Twilight series: Good literature?

[teresad]

I think it is terrible.

I cannot for the life of me understand why in the world people like this trash!

Perhaps, I have a "snob" taste of literature but I think Twilight is terrible.

In my opinion, it is badly written, shows little talent for writing, the vampire concept is completely ignored

which is understandable since the book is written by a mormon which has no prior knowledge of vampires.

I didn't manage to read the full book, but what I read, was terrible enough.

If you guys want REAL vampire litterature, I urge you to check out Anne Rice.

[bLub]

I think the idea is good but this woman just CANNOT write! She should have sold her IDEA to a good author to let him/her write it down!!

Not only her writing style is terrible but also how she makes the characters: they are all so unreal, over-react to everything and just behave in a way no human (or vampire? ) would behave. And it's always the same, especially in book nr. 2: "he's sooo perfect" bla bla bla... arrrgghh

[Austin Glau]

Ii think she was involved in major gossip as a teenager or something. The writing style in her books is, without any real purpose, overexaggerated, and involves such speech used in school gossip. The movie director probally had some trouble finding a way to make the movie so that not just teenage girls would enjoy it

[Rayza]

I personally STRONGLY dislike Twilight; writing sucks and story is ridiculously stupid.

Web-comic writers agree with me:

Oatmeal

Shauna

I think there is a Penny-Arcade one but im to lazy to find it.

'Nuff said.

[lkn]

I read Twilight a couple of years ago. The idea was nice and the whole story was oh-so-romantic. Well, I read the three sequels as well... and got fed up with Bella always downgrading herself and adoring Edward, non-stop for hundreds of pages. The first book should've been the last one, it would have preserved the beauty of Edward and the Cullen family for me. On the other hand, I'm also glad I read all the books and realized how shallow they were.

Twilight made me really skeptical about vampire literature in general... until recently, when I read "Interview with a Vampire" by Anne Rice. In Rice's book, the vampire motif was used as a framework for deeper questions about ethics, moral, choices and the purpose of life in general... and the novel portrayed vampires as pretty pansexual creatures

Basically, Twilight is about good abs and thirst (and sparkle!) but I don't think its artistic value is very high. Luckily, there are plenty of other vampire novels out there!

[Carmen]

I think that although Twilight is a nice book to read "for fun", it's not really a good piece of literature.

I don't see how it really correlates with anything going on with Stephanie Meyer's life, nor how it really enlightens anything about humans.

And she's writing about vampires, which may seem fresh and awesome to pre-teens, but...YAWN people have been writing about vampires for a really, really long time. Vampires aren't really news.

[Austin Glau]

lol thx Rayza, that web comic was entertaining

[BustinJieber]

I think what's stopping most people from actually reading the books is the cliche'd and terrible plot. What's putting me off is that in the movies, Robert Pattison's skin is whiter than my semen.

[pomoni]

@Rayza thanks soooo much for the links. They made me crack up!! If you have more please do share them!!

[Sonneteer_Trombonist]

I found a rather interesting blog on Sparknotes. Dan Bergstein reads the books chapter by chapter and then outlines what he thinks of each chapter and of the book as a whole. At this point, he is nearly through book three. A lot of the time, it's pretty juvenile, but he comes up with a couple of interesting insights into why it is ridiculous.

It is called Blogging Twilight.

I love how polarizing Twilight is, because people have extremely strong opinions about it. There are long detailed paragraphs, articles or essays about why people dislike it, find it ridiculous or analyze it to death.

Fun fact: Blogging Twilight keeps a count, and the author has used the word "murmur" 63 times in the first 21 chapters of her third book.

The simple language, plot holes (such as the inconsistencies with Alice's power), hypocrisy (pushing abstinence and then advocating teen marriage and teen pregnancy?), weakness of the protagonist's character, lack of character growth, total lack of intellectual stimulation (except to criticize, it seems) and the blatant insult to vampire literature as a way to reel in a teenage girl audience (feel free to disagree with me here) go against everything I can appreciate in a book.

[Gerrit]

Twilight is like watching toddler TV-shows when you're sick. It has virtually no content, is unable to grasp your attention and is not very well thought through but it's easy for your mind. You don't have to think whilst watching Teletubbies, and it's the same with Twilight. It's some sort of meditation for your mind.

Edit/ Just read the blog of Dan Bergstein, he's hilarious!

Edited June 16, 2010 by Gerrit

[Center Field]

Lol this topic is like Flame-bait.

But here is my two cents worth.

The lady who wrote those books wrote them so simple that a first grade student would have complete mastery reading them. The language is weak and the plot is simple and cliche. I do not like them one bit (although I only read the first book, the other ones have been snubbed on principal).

The lady who wrote them has become filthy rich. Not that I would want to be that wealthy but hey, who am I to judge?

[sorcham]

Twilight is a marketing scheme. The character of Bella has been perfectly fashioned to be this boring, average girl who isn't really THAT pretty, has no singular talent so every single girl in the world could envision themselves as her. The relationship they share is completely unrealistic, not because of it's intensity, but just the fact that he happens to be SO in love with this person who seems to offer him nothing in return (I know that this happens sometimes, but generally it's unrealistic). This is really the whole appeal of twilight, this "average" girl is able to get the most perfect guy in the world to fall in love with her. In real life, the most perfect guy in the world (well he obviously wouldn't be a vampire) would most likely never fall for an average, boring girl. I used to really enjoy twilight when it came out a few years ago, but then I broadened the spectrum of literature/books I read and I realised how terrible it is. I just find the language in it overly simplistic and boring, I'm sorry but twilight seems to me to just be a book for people who have absolutely no love lives/overly hormonal teenagers/lonely 50 year old women. The movies are also shocking.

[saunders is god]

I agree with the amazingly accurate and competent ideas of sorcha relating to the damned twilight series

it is a ridiculous waste of paper and a pathetic excuse for a book

classifying it as literature incorrectly puts it the same boat as PROPER literature e.g Pride and Prejudice

sorcha's ideas imply that she is a genius and all that she says is 100% accurate

stupid teenage girls with exceess oestrogen and problems interacting socially are obssessed with the fantasy vampire land where vampires sparkle in the day , OMG as if they sparkle in the day!!!!!

to conclude the movies are terrible as well

[kingdomx]

The books are entertaining, and they are written for teenagers, so it would be quite supposed that they are not brilliant works of literature.

[Daedalus]

Twilight is a marketing scheme. The character of Bella has been perfectly fashioned to be this boring, average girl who isn't really THAT pretty, has no singular talent so every single girl in the world could envision themselves as her. The relationship they share is completely unrealistic, not because of it's intensity, but just the fact that he happens to be SO in love with this person who seems to offer him nothing in return (I know that this happens sometimes, but generally it's unrealistic). This is really the whole appeal of twilight, this "average" girl is able to get the most perfect guy in the world to fall in love with her. In real life, the most perfect guy in the world (well he obviously wouldn't be a vampire) would most likely never fall for an average, boring girl. I used to really enjoy twilight when it came out a few years ago, but then I broadened the spectrum of literature/books I read and I realised how terrible it is. I just find the language in it overly simplistic and boring, I'm sorry but twilight seems to me to just be a book for people who have absolutely no love lives/overly hormonal teenagers/lonely 50 year old women. The movies are also shocking.

yeah the female equivalent of Girl Next Door. Although to be fair Kristen Stewart is pretty damn hot.

The shocking thing about Twilight is that a lot of people are really into that whole vampire-thing. Even people doing IB. And let's face it, the Twilight series is 100% not good literature.

[Poison Lily]

I really liked the plot (the first three books) but I woudn't say that Stephenie Meyer writes brilliantly....

[Windstorm G-man]

She writes horribly. Most of it reads as if she was replacing every second word with one she found in a thesaurus, as if the use of 'fancy' words constitutes good reading.

There are consistency problems, too. All the rules Meyer creates for her vampires are broken by the end of the series.

Honestly, it is the worst thing I've ever read or even heard of in my life.

IB students should definitely not be reading this.

Pick yourself up a copy of Candide instead.

[your idiot self]

This summer I became completely obsessed with the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, and I completely fell in love with Edward Cullen!! However, in my Spanish class we read " The Unbearable Lightness of the Being" by Milan Kundera and it changed the way I perceive literature. Now I consider Twilight series to be quite superficial.. good, yet superficial...what do you think?

No offense to anyone who reads the series or cares to follow the plot, but PLEASE tell me you are joking.

Seriously.

[Idil]

I cannot understand (nor do I think I ever really will) how on earth millions of young girls actually enjoying reading this filth that people are mistaking for literature? How can you enjoy a female protaganist that does nothing but set females as helpless women that need to be protected by strong and powerful (albeit mythical) men? I apologise, but how could you enjoy reading a novel that does nothing but stereotype women as vulnerable, dainty, fragile beings that forever does stupid things, hence needing "rescuing". Please get a grip on reality people!