So this post will be about TWILIGHT and NEW MOON. But no gushing, because that's not how I roll.
So New Moon comes out on Friday. Let's start at the beginning of my Twilight fascination: my good friend Jenny M. recommended to me that I read the books, because she loved them so. It was the summer after I graduated college, I had nothing to do and had a very long list of books that I was almost finished with, so I thought, why the hell not? I tend to like YA fiction, partly because I want to be able to recommend things for my future students/my brother to read. So I got the first booka dn ti was sooooo cheap because it was paperback. I read it in a day, day and a half. I don't remember, I just remember being in a haze of loving it.
Now, part of the reason why I loved it at the time was because I LOVE vampires. When I was a child, I was scared of them, so much so that if I knew my parents were watching a vampire movie, I would tell them they had to get it out of the house. Part of the reason I sleep with the blanket over my head is because when I was little, I thought that would prevent vampires from biting me. (Old habits die hard) However, my love for vampires came in around age 16, and I've been hooked for awhile. Vampires and Zombies. Awesome.
So Twilight had vampires. I also was semi attracted to Edward. He loved Bella, he wanted to be with her, he wanted to keep her safe. I will admit, this attracted me. Perhaps it was because I was having a rough time emotionally. I'll man up and admit it: I had just graduated college, I didn't know or have a job yet or know what I was doing, and in the man department I was being consistently disappointed. It makes sense that I would be attracted to a book character who actively WANTED to be with a person, as my person did not actively want to be with me at all. It was a rough summer/almost 2 years. Anywho, because of this, I liked it. I never liked Bella, I thought she was an annoying character who was all woe-is-me-my-parents-are-divorced. Oftentimes, I get short with people/book characters who complain about their parents being divorced, just because mine have been for so long. It's an insensitive characteristic that I am semi ashamed of. But whatever, I didn't like Bella.
Because it was the summer and because the first three books were already out, I flew through them at an alarming speed. I was well done with them before Breaking Dawn came out, and I was close to reading Eclipse before I got Breaking Dawn just so the story would stay fresh in my memory. But I didn't, just went and got Breaking Dawn and flew through it. Now, I must admit that I did realize at the time that this was the worst writing ever. However, I was originally compelled by the story, which is why I continued to read. Also, I have a bad habit of when I don't know the ending, I have to know, no matter what kind of story.
So I finished the series and was semi disappointed. It was over and what was I left with? Nothing. I let it sit in for a couple of months and I came to this conclusion: I fucking hate everything the book stands for. First, I was very against the fact that Bella lived and breathed for a man who wasn't even alive. Granted, take the supernatural aspect out of it and Bella still lived and breathed for a MAN. She has no outside interests that we are ever show, just Edward Edward Edward Edward. Nothing else. Now, I understand being in love. It's happened to me. I'm in love right now. However, I have outside interests. Granted, they aren't much right now, but I like to read, I like to dance by myself in my room, I watch tv, I am focused on school work, I surf the internet, I like walking, I like hanging out with friends I like reading celebrity gossip, I like clothes, I play videogames and sometimes, I color. The thing is, only one of those is because of my boyfriend, and that's playing videogames. And to be honest, I have always liked playing them, I just had gotten out of the habit and he renewed interest in the matter for me. However, Bella doesn't have any of these. When she has to hang out with people who aren't vampires or werewolves, it's a burden for her. She has friends who like to hang out with her, but she could give two craps about them. I guess in her downtime she reads or something, but there's no mention of it. Really, it's like the times in the book that aren't important enough to write about, she's just sitting on the toilet, thinking about how much she loves Edward. Do something else with your time! Love can be all encompassing and you can think about your significant other 95% of the time, but fill your day with stuff so you're not just sitting around. And so you have a life of your own. I think that was the point about New Moon: to try to get Bella to have a life outside of a man. Which was then a fail, because she just hung out with Jacob all the time and tried to see Edward in near death situations. Ridiculous.
Secondly, I don't know how I feel about the underlying "wait until marriage to have sex" theme. While I recognize that it is a personal choice and I'm not trying to judge, I think it was strange that it was never really explained in that way. Bella's all rip roarin' to go at it and Edward is all "let's wait because I might hurt you." I don't think that we should scare people into not having sex because it will "hurt." I mean, having a baby hurts, people do that. Breaking bones hurts, people do that. So, that's not the way to explain it. I don't know. It was an underlying theme that probably wasn't meant to rub people the wrong way, but it made me uncomfortable. But maybe that's just because I'm a huge hooker (kidding.)
Thirdly, the idea of Edward being a perfect man is great and all, but I'm not sure if it is ok to give young adults/young teenagers the idea that there is a perfect man. And while you think your man is perfect, that does not excuse them from making mistakes or from not being perfect all the time. It's not really being responsible to give girls this male romantic model and have that not be true in all cases. It's unrealistic. Also, to a point, he's kind of controlling of Bella in the "Don't do that, I want/need you to be safe." While it is appropriate to be worried, at the end of the day, you make decisions as a couple, no one tells anyone what else to do.
So these are my thoughts. In no way am I saying I am not going to see the movie New Moon, because I am. I'm disgusted with myself as well, guys. I'm not sure what my Love/Hate relationship is with this movie, but I think it's good that I recognize that I hate it, that I can tell the reasons why I hate it and that I'm old enough to know better. And this is possibly why I won't ever recommend the books to anyone younger than me, because they don't know better. It's bad enough that as a pre-teen/teenager you have ridiculous expectations about love and relationships, and you don't know anything about it and you get your examples from books, tv and movies. But for people to recommend these to people, I just think is irresponsible. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the books and I"m not saying I won't continue to grossly enjoy the movies, I'm just saying there should be a "Caution: Unrealistic" sticker on them.
Also, I would like to instill some taste in my students, so I will not be recommending this book to them as it's not really very well written. In fact, I'm sure when I do become a teacher, I'll find a student who already writes better than Stephanie Myer. Also on my list of books that I will not recommend: Coldest Winter Ever. The fact that I see 8th graders reading this always hurts me on the inside.
