Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little Brown, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0316015844
“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
~ Stephen King
I thought about splitting this discussion into two answers since there were two questions, but I realized that perhaps the main reason I dislike this series is that I have a strong distaste for Bella as the central character for exactly the reasons that compared to Frankie, she falls flat. Bella seems privileged, like the girl who pouts over not being able to decide if she should pick the Mercedes or the BMW for her daddy to buy her for her sweet 16. She's spoiled, shallow, and weak. She's in a world where she is easily outmatched and powerless unless she gets her way by throwing a tantrum. I see the correlations between her and Frankie (and Katniss) in their internal conflicts about love, but her stupidity that requires constant protection makes her a joke to me as a protagonist. I don't respect her, and I feel like the story was built around me feeling pity for her. If you are going to make a shallow love triangle, then you'd better get creative in its placement. The supernatural elements are novel, but they play out in such a predictable and worn-out pattern that I feel like Meyer stumbled ignorantly into a money pit that hit our popular culture with the right shallow and meaningless drivel at the right time. I really enjoy reading vampire books, so my distaste for the Disney-esque level of these undead creatures of the night (as they WERE before Twilight) is something I tried to suspend for the sake of the novel. However, she completely tears down the tradition of vampire lore and then doesn’t seem to have the writing ability needed to rebuild her own mythology with any more depth than what is required to push the plot forward.
However, as a continuation on the initial quote I lead off with by Stephen King from a later part of the interview he gave, he made some good points as to why these books have hit the popularity level that they did. I felt obligated to include this as well as a bit of a counterweight to my dismissal of the series as junk.
“People are attracted by the stories, by the pace, and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.”
He further explains, “A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like, the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart
Lockhart, E. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Hyperion. 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0786838196
As a teacher, I cringe a little bit when I think of the potential this book has for inciting a prank-war at your school. Not only does this book glorify these elaborate pranks because of their insightful nature, but it adds to the mystique of adolescents joining an exclusive gang for prestige and power. By the point at the end of the book where they discuss Frankie getting expelled, I felt like I was back in high-school and bitching about the principal breaking up our impromptu whiffle-ball tournaments at lunch or cracking down so heavily on the idea of a single senior prank day, that the few that did do something were prevented from walking on stage at graduation. Now, as an adult I see myself trying to keep students out of mischief to avoid any potential harm to themselves, their classmates, or the school facility. I think this book laughs in the face of the authorities in the school setting, and builds up administrators as being no-nonsense sticklers for rules to maximize the academic output of their institutions. It really made me laugh at myself for taking things so seriously at my school. I’m not sure if that proves my other point as absurdly disconnected or very “surdly connected”…
Regardless of the possible upheaval of the school power structure, I think this book is a great resource for kids that feel like they struggle to fit into a social group where everyone is naturally cool and accepted except them. It shows that even one of the coolest, smartest, and most creative protagonists in YA Literature still struggles with the concept of whether she really fits in or not. Everyone in this book seems to live some sort of double or triple life to nurture and balance their standings in different social, academic, and personal relationships. The point seems to be that everyone struggles with their own identity at that age, and most of what you think you know about people is only them acting certain ways to impress you (and everyone else) right back. It is ok to search for your place in society, because even though you rarely find an exact fit, you almost always end up understanding yourself better through the process.
As a teacher, I cringe a little bit when I think of the potential this book has for inciting a prank-war at your school. Not only does this book glorify these elaborate pranks because of their insightful nature, but it adds to the mystique of adolescents joining an exclusive gang for prestige and power. By the point at the end of the book where they discuss Frankie getting expelled, I felt like I was back in high-school and bitching about the principal breaking up our impromptu whiffle-ball tournaments at lunch or cracking down so heavily on the idea of a single senior prank day, that the few that did do something were prevented from walking on stage at graduation. Now, as an adult I see myself trying to keep students out of mischief to avoid any potential harm to themselves, their classmates, or the school facility. I think this book laughs in the face of the authorities in the school setting, and builds up administrators as being no-nonsense sticklers for rules to maximize the academic output of their institutions. It really made me laugh at myself for taking things so seriously at my school. I’m not sure if that proves my other point as absurdly disconnected or very “surdly connected”…
Regardless of the possible upheaval of the school power structure, I think this book is a great resource for kids that feel like they struggle to fit into a social group where everyone is naturally cool and accepted except them. It shows that even one of the coolest, smartest, and most creative protagonists in YA Literature still struggles with the concept of whether she really fits in or not. Everyone in this book seems to live some sort of double or triple life to nurture and balance their standings in different social, academic, and personal relationships. The point seems to be that everyone struggles with their own identity at that age, and most of what you think you know about people is only them acting certain ways to impress you (and everyone else) right back. It is ok to search for your place in society, because even though you rarely find an exact fit, you almost always end up understanding yourself better through the process.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
First Part Last - Angela Johnson
Johnson, Angela. First Part Last. Simon Pulse, 2004. ISBN-13: 978-0689849237
I was not impressed with this book at all. I am generally a fan of books with an alternative timeline built into the narrative, but then again, that usually means the book has a deeper hidden connection at the end. Not only does this book barely surprise me with the final reveal (I was about 95% sure she had died during childbirth…so I was only slightly off) but it also felt like it left out half of the story. Apparently the bulk of this information is held in the first book of the series, so I left our class discussion even more disenchanted with the book than beforehand. I had given it the benefit of the doubt that I might have missed the point…but for a follow-up prequel, this seemed more like some cheap fan-fiction piece.
I began this book hoping to find a connection with the main character, because I started it after doing my single-dad nightly ritual to get my 3-year old in bed to sleep. I realize that I have a decade of life experience more than him, but I think we all enter into parenthood as fools who think they have a grasp on what it entails. His character’s experience seems to have very little depth or description. The only correlation that I felt with him was that I could tell he was tired, and even that is the cliché thing to warn young parents about. I really wanted a deeper look into his personal reflections and growth, but instead we get casual glances into a story where he seems to be applauded for barely being able to care for the child and making his decisions with no thought toward how it will affect him and his daughter in the future. Apparently the first book says that it all turned out peachy; but I don’t like the “end justifying the means” making it seem like no matter how, where, or why you choose to raise a baby…things will always turn out ok.
I was not impressed with this book at all. I am generally a fan of books with an alternative timeline built into the narrative, but then again, that usually means the book has a deeper hidden connection at the end. Not only does this book barely surprise me with the final reveal (I was about 95% sure she had died during childbirth…so I was only slightly off) but it also felt like it left out half of the story. Apparently the bulk of this information is held in the first book of the series, so I left our class discussion even more disenchanted with the book than beforehand. I had given it the benefit of the doubt that I might have missed the point…but for a follow-up prequel, this seemed more like some cheap fan-fiction piece.
I began this book hoping to find a connection with the main character, because I started it after doing my single-dad nightly ritual to get my 3-year old in bed to sleep. I realize that I have a decade of life experience more than him, but I think we all enter into parenthood as fools who think they have a grasp on what it entails. His character’s experience seems to have very little depth or description. The only correlation that I felt with him was that I could tell he was tired, and even that is the cliché thing to warn young parents about. I really wanted a deeper look into his personal reflections and growth, but instead we get casual glances into a story where he seems to be applauded for barely being able to care for the child and making his decisions with no thought toward how it will affect him and his daughter in the future. Apparently the first book says that it all turned out peachy; but I don’t like the “end justifying the means” making it seem like no matter how, where, or why you choose to raise a baby…things will always turn out ok.
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