Do you know what really bugs me? The Twilight series. While I'm mildly intrigued by the story itself (though let's be honest, it's really a teenaged bastardization of Anne Rice. I don't care who you are, Edward Cullen = Louis de Pointe du Lac), Meyers' writing style oozes obnoxious sentiment and stinks badly of the BYU English department. I find Bella so cloying it makes me physically itchy. I don't need to hear about the excruciating minutiae in heating up a can of tomato sauce. And okay, I get it! Edward is the most perfectly beautiful creature on earth! Noted, alright? Let's move on before we drive that point any deeper into the ground.
That said, I've read all three books. I'll probably read more.
Also, I'm a BYU English student.
I've been involved in a few arguments over Twilight, and lately I've found myself coming to the series' defense, much as I loathe it (I'm not kidding, I'm really feeling squirmy inside just thinking about sitting down for another afternoon to crack open another one of those books). I mean, they're pretty harmless, aside from Bella's carnal, premarital desires. They take classic horror movie monsters--vampires and warewolves, man!-- and make them sexy. I'd rather die than actually compare Edward to Teddy Laurence or Gilbert Blythe, but I guess it's not bad that there's a new good-looking hero in town (I can hardly call him a literary hero, however, as I don't think all books can be considered literature). And I can only imagine how the ecomony of Forks, WA has skyrocketed.
More than anything, I guess I'm just happy that people--not just preteens--are so excited about reading books. I include Harry Potter in this mix (and admit to enjoying most of the HP series). How rad is it that the world practically shuts down on the days these books are released?? Sure, ideally the world would be involved in a discussion about more literary books, and sure, it would would be great if the level of writing was more intellectual and/or refined. But you know, at least people are reading something. I don't think that's so bad.
But curse that movie trailer for being quite so... interesting.
