Saw the preview for the Twilight movie.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by pelagius

I suppose so ... but I think I took one for the team ... Creekster now has something to talk about with his 16 year old daighter (my guess is that she is tired of hearing about misbehaving motorist endangering the lives of cyclist)

I am not that limited, especially in July, when I also discuss the tour de France with her. But I do apprecaite your help here.

[RedHeadGal]

Originally Posted by pelagius

My review is probably unnecessarily harsh. The books actually are somewhat enjoyable. After all, I did read the whole series. I usually enjoy pages 300 to 450 quite a bit. I suspect the books are the pinnacle of the teen romance genre. However, the books have the pretense to be much more than that and that is where I think they fall flat on their face. Don't worry, I also thought Harry Potter failed in this regard as well. Just not as badly.

No, not unnecessarily harsh. I honestly don't understand what inspires the level of attention this book gets. Is it limited to LDS women in their 20s and 30s? And I disagree with your assessment that the writing is not poor. Honestly, there are so many drinking games that could be played from the text, given how redundant some of her phrasing is (e.g. the number of times Edward took her breath away. Ick).

The real question here is. . . will you be reading the new book when it comes out next month?

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

No, not unnecessarily harsh. I honestly don't understand what inspires the level of attention this book gets. Is it limited to LDS women in their 20s and 30s?

I don't think you can pin the success of these books on poor taste of young LDS females. The success is wide enough that one really has to blame the poor taste of a much wider cross-section. According to the recent Time Magazine article 5.3 million Twilight series books have been sold and 4 million in the past 12 months. No matter what one thinks of the series that kind of success is simply staggering.

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

And I disagree with your assessment that the writing is not poor. Honestly, there are so many drinking games that could be played from the text, given how redundant some of her phrasing is (e.g. the number of times Edward took her breath away. Ick).

Sure and Edwards voice is always velvet and his muscle are marble (which really helps me understand why Bella likes cuddling with him)... I will certainly admit that is annoying aspect of her writing. Although, many very successful writers that write multi-part volumes end up being noticeably redundant. For example, Robert Jordan in the Wheel of Time series showed a remarkable ability to have his female characters fold their arms indignantly under the breasts repeatedly in almost ever possible situation. Also, I suspect that the redundancy becomes more noticeable in Twilight because the sickly sweet stuff is repeated the most. I am not arguing that she is a great writer; I think her prose is mediocre but I do think she does some things very well. I actually would give her a similar rating as Jordan.

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

The real question here is. . . will you be reading the new book when it comes out next month?

I doubt next month but I imagine I will eventually get around to reading it. I will probably read it on an airplane flight ... its easy and brainless but engrossing enough to make the flight go quickly. The only problem with such a plan is I can end up being pestered by someone during the flight whose whole life was changed by the series. I was with my wife when she bought Twilight (not in Utah, Minneapolis) and the 20 something female clerk at the bookstore said something like the following to her: "I envy you to because you get to experience the book for the first time .. it changed my life ... sigh"

I suspect to a large extent that stepping back and assessing the series is in some sense unfair if one wishes to understand why the series is so popular. As one reviewer stated, "The way [Meyer] manages the reader's curiosity, maintaining tension and controlling the flow of information, is simply virtuosic. She creates a compulsion in the reader that is not unvampiric." I can agree with that statement. I find the series flawed and sickly sweet but on the other hand I do think the way Meyer manages the readers curiosity is really well done.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

Honestly, there are so many drinking games that could be played from the text, given how redundant some of her phrasing is (e.g. the number of times Edward took her breath away. Ick).

I think she might have a copywrite on the word "incredulously"

[RedHeadGal]

Originally Posted by pelagius

I don't think you can pin the success of these books on poor taste of young LDS females. The success is wide enough that one really has to blame the poor taste of a much wider cross-section. According to the recent Time Magazine article 5.3 million Twilight series books have been sold and 4 million in the past 12 months. No matter what one thinks of the series that kind of success is simply staggering.



Sure and Edwards voice is always velvet and his muscle are marble (which really helps me understand why Bella likes cuddling with him)... I will certainly admit that is annoying aspect of her writing.

Lol, I totally forgot about the marble chest and the velvet voice. Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's fully cringe-worthy each and every time.

I am a 30-something LDS woman, so I know many of these women. They all seem to read the books. I also know plenty of women this age who are non-LDS and they never heard of it. I agree it must be the poor tastes of a wider audience, I just don't know who that audience is. I guess one thing that originally drew me was that Meyer is a 1996 BYU grad, and so am I.

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

I agree it must be the poor tastes of a wider audience, I just don't know who that audience is.

I've never seen any stats on readership demographics but among my friends if they have teenage daughters (LDS or not) then they have all heard of it. For example, a non-Mormon female colleague whose also a finance professor has read the series (her opinion of it was similar to mine). Why did she read it? Because she has 12 year old daughters. Among teenage girls who like to read (smarter than average girls), this book seems to be very popular. In my neck of the woods woman (most fairly highly educated) with teenage or preteen daughters read the series so that they know what the kids are reading, etc. etc.

I have no Idea how well this profile generalizes.

[MikeWaters]

Farrah, said I think on one of the big mom forums here in Dallas a lot of women were gushing over it, and the vast majority of women on that board are not LDS.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by pelagius

I've never seen in stats on readership demographics but among my friends if they have teenage daughter (LDS or not) then they have all heard of it. For example, a non-Mormon female colleague whose also a finance professor has read the series (her opinion of it was similar to mine). Why did she read it? Because she has 12 year old daughters. Among teenage girls who like to read (smarter than average girls), this book seems to be very popular. In my neck of the woods woman (most fairly highly educated) with teenage or preteen daughters read the series so that they know what the kids are reading, etc. etc.

I have no Idea how well this profile generalizes.

I've never even heard of these books, must be my loss. Thanks for warning me pelagius dear friend.

[pelagius]

One more thought on her writing. Meyer said the following about her writing:

"I don't think I'm a writer; I think I'm a storyteller," Meyer says. "The words aren't always perfect."

So maybe I shouldn't defend her as mediocre ...

[FarrahWaters]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

Lol, I totally forgot about the marble chest and the velvet voice. Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's fully cringe-worthy each and every time.

I am a 30-something LDS woman, so I know many of these women. They all seem to read the books. I also know plenty of women this age who are non-LDS and they never heard of it. I agree it must be the poor tastes of a wider audience, I just don't know who that audience is. I guess one thing that originally drew me was that Meyer is a 1996 BYU grad, and so am I.

I can't comment on the books, but I can assure you that there are non-LDS women who are nutso over these books. There have been several threads about the series on the local mom board here. Women describe it as magical, life-changing, the best book ever written!