This is topic My theories on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight conclusion (spoilers) in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
 
There are definitely spoilers below, but honestly, people, if I spoil this book for you and spare you from reading it, then you should send me money.

So, I read Breaking Dawn yesterday, really fast. Because I couldn't wait to find out what happened? No, not really. Because I got to the point that I was just scanning pages and flipping them trying to get to the end and put myself out of my own misery. What kept me going was professional curiosity - I AM a trained literary analyst after all. I've spent years honing my skills at examining works and pulling significance out of them. Yeah. I mean it. I have.

So, given that I am a trained literary professional I have developed some theories about how this monstrosity came about.

Theory #1

Meyer had a bet with someone that she couldn't possibly make this book over 750 pages. So, once she wrote what was important in the book (Ha!) she had to pad pages with meaningless drivel. Lots of it. Pages and pages of it. Oh, heck, chapters and chapters of it.

Theory #2

Meyer has been infected with a dread disease known as "J.K. Rowling syndrome." You know it, of course - the disease that causes you to think that because you are a super-popular best-selling author you no longer need an editor. You no longer need to edit at all.

Theory #3

She had no idea where the series was going and was forced to make stuff up.

Theory #4

She reads her own fan-fiction, and stole the plot idea from an 11 year old girl.

I'm leaning toward a combo of all of them, with a slight emphasis on #4, actually.

Picture this scene:

Meyer has a deadline to deliver book 4 in the "Acclaimed Twilight Series, ZOMG!!1!" and is panicking, because, well, frankly she never bothered to plot the end of the series and doesn't know what to do. Not only that, she has made a bet with someone that she can get the dratted thing to 750+ pages. This will require, of course, making up a bunch of pointless crap that has nothing to do with the books she's already published. But where does one go to get ideas to make up pointless crap?

Fan fiction of course. And there she runs across a sweet little girl, let's call her Mary Sue, who has written a lovely piece about Jacob because she likes Jacob, and wants him to be happy, so she gives Jacob someone to love and "imprint" upon. But because we can't leave out our principal characters ("B+E 4Ever!") she decides to make the person Jacob falls in love with be Bella's daughter because, like he loves Bella but he can't have her, not really, because like, she's in love with Edward ("OMG, I can't wait for the movie bcuz the guy playing Edward is so HOT!!1!") so how about if Edward and Bella get married and have a kid and that kid is a girl and Jacob imprints on her and then he can have her and Bella and Edward can be married and it will be so great they'll all live happiy ever after in like, one famiy! OMG!!1! PONIES!!1!

And Meyer read this and thought...wow, what a great idea for my book.

And you're thinking to yourself, jatraqueroes, that Belle cannot be serious at this point. And yet, sadly, I am. Serious. Yeah, that's the plot.

Now, I'm an English major. Trained literary professional, remember? Which means, of course I'm not a biologist. Or an expert in anatomy and physiology. But still, I think...if I'm not mistaken...that dead people don't produce sperm. Maybe I'm just crazy??? There is actually an explanation for it too. Hold on to your hats folks...Meyer tells us in the novel, that men can go on fathering children into their 90's. Yeah, but I think there is a big ole pre-requisite - they have to be ALIVE!!

Oh, and did you know that vampires have 25 sets of chromosomes? Because their DNA changes when they get bitten. And werewolves have 24. Just so you know. And because Bella is human when she gets pregnant and she has 23, and Edward is a vampire and has 25, then Carlisle thinks the baby has 24 - because that's what you get when you average together 23 and 25, after all.

You know, that thread about the chromosomes, despite being ridiculous, actually had some merit for minute. I thought for a minute that the book was going to tell us that Bella carried a werewolf, and that was how the werewolves came about...and maybe there was some substance despite the redonkulousness. But no, it went nowhere. Chromosomes never came up again.

That's pretty much the whole book, BTW. Something comes up and it might be worthwhile and you get the feeling that if you just keep reading it will make sense and it will tie everything together and there will be light at the end of the tunnel and Godot will finally arrive. Only he doesn't, and the plot never resolves into, well, a plot.

There's actually a WWE showdown at the end with the Voluturi and lots of other vampires that we've never heard of and so many in fact that Meyer gives us a helpful footnote at one point when Bella worries how she'll ever keep track of the sheer number of new vampires. The footnote reads "see page 756" and we flip there and there's a helpful guide to all the vampires on page 756. Thanks Stephenie Meyer! I love it when authors throw in a huge number of pointless, useless characters that add nothing to the plot except a need for you to create a character guide for them!

Seriously, there is like a huge fight brewing with a bunch of vampires and werewolves (only they're not werewolves, not really, they are shape-shifters and there ARE real werewolves but most of them are gone and the reason this huge bombshell is dropped near the end of the book is because it's incredibly important and relevant to the plot...oh wait...no it isn't, it's just a huge revelation about the nature of Jacob and his people that is not really important but just sort of thrown in there. See theories 1 & 3 above). The "good" vampires and werewolves-not-real-werewolves are on one side and the Volture or "bad vampires" are on the other. And there's going to be a big fight, because Edward and Bella's one-of-a-kind, never-seen-before half-vampire/half-human child (think Blade without the coolness factor) is SOOO dangerous she must be killed. But the "good" vampires are going to win because Bella, who is now a vampire, has become "Super-Bella" and has the power to protect everyone so they'll all stay safe. And, there's a helpful friend who has shown up out of...nowhere...who can control the elements. His name is Benjamin, or maybe it's deus-ex-machina, I'm not real sure.

THEN...before there can actually be a fight, Alice Cullen shows up with ANOTHER vampire child
(because Bella and Edward's child is NOT unique, even though Meyer spent the whole novel going on and on about how unique she was - GOTCHA!) and seeing that child convinces the bad vampires there is no reason to fight so they leave. The vampire child's name is Renau, or Renald, or no...HE's the one named deus-ex-machina, I was mistaken.

People, I cannot make this stuff up. Stephenie Meyer can, of course. See theory #3.

So to recap:

Edward and Bella get married, have sex, and have a baby.

That baby is half-vampire, half-human and she almost kills Bella is the birthing process so Edward makes Bella a vampire to save her.

The mutant combination of 25 and 23 chromosomes makes the baby, whose name is Renesmee (no I promise I did NOT make that up!), super and special and she grows really fast, and by the way, she is Jacob's FOREVER LOVE!!

The bad guys want to kill her because vampire children are, like, a plague and must be killed. But Renesmee is not really a vampire child! How could they kill her? Don't they know Edward and Bella must live forever and be happy together! And what about Jacob's forever love??!???

So...there is this complicated plot involving EVERY FRICKIN' VAMPIRE IN THE WHOLE WORLD coming to Forks, WA (but if you get confused, there is a helpful guide on pg 756 says the footnote) and a HUGE throwdown and fight to the death...only there isn't because Alice shows up and saves the day by producing a never-before-seen or heard-of vampire hybrid child created in the Amazon jungle by a rogue vampire out to create a master race.

But it's all okay, because Edward and Bella will live happily ever after and so will Jacob and Renesmee.

*wipes tear* Doesn't it just warm your heart?

Run people, run from this book and never look back.

You have been warned.
 

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Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
 
My. Oh. My.

Some authors DON'T plan their plots, and they manage to keep things together.

They have the advantage of being good writers, though.
 

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Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
 
I seriously don't care.
I liked the book...

Plus it's frigging better than the Eragorn books. Much more well written.

I fail to see how it's that bad.
 

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Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
 

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Plus it's frigging better than the Eragorn books. Much more well written.

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But can I just ask how Meyer's constant reminder that vampires do no produce fluids like blood, sweat or tears. So someone explain to me how Edward got Bella pregnant???

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When they become popular, they have no idea why and so they just kind of indulge in what amounts to their own kind of fanfiction.

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the baby, whose name is Renesmee...

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I blame Mormon culture.
 

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Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
 
Better blame UTAH culture. No Mormon in my area comes up with names like that.

How do you pronounce "Renesmee?"
 

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Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
 
Nah, if it was a Mormon thing the name would be Edella or Belldwarda.
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
I suspect that she's loved that name for the last fifteen years.

If it were me, it would have been Alequere. Fifteen points and a cookie to whomever can name the source.
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
Renesmee. Hmm. You really could blame that on Bella and not Meyer, if you gave credit to Meyer for intentionally writing Bella as a silly girl, instead of seeing Bella as a Mary Sue who really reflects the silliness of the writer.
 

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Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
 

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That baby is half-vampire, half-human and she almost kills Bella is the birthing process so Edward makes Bella a vampire to save her.

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(You know how long this book is? "Renesmee" is starting to look like a really cute name.)

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it was the best series starting with a teenage girl in love with a mysterious boy in her class that ended up with a teenage girl defending her growth-accelerated mutant hybrid baby from an ancient clan of evil vampires with her magical psychic shield that I ever read, THE END.

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Thanks Shanna! Made my day.

[ August 08, 2008, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: Belle ]
 

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Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
 
I'm serious about wanting to know how to pronounce Renesmee.
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
I'd bet it's Ren - ez - may.

(Sorry I don't know any actual phonetic notation rules.)
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I know what happened. The result of extra chromosomes, when it doesn't cause death, is usually mental retardation.

So, there you go.
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I feel so smug for listening to Annie now.
 

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Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
 
I've read the rest of the series, but I wasn't planning to read this book for a while - but after all the controversy, I just had to get my hands on it.

Yes, it does seem like Meyer lost the plot. But...

According to Meyer's website, she actually wrote a sequel to 'Twilight' a couple of months after she finished the original book. This was called 'Forever Dawn' and it was Edward and Bella and presumably Renesmee (horrible name!). She has a mock up of the cover she made for it - a picture of Bella with bright red eyes.

The title - Forever obviously implies eternity. Dawn suggests a new beginning.

But when Meyer got a publisher's contract, it was for three young adult books. Which meant she couldn't publish the 'adult' sequel she'd already written.

So, Meyer had to spin out the story of Bella's last year in high school for another two books.
Along the way, she appears to have accidentally raised all sorts of other issues which had not occurred to her when she wrote the original sequel.
Such as, among others, the theme of choice - and how choosing to be a vampire meant sacrificing humanity. Or whether becoming a vampire meant losing one's soul.
Plus the love triangle with Jacob. And so on.

To the casual reader, it seemed that they had some idea where the books were leading.

But behind it all, Meyer was still in love with 'Forever Dawn'.
She told her publisher that she could not tie up the story in three books - it was going to have to be four.

And this fourth book was guaranteed to sell millions. What publisher could refuse?

So Meyer seems to have gone back to her original draft. She seems to have updated it, worked it, as best she could, into the new storyline she had since created.
This was book which appears to have been published as 'Breaking Dawn'.

The lesson? Learn to kill your darlings.

Meyer could have sold just as many books and made more of her fans happy if she had written a new book which fit better with her new storyline.

However, I suppose we should praise her for sticking to her vision - it clearly meant a lot to her to end the series this way.
It's her story after all, it came out of her head and it would be a sad day if all writers felt that had to give everyone what they want.
I think she probably even knew that a lot of people would hate it and darn well wrote it anyway.
Good for her.
And also, oh dear.
 

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Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
 
In the book there is an explanation of the pronunciation. IIRC, it is "ruh-NEZ-may"
 

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Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
 

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However, I suppose we should praise her for sticking to her vision - it clearly meant a lot to her to end the series this way.

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Originally posted by Zalmoxis:
Nah, if it was a Mormon thing the name would be Edella or Belldwarda.

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Carlisle and Esmee. Bella's parents are Charlie and Renee.

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Originally posted by Goody Scrivener:

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Originally posted by Zalmoxis:
Nah, if it was a Mormon thing the name would be Edella or Belldwarda.

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My daughter just explained it to me. Edward's "parents" are Carlisle and Esmee. Bella's parents are Charlie and Renee. The baby's name is a merge of the two grandmothers. Had the baby been a boy, he'd have been given a name that was a blend of Edward's and the grandfathers.

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Originally posted by TomDavidson:
Maybe a son would've been "Charisle?"

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I'm serious about wanting to know how to pronounce Renesmee.

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(usually secularists. The overly religious would almost never read a vampire love story)

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Why not? I can see the overly religious refusing to participate in a vampire love story, but being religious certainly does not mean that you never read anything that might be about someone who does things you disagree with. Do you think that the religious would not read Harry Potter, as well?

Secondly, while I'm all for calling people on their crappy prejudices when they occur, there are so many other, more effective ways to be anti-Mormon than disliking some badly-written, chaste romance novels.
 

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Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
 
All the Mormon women I know* are carrying around Twilight books. It cracks me up that we're now into vampire stories! Seems like a disconnect to me.

*Okay, not ALL the Mormon women I know. I know a LOT of Mormon women. But there are quite a few of them ... it's like the next Harry Potter, at least in Mormon Women circles.
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
Guilty pleasure with a veneer of respectability because the author is known to be an active Mormon?
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
I don't think so. It's not really a guilty pleasure of the kind that makes it okay if the author is Mormon.

It's a love story and a romance novel and the whole hing drips with sensuality, but it isn't about sex itself. As EW puts it: "If this sounds steamy, rest assured (or don't get your hopes up): Meyer writes about even furniture-wrecking sex with the decorum of a Victorian schoolmistress."

It is a guilty pleasure in the sense that it is total fluff, but it being written by a Mormon doesn't make it literature.
 

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Posted by Vyrus (Member # 10525) on :
 
I can assure you that while she wrote the book dripping with sexuality, going so far as to say that they would have a period of ten years of insatiable lust, as happened with vampire family members Rosalie and Emmett, she went little into the actual details of sex.

My theory for this is that while she wanted it to be a tween-appropriate book she went further and further along her original ideal, until the whole thing was dripping with sex without actually mentioning any of it.

As for Jacob imprinting on Renesmee, I had mixed feelings about it.

Because I am a huge Jacob fan, despite his former rapist tendencies, I did want him to imprint in the last book.

In a silly moment, I thought the Twilight series was a trilogy, not realizing that she was releasing a fourth book, and in a way appreciated the ending that happened there. Just picture it; it has mystery and intrigue and left the reader to draw their own conclusion.

I think I liked it that way better.

Clearly, in writing this book, she had no idea where she was going, or at least presented it that way, as she seems to be rambling for a large part of it.

Why else would she completely ignore all of the loose ends? She never commented on Leah's fate, one of the deeper characters in the book; she fleshed her out, only to dead end her story right there.

Renesmee was suddenly meant to solve the problems between Bella and Jacob; Jacob completely forgot about his love for Bella, all of the werewolves and vampires became friends despite not being able to even handle the smell of each other, let alone company. Bella instantly forgot her older feelings for Jacob, making all of the drama and buildup in books 2 and 3 absolutely pointless.

This presents a paradox; while I am glad that everything seemed to work out, it was presented in such a way to confuse the reader, leaving mixed reviews raging from absolute fangirl-love to complete hatred in the mind of some of the more dedicated readers.

Too many loose ends.

Too much bullshit, pardon my language.

Alice left, all of the sudden she's horrible and completely left the family, left cryptic clues that did nothing to further the storyline, Bella got papers from a man that made absolutely no sense whatsoever why he was even in the story or what Alice was telling her in the first place.
The ending was as scatterbrained as my post and made little to no sense.

So, to summarize, I'm confused, I liked the book at several points, but hated it at others, and think that I was better off falsely thinking that the third book was the end, leaving the "trilogy" on a perfect note.

Some people hate undecisive endings, in this situation I think it would've been better than the confusing drivel.
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 
The veneer of respectability thanks to Meyer's membership in the LDS church is exactly what I've seen.

I work with the 12-16 year old girls at church. Needless to say most of them, and their moms, have drunk the Kool-Aid.

And when I asked them about it, most of the moms said, "Oh, but I bought it at Deseret Book. It's by a Mormon, so I know it's okay."

and also said, in a slightly shocked voice, "Oh, I would never, ever read a romance novel! We don't read that sort of thing."

What I thought was dumb and sweet at the same time was how Bella is set on going to Dartmouth. Like, Oh, yeah, immortality as a rich beautiful person, and being involved forever in things beyond a mortal's yen...but I really want a college degree, too.

Maybe it's Meyer's stab at a "hey, kids, stay in school" moral.

Why bother staying in school? What, to get a job? To impress other humans at cocktail parties?

Gosh, I'd rather just find an ultrarich ultrahot scary-devoted vamp boyfriend, wouldn't you?

Hee.....

(Belle, thanks so much. I read this last weekend and it's been so cathartic to read what you've written.)
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 
And I couldn't get over everyone's special superpower and how everyone is sooo gorgeous and dangerous and cool. It got so billowy-coat-king-of-pain I started reading BD for laughs.

I normally am not this catty.

I found myself drawn into the book, but after finishing BD I felt like I was surfacing from eating an entire bag of Cheetooes. And not in a good way.

Being drawn into a book, anyway, doesn't a good book make. Another thing people can't look away from: car wrecks.

I am ambivalent about the virtue of girls reading romance novels like this, anyway. The books are superficially chaste but sex-ridden underneath.

(Er... pun not intended)

I think the equivalent to a bunch of Mormon girls reading the full Twilight series would be to pass out Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition to the young men at church. The girls are covered up, so it's not technically porn, right? And the young men won't be able to look away--a sure sign of great, compelling literature.

And between the girls reading Twilight and the young men ogling SI, both groups will gain a wonderful education in what to expect from and how to relate to the opposite sex.

*eyeroll*

Like I said, I'm a hypocrite about this, because I also read Charlaine Harris' vampire series, and used to read Laurell K. Hamilton's stuff (before it was nothing but porn).

But at least most erotic vampire fic doesn't associate itself with the LDS church and pretend to be "good for you" in some way.
 

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Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
 
I really don't see how the book and series is that bad... *shrug*
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 
It's not, hee hee, this should offend some people, as bad as Robert Jordan.

But it has been hyped to be "the ultimate reading experience", according to my unintentional survey of the starry-eyed teenage girls around me.

Gosh, I feel so OLD--complaining about what teenage girls are reading. Normally, I just READ what teenage girls are reading.

I object to Stephanie Meyer's books on literary grounds--it's silly.

Silly is fine; sometimes we need brainless, and I will read brainless stuff, too, when I need to just cool down.

But people act like it's groundbreaking vampire fic, when, honestly, a vampire with the "I want to eat you, but I mustn't, but I really want to, ooooo *angst*" struggle is sort of....old. The real meat of the moral/theological struggle is sort of ignored. It's more like just a support structure for the highly sexed non-sex sex scenes.

Okay. That's fine. Like I said, I expect romance novels to be a little silly, and to not have a moral lesson.

Which people keep telling me is part of the appeal of the series--you take a Mormon author, have a superficially "chaste" romance novel, and, viola! Moral infotainment!

Okay. I won't call it "bad". I'll call it "overhyped and misleading". Better?
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Have I just not been talking to the right people? I don't know very many people at all who read this, even at church.

Maybe they are hiding.

When someone does, though, I am going to recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer to them. I think it would be interesting to see the reaction - my general impression when I recommend Buffy is that it isn't kosher.
 

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Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
 
So, um, I started reading Twilight to see what all the fuss was about, and I have to give it snaps for readability. The main character is a bit of a passive paper doll, but that's not that unusual, I guess. Not a deal-breaker, anyway, as she is less fatuous than the heroines of some novels aimed at the age group.

I wondered, before I started reading, why teen and tween girls find Edward so appealing. I mean, that age group usually goes for the softer, androgynous sort of boy (remember Hansen?) and this guy is a vampire -- generally a symbol of more threatening sexuality. Then I got to this bit:

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Edward in the sunlight was shocking. I couldn't get used to it, though I'd been staring at him all afternoon. His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday's hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface. He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn't sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.

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He SPARKLES.

Now I get it. Edward is not really a vampire. He's not even recognizable as a boy.

He's a My Little Pony with fangs.

(Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. If they'd had My Little Ponies with fangs when I was a kid, I sooo would have had one. Just sayin'...)
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 


MLP! with fangs!



I'm sorry to inform of this copyright infringement, but....I am so stealing that!

And, Katharina, that's just what I've been doing. That is, rec. to the girls I know to watch BtVS.

It's funny; based on my comments about Twilight and my being a homeschooler, most people I've talked to seem to think I'm some easily horrified burn-the-smut church lady type.

But my oldest daughter is called Buffy. I cannot believe that I had to hide my Buffy fandom at church all these years....and now girls are reading Twilight at church, brazenly, right there in front of God and everybody.

Maybe I'm just jealous?
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I take it that scene was the first page of the book she ever penned, after having a dream about Edward. I read an interview Motley vision did with her back when the momentum was just building.

My daughter's friend who was quasi-evangelical had read the books and was into other YA vampire romance. Just getting back to whether other religious people would read these books...

I have told my daughter if she really wants to read these, I will read them with her. Though on Sunday she was reading her Primary Gospel Standards and said "So Stephanie Myers books probably aren't a good idea?" We talked about the Harry Potter books a bit too. I asked her if she could think of anything uplifting from them. But then, she thinks really big spiders are uplifting, so there you go. But I think most of the guidance Dumbledore gives Harry is pretty uplifting.

And I did have one person give an example of a good message in the Twilight books, which is that Edward's clan chooses not to follow their impulses to drink human blood. The trouble seems to be that while he also resists other impulses, the impulses are being described in rich detail, and would probably not be resisted by normal people.
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 
Like (to repeat myself, I've used this example before) Pit Bulls Against Mauling Toddlers?

"You know, when you grab them, and shake them, and tear them up, and make them scream? Yeah...let's not do that."

There's a lotta that in the Twilight books. Both when it comes to drinking people's blood, and the more ordinary fornicatory impulses.
 

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Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
 
What I find funny is there is one side that thinks the books are too dripping with sex and another side that thinks they are too chaste to the point of evangelism. As for myself, I agree with both sides. Could the books be a type of sex Rorshach test?
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 

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I read an interview Motley vision did with her back

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This was so confusing to me.
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I've never heard anyone complain they are too chaste. Unrealistically chaste, perhaps.

Sorry about my syntax, my sister made fun of me for my test of standard written english score in high school. I think that one comes with the PSAT.
 

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Posted by Sachiko (Member # 6139) on :
 
They're both. They seem to be chaste ("It's so cool, a romance novel without sex! It's like G-rated and I can read it in seminary!") but really it's more like they talk about having sex, describe how much they want to have sex, practice nearly having sex....without actual intercourse.

Like I've said before. Romance novels are verbal porn--not said caustically, I've read some romance novels, it's just how they ARE--and Twilight is no exception. It just offends more people who, when they heard "no sex" actually thought that meant no sex in the books. Not, no coitus.

When you said "sex Rorshach test" I flashed to that scene in Armageddon where the psych evaluator is using inkblots to test Steve Buscemi. Hee.
 

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Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
 
Okay, I finally started reading these books because the reviews were too funny. But I HATE them. I feel like Meyer made so many amateurish mistakes that are supposed to keep your stuff from getting published and encourage you to write better. It's completely grating to read her version of first person POV, which isn't really first person at all. Here's a good example of the stuff that is stressing me out:

"My eyes did not stray toward the black garbage bag that held my present from that last birthday, did not see the shape of the stereo where it strained against the black plastic; I didn't think of the bloody mess my nails had been when I'd finished clawing it out of the dashboard."

If you're not thinking about it, then why am a reading about it? ARGH. I guess you could see this as Bella trying to convince herself that she isn't thinking about those things, but it happens way too often to be anything but amateurish mistakes.

So I don't think I'll be able to finish this series. But at least I had some laughs.

edit: Another thing that's cracking me up: The ad for "Afro Love" at the bottom of the page, promising me that I can find inter-racial singles. What exactly IS the definition of an inter-racial single, anyway?
 

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Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
 
Ew, the writing style is so gooey.

Clearly, it's romance for teens. None of the actual gory bits, but all of the ridiculously long sentences, the use of the word 'scintilating' the idea that the man is carved out of stone etc.

Also, there's a movie.

I wonder if Edward will literally sparkle?
 

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Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
 
The writing isn't the greatest, that's for sure.

And sure, Meyers isn't all that great on continuity or the intricacies of world building. So I let that slide and just try to see what she does with people.

Spoilers:

I thought the birth got a little melodramatic, but I thought it was awesome she got to experience motherhood. I thought her power was interesting.

Sure, it was frustrating that the Alice instructions to her turned out to be needless, however it did make sense. Alice couldn't see the decisions of the other halflings and how that would affect things. If any reader hadn't figured out pretty much from when Alice left that she wasn't a coward and traitor, they weren't paying very good attention.

She says this is the last book, but there are lots of wide open story lines. Bella and Edward's story is finished, but I bet she'll write more in this universe, especially since the publishers probably want more of this from her. Leah is interesting. The South American vampires are interesting.

So, it was fun. But not great.

I do like The Host better.
 

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Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
 
I thought it would be interesting to show two completely different interpretations of Myer's Twilight series. The first one is negative and argues the books preach Mormonism and that is a very bad thing. Then again, apparently the reviewer is one of those "Harry Potter is evil" believers. She also represents Mormon doctrine very loosely and very strictly at the same time that distorts both the book and the religion.

The other argues the seriesis good for Mormon literature as an exploration of religious ideas. It almost made me want to go back and read the book to see how Myers examines the implications of immortality and eternal family. The problem with this review, as pointed out, is ignoring the awful writing skills and poor editing.

I actually present these two interpretations because I have a question. What makes Mormon doctrine weird or even, as implied by the first, dangerous? Is that a moral or philosophical statement? Couldn't different or strange (not familiar or out of the normal) be more accurate terms?

I think, like Orson Scott Card, Stephanie Meyer is dealing with similar questions in her books. It is clear literary skills are miles apart. Yet, family, our eternal natures, and the implications of deification are to be found in both author's works. The responses have been equal to each other as well. Mormons should NEVER explore their faith outside of their own group because then it preaching Mormonism, and you can't do that! Or, I might add, its a Mormon author so whatever they say is safe.

Facinating stuff.
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 

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I think the equivalent to a bunch of Mormon girls reading the full Twilight series would be to pass out Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition to the young men at church. The girls are covered up, so it's not technically porn, right? And the young men won't be able to look away--a sure sign of great, compelling literature.

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quote:

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I actually present these two interpretations because I have a question. What makes Mormon doctrine weird or even, as implied by the first, dangerous? Is that a moral or philosophical statement? Couldn't different or strange (not familiar or out of the normal) be more accurate terms?

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What makes Mormon doctrine weird or even, as implied by the first, dangerous?

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