{"id":187,"date":"2008-03-10T23:12:29","date_gmt":"2008-03-11T06:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=187"},"modified":"2008-03-10T23:12:29","modified_gmt":"2008-03-11T06:12:29","slug":"twilight-preliminary-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/twilight-preliminary-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Twilight: preliminary thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I’m reading Twilight<\/em> by Stephanie Meyers, to try and figure out what makes this book work.\u00a0 It’s been a really interesting experience so far, but I’m starting to understand why Brandon Sanderson called it “a book for 14 year old girls, or anyone who’s ever been a 14 year old girl.” It hearkens back to a conversation I had with a friend about monkeys and computers…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…namely, on the spectrum between monkeys and computers, guys’ rational thought processes tend to fall in the mid to high range, whereas girls are right down there with monkeys: irrational, emotionally-driven, and sometimes downright schizophrenic.<\/p>\n

Here’s what bugs me:<\/p>\n

First of all, Edward is kind of an annoying character.\u00a0 Every time Bella looks at him he’s got some kind of a smile or a smirk or a sarcastic laugh on his face.\u00a0 I don’t understand it.\u00a0 Is this somehow supposed to make him attractive?\u00a0 It just makes it harder for me to see him as a character.\u00a0 What kind of a person always<\/em> has some kind of a cynical smile on their face?\u00a0 Meyers mentions it so much it’s almost like it’s been surgically implanted there.\u00a0 The only way I can explain it is that this somehow makes his character more sexy.<\/p>\n

Second, Bella is driving a car to school, has taken care of her Mom for all her life, practically lives on her own and likes it…and yet whenever she’s around this Edward guy, she acts like a 14 year old.\u00a0 She’s not only irrational, she’s either on an absolute high or a terrible low.\u00a0 I can grasp the fact that girls are more like this than guys, but still, she’s so extreme that I’m having a hard time swallowing it.<\/p>\n

Then, there’s the whole thing about her attraction to Edward.\u00a0 As a disclaimer, I should say that I don’t<\/em> believe in falling in love–I believe in growing<\/em> in love, but not falling<\/em> in love–but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief, so long as the writer makes it seem like it’s possible.\u00a0 And either way, I totally believe in falling into infatuation<\/em>–that’s happened to me many times before, after all.<\/p>\n

But the way she just falls for him…I don’t get it.\u00a0 She’s angry with him one moment, then slavering like a dog the moment he looks at her.\u00a0 And she doesn’t even consider the other guys (though honestly I don’t blame her–and I can see a little bit of myself in the annoying Mike character that follows her around)–it’s just this Edward guy.\u00a0 Once the thought enters her subconscious, he’s the only one that matters.\u00a0 And yet…why?\u00a0 What does she see in him?\u00a0 Someone who abuses her?\u00a0 Does she want<\/em> to be abused?<\/p>\n

I guess none of these things in itself is all that problematic–it’s just that they’re all skewed out of proportion.\u00a0 Edward smirks too<\/em> much for me, Bella becomes infatuated too<\/em> quickly, her emotions are too<\/em> extreme, etc.\u00a0 As a guy (and a cynical one at that), I’m having a hard time suspending my disbelief.<\/p>\n

But other than that, I can say the first hundred pages has been an interesting experience.\u00a0 This book is completely different than what I’m used to–where relationships drive the plot instead of characters, ideas, plot, or some kind of quest \/ war against the dark lord.\u00a0 It’s definitely holding my interest, if not for the love (?) story, then for the feminine perspective on things, and the other elements of the story as well.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if I’m going to get the next hundred pages any better than the first, but I’m going to find out soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I’m reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, to try and figure out what makes this book work.\u00a0 It’s been a really interesting experience so far, but I’m starting to understand why Brandon Sanderson called it “a book for 14 year old girls, or anyone who’s ever been a 14 year old girl.” It hearkens back… Continue reading Twilight: preliminary thoughts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,599],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-girls-and-dating","tag-thoughts-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-31","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}