An Alternative and Troubling read of TWILIGHT
The ever lovely Discipula offers an alernative read of Twilight, one that highlights all the nutty, crazy, political ramifications of Bella’s TOTAL LACK OF PERSONAL AMBITION and the nutty crazy world of her SPARKLY VAMPIRE STALKER LOVER.
Quotes from the post:
This, I have discovered, is the real reason that people hate Twilight. It depicts a foolish, young girl that considers her own future, college in this case, a “plan B” to twue wuv. If you can call a controlling, possessive stalker that doesn’t trust her to make her own choices about whom she interacts with and keeps her under house arrest a true love, though I would call it the antithesis thereof. Later in the story she risks her life so that he won’t die alone, because she honestly doesn’t see that her own life is of value.
AND
These books could be an empowering allegory, the vampire a symbol for a predatory, draining relationship. The character could save herself, but doesn’t, and the author and legions of her young readers don’t see the tragedy in that. I want to make a stand; this post is the beginning of it.
_______________________________
Way to kick it feminist, D!
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Romance 
Get the feed or get email updates
Submit Article: Stumble it! | Del.icio.us |
Reddit |
Digg
ABOUT
15 comments
Hmm. This makes me want to read the books after all, because it sounds like a couple of the themes are similar to Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart (a friend called this a geek fantasy) which on the one hand does deal with kind-of-stalkerish behaviour (but through library cards) and people making decisions about love very young, but on the other is about people proving themselves to themselves and being certain about the life they want to lead, and generally exhibiting a bit more backbone than it sounds like the characters of Twilight have.
Heh. Seeing that they’re flawed makes you WANT to read them? Well, it’s your brain rot…
Personally, the sparkly vampire bit made me twitch. They’re kind of like the Anita Blake books where you desperately want someone to NOT be freakin’ insane.
Everything I’ve read and heard about the Twilight series indicates that it only gets worse, and I fail to see how Bella and Edward’s “relationship” could be anything other than creepy or abusive.
I really think it’s because what a lot of people view as true love is incredibly messed up — often, women especially are taught that if a man loves you, he’ll control you. I think that’s one of the “Every Breath You Take” is often considered a love song, but Sting has said in interviews that it’s not about healthy love — it’s about obsessive, stalker-ish love.
Oh, thankyou! I never knew that and always thought it was a creepy song. My friends and I keep a list of “stalker songs” which we’ve been spotting ever since Tripod came out with their song “Is it okay if I stalk you”.
Glad to be of service.
Yeah, see also “every romantic comedy ever.” I don’t know about y’all, but if a turn a guy down, I want him to GO AWAY (unless he’s already a friend, in which case I want him to cool it with the puppy-dog eyes); if my boyfriend starts telling me who I can see, where I can go, what I can read, and so forth, then he’s no longer my boyfriend; also, I do not find having a tooth-induced C-section at all appealing. ECH.
I just picked up the first book from a friend’s “I’m moving and I’m not taking this shit with me” collection, mostly because I haven’t gotten my rant on enough lately re: craptacular literature.
I think that’s why I like comedies of manners, and Austen, and Heyer, where people don’t stalk each other into submission but have blazing arguments until they work out whether they can get on or not - where you realise the characters have entirely independent existences and would get on perfectly well without each other but also get on quite nicely together and so you’re happy for both of them, and where they fall for each other because they have a backbone. All the Heyer’s I’ve read have a HEA ending, but that seems like a bonus. I don’t finish them wanting to fall desperately in love or have some overpowering personality control me - I want to have a blazing row, then set up in an independet establishment and throw fabulous parties.
I think fabulous parties are KEY to relationship success!
Seriously, it squicks me out when a character ends a novel with no friends but their lover.
What’s an HEA ending?
Happily Ever After! You know… when things end perfectly with a heteronormative couple kissing in the sunset.
Okay: I know what a Happy Ending is; I’d just never seen it abbreviated that way before.
What scares me is how much I’d've loved all of this when I was sixteen. I loved stalker/love stories then.
Thank God I’ve grown up in the past four years.
Genevieve, you’d be surprised how many grown adult women with children adore these books. Or not! Either they’re into Vampire genre books, or Romance, or fell in love with Edward himself (technically he’s not underage but stuck at his death-age?).
Except for the explicit sexual attraction and talk of marriage etc, this book sounds like a version of the Peter Pan story, too, which many people *also* love (to my bafflement).
Heheh - that’s like Wuthering Heights for me. The first time I read it I was in primary school and it seemed So! Romantic! Ugh.
As for Peter Pan… hmm. I love it, but it also creeps me out.
Leave a Comment