Paint With Words

Thanks to my job, I’ve been thinking more and more about Twilight, and its impact on pop culture, literacy, and so on. I hear a lot of comments–for and against–the series all the time. Between this job and the bookstore job, I think I’ve caught just about ever angle of its popularity imaginable from the teenybopper girls who would NEVER dare be caught dead in public with a book aside from Twilight to the people like me who read everything they get their hands on, and took Twilight as another recommendation.

The bad side, though, to it is that now that it’s popular, any legitimacy it has is ruined because of those teenybopper bubble gum chewing girls who teeheehee giggle and squeal and swoon and drool on Edward Cullen, and that’s that. And do you really think these girls will pick up anything beside People, or Us Weekly ever again in their lives? I doubt it. It’s as disposable as Harry Potter. Maybe in time it’ll be stacked up there with other great works of literature, and will truly earn its place among the revered classics, who knows? This era in literature has to produce SOEMTHING that will be considered classic at one time. It’s part of the cycle. But until it stands the test of time, it’s just another girly book that’ll fade as soon as the movie to “Breaking Dawn” is done (assuming all the books are being made into movies).

The good though is that girls ARE reading something besides People and Us Weekly. And, it walks that fine line between smutty vampire trash (pick up some romance novels sometime, and see how THOSE read in comparison to Twilight. Even if you hate Twilight, I’m sure it’ll be like a drink of fresh water compared to the beefcake vampires whose lust for the bed is as bad as their bloodlust), and a quality novel of epic porportions. I mean, even Stephenie Meyer was inspired by stories such as Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, and the Merchant of Venice (though I don’t like how it’s influence was used in Breaking Dawn, I still give her credit for knowing Shaekspeare). To me, that says a lot if that’s some of your inspiration, and in the cases of Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet, she executed their influences quiet well, and used passages to deepen her plot. To me, that proves that she was out to be more than a teenybopper cutie pie kid’s writer that just wanted to make little girls giggle.

I also like the whole sparkly vampire thing. I know, I know, they’re supposed to fry in the sunlight. I like the old mythos too. The reason I like the sparkle thing though is because it was her attempt at something new. I respect people who at least try to do a new adaptation of something; it’s the same reason I didn’t say “Decemberunderground” from AFI was trash. Sure, it wasn’t their best album, but they went out on a limb, for them, tried a new sound, and made an album out of it. Stephenie Meyer took an idea, and adapted it to a whole new legend of how vampires are. I can  guarantee, years down the road, that people will write about some hybrid of vampries who can go out during the day, because of the cross of vampires who sparkle in the light, and vampires who combust in the sunlight.

Is her writing stellar, on the mechanical level? Honestly, not really. Not to me. She needs a lot of work. But her plots and ideas are there, and that’s more important than mechanics. Now, I mean, I hope she’d be able to use there, their, and they’re properly,  know which witch is which,  and differentiate between two too and to. If she couldn’t do that then woman writing is NOT your vocation (kinda like Tina Chen trying to be a pop singer when she can’t carry a tune). But I can forgive subpar writing if the story itself is good. That’s why you pick up a book, right? So you can read a good story. Your mechanics can be amazing, but if you can’t tell a story, once again, wrong calling buddy.

While I love Twilight, I do think there are better books out there to be read, old and new. I personally even like older literature versus new because people can’t write anymore. Gregory Maguire is one of the few new writers who understands language like people did in centuries passed.  Anyway, before I go too far off track, my point with that is, if a girl reads Twilight, and decides she actually likes reading, then it ushers her into those better books. Like I said, I think it’ll only go so far. Most girls won’t read if it’s not cool. Smart girls aren’t attractive (so the system says).But, sometimes things that appeal to the popoularity aspect can sometimes open doors to bigger and better things.

I’m going to dare to be the optimist and hope that little girls who squeal for Edward Cullen now will eventually squeal for Heathcliff, Mr. Rochester, Rhett Butler, Colonel Brandon, and Edward Ferras in the future.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS