Can anyone explain me the Twilight obsession?

Wafaa79

**Warning Spoilers**
I just don’t get it.
I bought the 4 books on a deal, having heard so much about it and dear God, I didn’t expect this to be the lamest fiction I ever read. It makes a Mills&Boon novel look like an essay written by Freud.
I read the 4 books as I didn’t want to rate it without having finished it.
How can characters such as Edward and Bella being praised and adored by so many people?
She is extremely whiny, selfish, manipulative, unfriendly, disrespectful to her parents and friends, has no goal or ambition or any personality to speak of and is completely submissive to her stalking boyfriend.
He is controlling to the excess and also has nothing interesting to say either, despite the fact that he has been living for over 100 years with tons of money to spend and the world to travel.
Their “love” is based on her worshipping his good looks and him loving her smell. Ugh! The relationship is really creepy. Meyer is obviously confused on the difference between love and sick obsession.
The writing as well is so poor! Meyer elaborates ad nauseam. I cannot believe that she majored in English literature when she uses expression like “his eyes tightened”. How the hell does one tighten their eyes?? Or when repetitively mentions “Edward’s perfect face” (I gave up counting how many times she says that, but it is by the dozens).
Granted, I am not the target audience, being a woman in my early thirties but considering that this is aimed at young girls, I am appalled at the lessons they can retrieve from it.
I enjoyed romance in my teen years but I wanted my heroine to have some spine, not to be a mopping brat.
The messages conveyed in this saga is nothing less but unhealthy, especially in the second book when Edward leaves Bella and she turns into some kind a catatonic zombie looking for life-threatening thrills so she can hear her ex-boyfriend’s voice in her head.
I know that Meyer is a Mormon but does this mean that the message she wants to give young girls is that without a man to submit to, life is not worth living and your family and friends don’t matter anymore?
Bella learns NOTHING from her mistakes, on the contrary, at the end she gets it all, no sacrifice had to be done, there is no remorse at her behavior or wisdom acquired.
I won’t get into the huge gaps and inconsistencies of the plot that Meyer simply botched, or my post would be never ending.
But is this franchise really supposed to teach young girls about life and love?
Wow.

swervring

There's something slightly addictive about the story, even with some of the most annoying characters ever created and some truly terrible writing. That's my only explanation of it having read all four books!!! and also my only explanation for reading the 50 shades books which as a fanfiction echoes the horrible characters, whiny irritating and pathetic female lead and controlling possessive and scary male lead, as well as the really bad writing, perfectly!!

Wafaa79

I see what you mean... Like watching a Steven Seagal movie ;-)

sbsquarepants

Wafaa79 wrote: »

But is this franchise really supposed to teach young girls about life and love?
Wow.

No, it's not.
It's meant to sell books, movies and merchandise and it seems to be doing so extremely well. Sometimes a story is just a story!

endacl

It's the age old question.... Will the heroine choose necrophilia or bestiality?

eviltwin

I've read all 4 books, enjoyed books 1 and 3, found book 2 okay and book 4 an ordeal but I had to see how it all ended

I don't see anywhere in the books where Meyer is telling teenage girls that Bella's relationship with Edward is something to aspire to. The whole time she and Edward were dating she seemed miserable, on edge, anxious etc. If anything I took from it that Jacob was the obvious choice for her but she was too stubborn to see it

Wafaa79

sbsquarepants wrote: »

No, it's not.
It's meant to sell books, movies and merchandise and it seems to be doing so extremely well. Sometimes a story is just a story!

Well anything published is meant to make money nowadays. I have yet to meet the author who writes just to teach and enlighten and doesn’t care about how many copies he sells.
What bothers me is the message Twilight conveys to young impressionable girls, especially considering the huge popularity of the series.
An adult would shrug that off as a guilty pleasure but I wonder if a teenager would have the same perspective.

Wafaa79

eviltwin wrote: »

I don't see anywhere in the books where Meyer is telling teenage girls that Bella's relationship with Edward is something to aspire to.

Well I’d say she tells them in the happy ending: Bella gets immortality, a husband, a child, her family and tons of money.
Despite her bad behavior and choices, she does get it all and loses / regrets nothing :-)

Tin Foil Hat

Wafaa79 wrote: »

Well anything published is meant to make money nowadays. I have yet to meet the author who writes just to teach and enlighten and doesn’t care about how many copies he sells.
What bothers me is the message Twilight conveys to young impressionable girls, especially considering the huge popularity of the series.
An adult would shrug that off as a guilty pleasure but I wonder if a teenager would have the same perspective.

Massages smessages. It's only fiction.
There's far too much of this tripe nowadays - as if anyone who come's up with a book, a movie or a TV show has to make sure their characters are a wholesome example to the stupidest of the stupid. It's as if we are living in a exaggerated parody of the 1950's.
If you have young kids then it is your job to raise them to see our junk culture for what it is - vacuous, pointless nonsense. It is not a chick-lit authors job to pander to your sensibilities. If you want the likes of Twilight to disappear off our shelves, then the best thing to do is to not buy it.

swervring

Yeah the message isnt great, but if the only advice young impressionable girls are getting is from the Twilight books there's more issues to worry about. What gets me is how such awful writing got published in the first place!!

Wafaa79

You make a good point. It’s a parent responsibility to educate a kid on what right or wrong. I agree with you.
However it is a common thing for kids to identify themselves to fictional characters they like. Who has not played make believe that they were Batman or Pocahontas?
Just go online on Twihard fans forum and see how many girls are looking for their Edward.
The youth is inspired by trends, it was always like that.
I am simply puzzled at why these 2 morons are portrayed as the ideal couple. What happened to dreaming of being a real hero, to wanting to accomplish great things?
Then I am not saying that these books are going to create a generation of submissive depressed wives.
I simply just cannot process the obsession around a story that in the end is only teaching the wrong things.
Thanks for your input.

swervring

Well realistically I think the obsession and fascination has a lot to do with online forums and the like - put it this way, when I was a kid if someone dreamt about being Batman, they put a black sack around their shoulders and ran down the road and argued about who had to be Robin, there was no internet to talk to similarly obsessed kids!!!
Personally when I was a young teenager I was a mad Boyzone fan, dreamt that one day I'd marry Ronan Keating... just as well that never came true

sbsquarepants

Wafaa79 wrote: »

Well I’d say she tells them in the happy ending: Bella gets immortality, a husband, a child, her family and tons of money.
Despite her bad behavior and choices, she does get it all and loses / regrets nothing :-)

It's similar to a crime writer writing a story where the killer gets away scot free. It's just a story, not an incitement to commit the perfect murder! It's up to parents to raise their kids, it's only up to writers, film makers and so on to entertain them for money, nothing more.
Now don't get me wrong, some authors, film makers, song writers and so on- usually only the really good ones- also throw in a social commentary of some sort, but the primary purpose has to be to entertain, if you don't nail that first then you're just spitting in the wind with any message you wish to convey. And even in those rare cases, the message conveyed is just the authors opinion anyway!
I'm not sure if Stephanie Meyer has any kids, but if she does then those are the only ones she has any responsibility for raising. She's just a story teller at the end of the end of the day, not some moral authority figure.

Wafaa79

I agree with you. I probably explained myself wrong there (English is not my mother tongue sorry ).
There are not many movies or books from which you can actually learn something. I don’t expect Hollywood to raise our kids.

What I meant really is that I don’t understand that people actually praise these types of characters and that lots of girls look up to them.
I am simply so puzzled as to why. Why would a girl dream of being someone as unlikeable as Bella and confuse controlling with being a gentleman?
Stories are just stories of course. Good stories (and I don’t mean simply entertaining) used to inspire me as a kid though.
Take Harry Potter, here is a brilliant book where the hero has great qualities but also flaws, he develops and learns throughout the story. He does not always win, he has to make sacrifices, endure losses. He is far from being perfect, but he is a million times more interesting than the 2 other lovebirds ;-)
Here is the character for instance that I would understand kids can relate to.

But eh, don’t misunderstand me, I am not blaming the world misery on Twilight ;-)
I just needed to vent my feelings on a terrible book. I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to literature.

sbsquarepants

Wafaa79 wrote: »

I agree with you. I probably explained myself wrong there (English is not my mother tongue sorry )..

I would never have guessed that, your english is extremely good!:D

I think it's safe to say that most twilight fans are teenage girls who are really just immersed in a love story - they probably don't even cop most of the issues you have trouble with untill they're a bit older.
It's basically a crush on an imaginary character, crushes can be quite overwhelming at that age i suppose!

endacl

The popularity of twilight can only really be understood in terms of the popularity of McDonald's and coldplay. It doesn't make sense, but lots of people seem to need it...

libra02

endacl wrote: »

The popularity of twilight can only really be understood in terms of the popularity of McDonald's and coldplay. It doesn't make sense, but lots of people seem to need it...

I have to agree there:D I am throwing Justin Bieber in there too I mean how he is famous is a mystery

It seems Meyer was lucky and the books found a niche in the "tween" market at the right time. Look at the number of spin off books, tv series for the teenage market now. You cannot swing anything about without hitting a vampire script.

Give it a year and the whole fad will die out and there be something else to take it's place.

Wafaa79

sbsquarepants wrote: »

I would never have guessed that, your english is extremely good!:D

Thanks
Yeah I guess I am probably reminiscing too much of my own teenage years where my heroines were girls that could kick a** and boys who were respecting them for their abilities.
It's only a fad and will be soon forgotten. I read that actually Meyer was rewriting Twilight but this time from Edward's perspective. Talk about milking the trend.
She didn't publish it as someone leaked it (bless him / her ;-))