. I always considered Vampires beautiful when in the night, their element and hideous or monsterous in the sunlight, as it "reveals their true nature". Even traditional "ashes in sunlight" vampires fall into this idea.

I wasn't comfortable as Bella being the heroine. As a matter of fact, she wasn't a heroine. She was merely the most important female character. She was too sheepish, too... Strange. I can't say I've ever met a person with a personality like Bella's, and I've met many strange, unique people. She just... She didn't seem "real" to me. It was too false, too fictional. That turned me off from her.

Then, something changed. I saw New Moon and my opinion of the series has definitely changed somewhat. Meyers did not do Vampires very well on her first try, but I believe her ideas for the Werewolf were really very good. I know some people are not crazy about the giant wolf idea, but it's original and believe it or not, it's not corny or unbelievable.

The idea behind the werewolves being anger-based was also interesting to me. I found the werewolf pack to have much more personality than most of the other characters we had been introduced to up to that point. Jacob, who showed promise in Twilight, came closer to his full potential in New Moon, as we saw more and more of him.

This, however, was partially an issue with me. Why the Hell was it necessary for the Werewolves to constantly be barely clothed? Were the production companies really so desparate for ratings and ticket sales that they sold out for screaming young girls to see shirtless young men for 2 hours? Was this truly necessary? I believe not. Why didn't we let the content of the story capture our attention instead?

Possibly because the story was really almost non-existant. The entire movie was mostly "Bella got dumped and can't get over it" and the consequences of her attempts to cope, from manipulating Jacob to thrill-seeking. From my understanding, Victoria was supposed to be a bigger part of this book and aside from a glimpse throughout the entire movie... Nothing.

No. I did not appreciate this lack of ... Anything.
 

ElderKingpin

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the vampires "sparkled" in the sunlight? ... any reason why?

---

A movie is just supposed to bring the book into the real world. I wonder if the writer of Twilight: New Moon had the werewolves barely clothed.
And Robert Pattinson looks constantly sick, or something. He just looks unhealthy to me for some reason ._.

---

" Twilight was initially rejected by 14 agents"
 

ReVolver

Mega Super Ultra Cool Member
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Its a good thing not many people read that book in Mexico, even if they did translate it... nobody understands it, must be an English thing...
 

Razalgrim

New Member
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I have five of Stephen King's books and find them to be the some of the best stories I have ever read. When he bashed Stephanie Meyer for her utter lack of talent for writing, it would have been more then enough reason for me to despise the Twilight series. But even before I read of that controversy, I was already avoiding her books like the Black Plague... having learned, unfortunately, from first-hand experience. I'm not a hater just to follow the trend. It's just... her books are so hate-able for anyone who has ever read even a decent book. Bella's flat as hell, Edward glimmers under sunlight, werewolves that always wear skimpy clothing... God. It's like a degeneration of literature to those "Oh John, oh Marsha" Victorians of the old days.

Another point would be that many of those girls I know of that love Twilight can be mistaken for severe ADHD victims. Pardon if that last statement offended someone, but really. They're the kind that act like the generic chic high school students in all those teen-age flicks.

And for the love of God, you trudge through a four-book series with one long, drawling plot just to read
"And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever."
Really? Is that it?
 

Ninva

Анна Ахматова
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When Twilight first started becoming popular this past year, I picked up the first book in hopes to enjoy another Vampire novel... I tend to collect them, new and old. Even when there really is NO vampire in the story [Dammit Warhammer Vampire Wars crap -.-]

I picked up the book and opened it. 30 minutes later, after having read the first 4 or 5 pages a couple of times over and over again, I put the book down and realized that the book was not written in a way that I could enjoy it. When the movies came out, I had heard very little of the story past it was a "teenage love novel with Vampires". That didn't encourage me, but I planned to see it with Danny, who had taken up reading the series.

Upon seeing the movie, I came away with many different thoughts... I was confused and unsure of what I really thought. There were things that I definitely did not like and things that I thought were interesting.

I liked Meyers idea to use the setting to hide the Vampires. I vaguely wondered if the traditional "sunlight turns me to ashes" style Vampire could survive in a town like that and it gave me the idea of a story where most of the state was actually of the Vampiric variety. I haven't developed this idea, however. Kind of a flash in the pan idea.

I definitely did not like the fact that the Vampires sparkled in the sunlight. For one, they were being displayed as monsters in their own eyes, blood thirsty and hard to control, yet they were made to look delicate and/or beautiful. I always considered Vampires beautiful when in the night, their element and hideous or monsterous in the sunlight, as it "reveals their true nature". Even traditional "ashes in sunlight" vampires fall into this idea.

I wasn't comfortable as Bella being the heroine. As a matter of fact, she wasn't a heroine. She was merely the most important female character. She was too sheepish, too... Strange. I can't say I've ever met a person with a personality like Bella's, and I've met many strange, unique people. She just... She didn't seem "real" to me. It was too false, too fictional. That turned me off from her.

Then, something changed. I saw New Moon and my opinion of the series has definitely changed somewhat. Meyers did not do Vampires very well on her first try, but I believe her ideas for the Werewolf were really very good. I know some people are not crazy about the giant wolf idea, but it's original and believe it or not, it's not corny or unbelievable.

The idea behind the werewolves being anger-based was also interesting to me. I found the werewolf pack to have much more personality than most of the other characters we had been introduced to up to that point. Jacob, who showed promise in Twilight, came closer to his full potential in New Moon, as we saw more and more of him.

This, however, was partially an issue with me. Why the Hell was it necessary for the Werewolves to constantly be barely clothed? Were the production companies really so desparate for ratings and ticket sales that they sold out for screaming young girls to see shirtless young men for 2 hours? Was this truly necessary? I believe not. Why didn't we let the content of the story capture our attention instead?

Possibly because the story was really almost non-existant. The entire movie was mostly "Bella got dumped and can't get over it" and the consequences of her attempts to cope, from manipulating Jacob to thrill-seeking. From my understanding, Victoria was supposed to be a bigger part of this book and aside from a glimpse throughout the entire movie... Nothing.

No. I did not appreciate this lack of ... Anything.

Ha! I enjoyed reading that. :thup:

I should see New Moon. I was focusing on the first book.
 

Lyerae

I keep popping up on this site from time to time.
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> I have never read the books (i doubt they are any good) but since a lot of teenagers like the movie, that just gives me more reason to NOT like the book (even though i have not read it).

I absolutely hate the movies, though I'm a fan of the book.
It isn't my favorite (the Dragon Riders of Pern (I can't remember the authors name, sadly), but I enjoyed reading it.

But then again, every Sci-Fi/Fantasy book I've read I've liked.
 

BANANAMAN

Resident Star Battle Expert.
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I wouldn't say i hate twilight per say...Just that i wouldn't bother reading it.

Also Alice Cullen <3
 

Arcane

You can change this now in User CP.
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I actually got to reading them when I had nothing else to read over the break (I read them online - no way in hell I was going to let anyone see me borrowing THOSE books from the library... [incidentally my school Library has like, an entire shelf of Twilight books, like six copies of one book, I found that really disturbing].), and also because some people I know like it and I wanted to have read them before making any real judgment.

So far I've read the first three books of the series (and have no intention of reading the fourth), and I think people are going a little overboard. Both with the criticism and the praise. It does have a lot of horrible and very obvious flaws, but it still doesn't deserve this much hate. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed reading (some of) it despite all of its failings.


Edit: I'd liken Meyer to Tamora Pierce, she gets some things brilliantly right, but others horribly wrong.
 

Jimpy

The Invisible Observer
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A movie is just supposed to bring the book into the real world.

Or to be more technical, the movie is just a representation of the novel (since the novel is 'real').

And Robert Pattinson looks constantly sick, or something. He just looks unhealthy to me for some reason ._.

I might be mistaken, but vampires are typically undead, which last I checked is near the top on the hierarchy of things that may make you look less healthy.
 

DM Cross

You want to see a magic trick?
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Vampires are also traditionally beautiful creatures, even as far back as Dracula. He was oddly pale but strikingly attractive, for a man.

I also believe Meyers meant for her characters to follow this tradition, based on what I hear about the books.

Then again, I could be guessing Elder's meaning wrong and he could mean that Patterson as a person looks constantly sickly, whether or not he is in his Edward Cullen role. To which, I would agree.
 

ElderKingpin

Post in the anime section, or die.
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I might be mistaken, but vampires are typically undead, which last I checked is near the top on the hierarchy of things that may make you look less healthy.

In real life :p (basically what cross said)
 
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