Twilight- Not So Great.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I wrote this bomb paper for English about Twilight. So here you go!
PS. If you steal it and turn it in I'll sic my puppy on you and she'll pee on your shoes. Don't tempt me!
PPS. Full credit, biaches. And I know I could have written better.
PPPS. So some of my ideas I couldn't include- like, I think everything has some academic value, even if like in this case it's what NOT to do. But it would have been twice as long if I had even went there.

hee.

Twilight Is No Literary Masterpiece

            Over the years, certain book series develop an almost cult-like following for many different reasons. Teenage themed and targeted books are no exception and are in fact the easiest examples of such fandom. Nancy Drew mysteries, fairy tales, the Harry Potter series, and the like have stood the test of time and have remained popular with not only their original age group, but the generations after- and for good reason. Many of these series are brilliant examples of fiction, with superior plot, character development, and technically perfect writing. These books and many more will continue to be well known and worth looking into also because of the societal and other implications and themes they contain.

            With that said, there are some books and series that have a similarly outrageous fan base, but the reasons are not as clear. The plot may be shallow or too simple or banal for the target audience (or any audience for that matter), the characters may have little to no development, and the writing itself may be unintentionally erroneous. One of the biggest perpetrators of this unfortunate occurrence is the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, and none of the books in the series are worth looking at as a sample of literary achievement.  While being acceptable and for some people enjoyable as a shallow read, the Twilight series is not worth studying on a college level. This is because of a lack of character definition, one dimensional plotlines and exposition, the insulting content both to American Indians and to writers of original vampire lore, and to a small extent the movie adaptation and the fan base.

 The first, and debatably the worst, aspect of the Twilight series that makes it unworthy of studying as literature is the character development or lack thereof. Meyer is guilty of creating many flat characters with no real development, even if the potential is there for a relatable, interesting character. First, the main character Bella never gets over or even considers her immaturity and selfishness, even in the last book with the birth of her and Edward’s daughter. One holds a sliver of hope that motherhood would have snapped her into some form of responsibility, but unfortunately nothing happens to remedy it. Also, through the entire series, Bella inserts herself into situations and problems that simply are not hers to be a part of, not to mention deal with.  For example, in the first book, Edward’s adopted sister Rosalie is less than warm to Bella, and Bella takes it upon herself (despite the imminent danger) to confront her about her problems. This eventually leads to more problems between the two which could have easily been averted had Bella kept to her own business. She also does “not have any kind of hobbies, interests, etc. outside of the hero,” which makes her even more flat and unbelievable (Twilight: A Follow Up).

Bella is not the only character that needs a revamping in order to become more likable, relatable, and interesting. The werewolf Jacob stays fairly pigheaded through the entire series, and cannot take no for an answer- saying in all books multiple times that he loves her, will not leave, and is “prepared to be annoyingly persistent” (New Moon, pg 219) . Ironically enough, this circle finally ends once he falls in love with Bella’s infant daughter in the last book, which simply adds to the pitiful character, even if he did grow in maturity due to his tribe’s werewolf curse. The character of Edward is in a constant emotional breakdown because of his self-inflicted inability to express emotion, which makes it very difficult to discern if the love he claims to feel for Bella is real. He also has a severe martyr complex, and is perpetually belittling himself and his kind to try to dissuade Bella from taking any sort of action. This is in no way helped by Bella’s inability to function without Edward there, which is proved by her saying such things as “I don’t care! You can have my soul. I don’t want it without you — it’s yours already” (New Moon, 69). The other supporting characters are much the same way, but not to the extent of the main three, simply because Meyer wanted to make Bella an “everygirl” so that the female fan base would feel like it was them in the story, and Edward and Jacob both perfect in their own respects to fulfill most girl’s fantasies. Needless to say, this attempt failed and makes the books less interesting as a whole. It is also worth nothing that while most characters are given brief physical description, the most we hear about Bella herself is that she is brunette, while Edward is described on what feels like every page as an “Adonis” and with eyes of “buttery burning gold” and on and on (Breaking Dawn, 48).

Another less than stellar point about the Twilight series is the one dimensional plotline and exposition. All conflict and discussion is directly linked to the love triangle of Bella, Jacob, and Edward. While Edward is the main love interest, Jacob is relentless in his pursuit of Bella’s affection, and in some points she returns it, but only when it suits her needs at the time. For example, during the course of New Moon, Edward is mostly an absentee. While he is gone, Bella toys with Jacob with things like making “a gesture indicating the two of us as a single entity. He liked that — he beamed” (New Moon, 164). This pettiness and manipulation is believable in a character such as Bella, but does not make for a storyline in and of itself. Continuing on, the only reason that the Italian vampires caused such a ruckus in the third book, Eclipse, is because of Edward and Bella’s relationship. There are no problems throughout the book that are caused by anything other than them being together.

Also perpetuating the lack of real plot, “the author oh-so-cleverly inserts blank pages with the months’ names as a poorly conceived plot device for showing the depths of her heroine’s pain and also to avoid having to write the hard stuff” (Twilight Sucks) . The supporting characters, especially her extra-flatly developed father and Jacob, attempt to pull her out of this near comatose state, but it is hard to see any good being done when her father does nothing but say a few words telling her to not be so emotional, and that “trouble would be better than this… this moping around all the time” (New Moon, 95). The last conflicting plot points still go back to Edward and Bella, but more deal with his “family” and the twisted love affairs and partnerships going on within. The vampire couples- Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett, and even to a small extent Esme and Carlisle all have to take turns helping each other past intensely difficult times brought about, by no small amount, by Bella’s presence.

Another point that proves that the Twilight series is not worth its weight by literary standards is simply a matter of comparison. Vampirism is a “taboo” topic, but is still covered incredibly frequently both past and present, not even including the new vampire based books that have been published after the Twilight series’ success. Considering the true literary classics, including Dracula and the like, Twilight is insulting to classic vampire literature. It is a mixed blessing, as the popularity of these books may have spawned a new interest in the vampire classics. However, this is a two-edged sword considering that when some people read this less than stellar series, they may be turned off of vampire themed literature in general. It may be stereotyping, but it simply happens this way. Another insulting segment in all of the books is the blatant unhealthy relationship going on between Bella and Edward- if it were anyone else watching a girl as they slept all night, it would be grounds for a call to the police and a restraining order, not a sign of his immense devotion and perfect love. The constantly disturbing actions of Edward (and to a lesser extent Jacob’s stalker symptoms) and Bella’s dependence on them is highly disquieting and borderline misogynistic. On top of potentially insulting past authors and women, even worse is the severe insult to a Native American tribe. Contrary to what readers may believe, the shape shifting Quileute tribe of the books is a real thriving tribe near Forks, Washington, and they are not pleased with the books and their portrayal of the tribe and its people. Their real belief is that “their ancestors changed forever from wolves into humans by a mysterious traveler” and they are afraid “the vampire flick offers a wrong portrayal of their history and is insulting to their community” (Native American tribe) . Normally, books have some questionable content and can offend people simply because of that, but this is singling out a single tribe by name and adds to the proof that the books should not be used as a literary example.

The final reason why the Twilight series is no literary masterpiece is the fact that the writing is far less than acceptable. It is commonly called purple prose, and is heavy on modifiers and adjectives when they are not even close to necessary. This is mostly the case in any and every description of Edward, and critics are often more annoyed with this fact that anything else. Some joke that “If you do not have at least three modifiers for every noun, you’re doing it wrong” (Twilight: A Follow Up). Also, while not the authors fault, the editors let many grammatical errors slip through. While this is normally excusable and may in fact be intentional in some cases, i.e. Flowers for Algernon, in this case it simply adds to the reasons to discredit the works. Along the lines of discrediting the books, the movies are also a small part of why the books are shrugged off. The film adaptations are simply terrible, and each has been given no higher than a 50% positive rating by users on a major film critiquing website. It is unfortunate that any book will be thought less of for a bad movie adaptation, but in this case it is deserved.

            With all of this being said, it is not fully the author’s fault that the books are as unsophisticated as they are. Another unrelated book by Stephenie Meyer, The Host, is very well written and has strong characters, plot, and is in general the polar opposite of the Twilight series. A possibility for this disparity is that, perhaps, the author was buying in too much to make the series marketable (which certainly succeeded). Maybe she was holding so tightly to her strong Mormon faith that it simply made the prose awkward or made publishers and editors not take her seriously- as noted, “Meyer needs to not let her Mormon roots get the better of her” (Scantily Clad). A last possibility is that she simply was a mediocre writer at that time, and improved greatly at the creation of The Host. Also, to the book’s credit, it is banned in some places for no real reason -save for the “darkness” of the vampires- which many brilliant books also have to deal with, and which always seems to add to a book’s popularity. The Twilight series, unlike a comparable series like Harry Potter, does not have the skill and is not remarkable enough to utilize this higher interest simply because of its controversial status. It is unfortunate that the series is only enjoyable as a shallow read, but Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn all have something that speaks to readers, and that cannot be brought into disrepute. More than likely, Stephenie Meyer will continue to write, and her work will only improve from this point on in all aspects.