Twilight Series

I am sad to say that I have read all four books of twilight. For future reference, if my children ever happen across this blog, the Twilight book series became a popular phenomenon in 2005 when the first novel came out. It follows a young girl, 17 years of age, named Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. It was one of those iconic novels that changed the face of young adult novels for the next ten years following.

The author of this novel is Stephanie Meyer. I am not wholeheartedly impressed with her work. I do not like the message that is portrayed to the younger demographic that primarily reads this novel. Okay... I guess that is a lie. Supposedly the Twilight series has been popular among older women as well.

Lets first take a look a Bella Swan, the protagonist of the story whose thoughts we are intimately connected with. This character is not a strong character. I really dislike stories that are essentially the "ugly duckling turned beautiful swan (or Bella Swan) story." The story did not follow that same plot but the same concept applies. Bella comes to a new town and is unhappy with who she is. She doesn't like the way she looks, and throughout the entire series she wants to be someone different (a vampire). I am anxious for books in this genre that have women who are happy to be themselves and do not see a need to change. I guess you could argue the point that that would be unrealistic because teenage girls are undergoing a lot of changes in their lives, and trying to determine who they really are, and what they stand for, blah blah blah. Wouldn't that suggest a need for stronger role models? Because unfortunately...Bella Swan is a role model for young girls. Aside from the ugly duckling story, this novel also portrayed the "Prince Charming will rescue me story." This concept is displayed throughout the entire series which brings me to the next protagonist: Edward Cullen.

Allow me to first say that this character, in my opinion, is not Prince Charming riding in a white horse to save the day. Yet, for some reason he has become the iconic symbol of a "perfect man." He is the anti-prince. But it makes sense, as the world confuses good from evil, and we become more sympathetic towards anti-heroes, that women across the globe would fall in love with the anti-prince. I guess that is really a story for another time though. Edward Cullen:

Number one: is extremely dangerous
Number two: becomes obsessive with Bella, to the point of sneaking into her room while she is sleeping to watch her. This is stalker 101 and a huge red flag for a serious creeper. But no no... Bella thinks that is sweet. And because the reader is connected with her thoughts, the reader too becomes sympathetic towards a very creepy man.
Number three: calls Bella is "own brand of heroine." I don't know about anyone else, but I think we just went from stalker 101 to graduate courses in "stalkerism." Specifically he can hardly stand to be around the smell of her blood. Once a month, Bella must really have needed to be careful around her beau...if you catch my meaning.
Number four: In book two, New Moon, when Edward finds out that Bella might have died. He decides he wants to kill himself then live without her. Needless to say, I never found "Romeo and Juliet" to be very romantic. When a man says, "I will kill myself without you" that certainly does not mean that he is romantic, it means you should probably contact a psychologist/therapist. This is because he is severely disturbed.
Number five: He is 107 years old. Despite the fact that he is immortal, the maturity levels are surely distinct and different.

There are so many other points that I could make about the anti-prince. I will be the first to state that I do not want a man like Edward Cullen. He is not my idea of a good man. He is not a prince charming. He is a like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yet, since the books publishing in 2005 there have been a lot of interesting related occurrences. Now I had previously heard a lot of rumors about women divorcing their husbands after reading the series, or groups wanting to get together and drink blood, etc. etc. Of course I recognize that there are people who will take any story too literally and cross thick moral lines. Basically confusing reality with fiction, but I wanted to research the veracity of all of these stories surrounding the novel.

Laura M. Brotherson, an expert on Marital Intimacy writes, "What may begin as harmless fun or a little escapism from the rigors of real life can easily become an obsession--especially if there is a void in ones life that is hankering to be filled. If the connection in marriage is already weak, and there is little happening to nourish it, filling the void with a fantasy is an easy snare to slip into." She goes on to talk about how women get caught up in the fantasy, and this destroys marriages. It is sad really that we have become so confused with reality.

I actually found a website that is dedicated to mothers who love the twilight series. I am not going to write much on the topic except to say that I think that is a little weird. I am glad my mother is not a twilight fan, or obsessive over any specific novel or genre. She was more interested in being my mom than a fantasy novel. Thanks for that mom.

I guess that there is a lot that I could write about this series. I could go on and on. It has been about 8 years since the first novel was released, and we now have 4 novels and 5 movies about the "epic (ANTI) love story." I love to read, and I have always enjoyed the fantasy novels. Ever since the release of Twilight, the quality of writing has diminished. I now walk into Barnes and Noble, and half the novels in the young adult section are about vampires or werewolves. I have read a few of the novels, and I feel I have lost a lot of brain cells while doing so. The stories are all the same, and the writing keeps getting worse and worse. There is no depth to the story. But...they have got vampires and adventure and love triangles, so while all these novels become best sellers, the real writers and the good/meaningful stories of our time are being passed up.

This is why I have started to read more non-fiction.