in a nutshell... what are the 3 twilight books about?

[juicychops]

just a rough storyline as i dont think its the kind of thing i like but willing to give them a go if you sell them to me well

i can't believe i have missed this discussion till now!

I have a lot of sympathy for all who say the relationship is unhealthy, the messages to girls are bizarre etc etc. I would also agree the writing is not stellar and the saga is drawn out- Twilight and Breaking Dawn are enough.

However- Mr Rochester was a manipulative bigamous asshole who drove his first wife crazy before imprisoning her and then preyed on a young destitute orphan. Don't get me started on Heathcliff. Or most of Shakespeare's lovers. And yet- those are epic lovestories that generations of young women have read, swooned to, re-read, obsessed about etc and the vast majority are not in abusive relationships right now.

I do believe teenage girls can figure things out for themselves. I very much doubt that they will use the Edward/Bella pattern to establish their romantic lives.

As for twilight mums sluts like us, well, we just love a bit of escapism even if it's not cool to admit it!

btw... hilarious twilight recaps courtesy of the awesome cleolinda jones

I have to say that the whole twilight thing had passed me by, until this week, four books in four days including an embarrassing incident in the library in which I insisted they MUST have BD, and then payed the full £15 in the independent book shop because I couldn't wait!

Needless to say i had a rather obsessive week and could definitely be considered a twi-slut! and the books were made all the more enjoyable by interspersing them with TeamEdwards and Mystics wonderful fanfics... love 'em guys!

Well said Mystic. Romeo and Juliet is a great example of an unhealthy obsession (they both end up dead!) and yet every teenager in the land has to read it for school at some point.
There's something about the Twilight series that's completely addictive (for some of us, at least). I don't know what it is but it's there.
I still refuse to see Edward as abusive. Surely abusers manipulate people and situations for their own selfish reasons. Edward only ever has Bella's happiness at heart.
Sure he gets overprotective the love of his life is threatened by vindictive vampires on one side and immature werewolves on the other side. But in the end Bella tells him to butt out and he does. In fact he ends up being a bit of a doormat. Hardly a classic abuser.

well he can control me anyway he likes, he is HOT.

i mean how can you be soo mean about this

Sorry, just had to post on this thread and point out that the story is told fom the POV of a Teenage Girl! That's why the romance seems so obsessive and all consuming- because teenage crushes are like that! It's the equivalent of watching Indiana Jones and saying 'Hmmn, no, he couldn't survive being thrown half a mile in a fridge.....'
Personally I loved it because it reminded me of what it felt like to be so young and full of romance.

A quick summary of the twilight series?

Hormonally overwhelmed teenage girl has to choose between necrophilia or bestiality

MBM: as I said before, the big difference between Romeo and Juliet and twilight is that the ridiculous obsession in the former does not end well (neither does the obsession in wuthering heights). In twilight we get a happily ever after wherein the obsession can and will continue forever because vampires are almost incapable of change. In this sense, it misses the point of Romeo and Juliet completely (which is particularly silly since meyer insists on making the comparison herself).

BooHooMonkey: yes it is narrated by a teenage girl, so it is going to be an angst-fest and more than a little unrealistic. However, it also means we do not get a complete picture of events. All we know is that Bella believes that Edward is some perfect, selfless creature who does it all for her. It doesn't mean that he is.
The fact that meyer reinforces this perspective in the draft of midnight sun is actually to the detriment of the series as a whole. All-consuming teenage crushes do not and cannot continue that way forever, and nor should they, but in twilight they do.

Twilight is, then, wish-fulfillment abstinence porn.

part of the point of Twilight is that vampires can resist their baser instincts - so they are capable of change.

Romeo and Juliet ends badly only because of their families, Heathcliff I don't remember.

"Twilight is, then, wish-fulfillment abstinence porn." - yep, agree with that. Still prefer my teenager to be reading that rather than the hard core porn that the boys they meet are reading!

I'm bored of this now.

The only difference between Edward and the multitude of classic male characters out there is that their characters are explored as great literary figures whereas Edward is read by teen girls (and older women) who hold him up as some amazing guy who's just out to love Bella.

Personally I think all of them from Romeo, to Mr Rochester, to Heathcliff to Edward are complete pricks. And dont get me started on Mr Darcy!

But whatever, if it makes girls/women happy then great.

It's not that unhealthy relationships shouldn't be in fiction! But Wuthering Heights is an exploration of the nature of self-destruction, for instance, asking its readers to consider the power of sexual obsession, to consider whether violence and self-destructiveness are inherited or acquired, to question where the blame might lie. And it's a tragedy. It's not the same as presenting an unhealthy relationship as the ultimate goal and happy ending of the story, without any self-questioning or self-awareness whatsoever.

I just think it's a bit insidious to use romance fiction to peddle this kind of message, so that we get pleasure from the way the book is written and put together and ignore its darker content. It's like a racist joke - the structure of the joke might be funny, the comic might deliver it with excellent comic timing, and many people might laugh because the joke is well-constructed. But it's racist and its content is not funny at all, but really damaging. Where do you draw the line at what you will accept from a fiction just because it's written in an enjoyable way?

Anyway, I don't know why I've come over all Puritan! I do think it's possible to enjoy these books for fun, and I certainly wouldn't stop my daughters (if I had any) reading them. I just think learning to spot, and take with a pinch of salt, these things is a good thing.

At the risk of boring you further, littlewolf, i will have to dsagree. Many generations of readers have adored mr rochester, mr darcy, heathcliff and the rest of them not because of their literary value, but because of the passions and romance their characters and stories evoke. Same as edward today, although i am the first to agree that stephenie meyer is at best an average writwr, so no literary claims there.

I think you need to remember that twilight, like any book, is not read out of context and young women reading it today do so in the context of a cultural environment that increasingly sexualises and commodifies them, not to mention in a very real world where 90% of boys only want to get into their pants. In this sense the twilight world is appealing because it conterbalances all the other messages they are receiving, but is also contextualised as something clearly fictional.

I remember being obsessed with dead poets society at 13- watched it so many times i knew it by heart. At no point did i think that the only way to find my way in the world was to commit suicide.

I agree with your post take that, i am just nor convinced that the majority of twilight readers approach it in the passive, uncritical fashion many seem to assume. After all, we all know vampires don't exist! (or do they....)

Hi mystic - I agree with you. I think it's patronising when people assume that (especially young female) readers are uncritical and naive when they're obviously not, or can't tell the difference between the bits that are real, like the abuse of women, and the bit's that aren't (unless vampires really are real!). I think loads of the anxiety around Twilight is just an anxiety about whether girls really have brains or not, a debate that is potentially much more damaging than the books themselves!

For me, the subtext of the Twilight series makes them difficult to enjoy. But if other people enjoy them, as they obviously do, then who am I to complain?

Thanks for reminding me!

I think they are terrible- poorly written, formulaic, tedious dross blah blah etc. I judge grown women for their obsession.

Don't read them, read the fanfic instead. Invariably, better written and much more interesting. Look for anything with an NC-17 tag...

mhh interesting so how do you judge grown women for their obsession to fanfic? Because I have spent the last 2 weeks doingreading nothing else...

Well, as somebody who writes fanfic (NOT twilight!), I'm in no position to judge.

What are you reading MM? Is it slash?

I have only just discovered the concept of fanfic and i am hooked! I just realised i have basically been composing fanfic in my head ever since I started reading

my fave Twilight fanfic is Irritable Grizzly Adams. It;s what the saga should have been, and how it should have been written.

I also love Edward Wallbanger

I have greatly enjoyed Wide Awake, but if you've found the controlling relationship in Twilight questionable, I doubt you'd enjoy this!

Aah, I get you.

I uhm, erm, erm, don't write het. Or gen.

Twilight's one redeeming point is that it's good fanfic fodder.

I prefer Edward/Jacob slash meself. Now THAT is what the books should have been. Screw Bella.

what do het and gen mean??????

Oooooh SOH, which fandom do you write for?

Het's the opposite of slash. Heterosexual. Slash is broadly split into um slash (m/m) and femslash (f/f).

Gen is general ie non, er, romantic.

SPN mainly but you may find me lurking around Torchwood (Jack/Ianto), Dr Who (Ten/Rose) and Merlin/Arthur.