Twilight

We've read at least one, and we'll prove it!
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mountainmage
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Re: Twilight

Post by mountainmage »

No comment. But I will say I saw a guy reading Breaking Dawn today. I resisted the urge to snicker derisively.
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Re: Twilight

Post by Lethal Interjection »

I'm really sad how much this series is surrounding me. I just felt like I've surrounded myself with better people than those who jump on a literary (and cinematic) bandwagon.
I'm not sure if that speaks poorly on my friends, or just means that the book is better than I give credit for.

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mountainmage
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Re: Twilight

Post by mountainmage »

Definitely the former. Don't let doubt creep into your mind.
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Sahan
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Re: Twilight

Post by Sahan »

tucker wrote:on a seperate note im pretty much the only guy i know who has read the entire series...and i thought it was awesome...im not one of those "lit junkies" either that only reads so they can appreciate the "art" of writing...i just love good stories...and twilight is a very good story
I think I'm starting to understand why you may have been the most hated person on this forum at this point, but to confirm that requires reading Twilight, which I have no intention of doing.
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Re: Twilight

Post by hawhaw1267 »

In an attempt to destroy any fan base Twilight has, I've been strategically telling my girlfriend (not Steffles anymore) that I would take her to see it...then BAM...I smack her in the throat for ever trusting that she sees Twilight.

Now in her head Twilight is synonymous with throat slaps*

If only we can do that for everyone.


*or synonymous with wanting to cheat on me...

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Re: Twilight

Post by Frostbite »

Lethal Interjection wrote:I'm really sad how much this series is surrounding me. I just felt like I've surrounded myself with better people than those who jump on a literary (and cinematic) bandwagon.
I'm not sure if that speaks poorly on my friends, or just means that the book is better than I give credit for.
It speaks poorly of your friends. I'm not faring much better.
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Re: Twilight

Post by AHMETxRock »

I read a review of twilight. IT says that most of the appeals are based on the boy being all glittery, and are supposed to be signs of low quality writing. However, it mentions the fact the target audience is the young tween generation just beginning to understand feelings of attraction, and that it's left vague in a way the girls can relate to without breaking their comfort zones.

Shit. Does that mean that it is actually good? I don't like it, but I'm not an 11 year old girl.
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Re: Twilight

Post by Edminster »

By that logic, One Night with His Virgin Mistress can be considered 'good'.

Quality of writing is key, not popularity with a target demographic. Just because the people it is written for feel like they can 'identify' with a piece of writing does not mean that it is excused from being judged harshly.
Last edited by Edminster on Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mountainmage
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Re: Twilight

Post by mountainmage »

Well, I posted this in the Soap Opera thread, but it bears repeating due to its sheer awesomeness.
TrebelClef wrote:Essentially what happens when you walk into Hot Topic, pick out the first twelve year old you see, and then have her write an Anne Rice novel. Twilight is a shallow blunder, and it sure is proud of it. The book reads like fan-fiction from a horny teenager (though that phrase may be redundant) with a mental problem, instead of providing any form of good writing we get every vampire cliché known to man until you're guaranteed every scene-(I am ignorant and should be dragged into the street and shot in the mouth.) that reads it will adore it. It is truly astounding how Meyer is able to say so, SO little in the course of 500 pages.

More than half of Twilight is just characters giving wry smiles, chuckling, hissing, glaring, flaring nostrils and raising eyebrows during some vapid, angsty conversation. The whole thing is narrated by some chick named Bella Swan, someone so lacking in human characteristics that it is more than easy to forget this is your main character. Reading this book makes it no surprise the only people who like this are around thirteen years old, both the main characters are covered in disgusting gloss and teenage perfection. Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are two of the dullest characters I've ever become acquainted with.

Bella is just another "average, ordinary, everyday girl" typical of romance novels. She is the "new girl in school" cliché and instantly becomes popular by doing nothing. She is made essentially perfect in every manner, but in an attempt to hide this the author decides to make her clumsy. The problem is that anyone familiar with these stereotypes knows that when it comes to these characters this is actually a "plus". It also doesn't help she spends a large amount of time I could have spent hammering a nail into my foot whining about how she always falls down. That is, of course, when she isn't using insane amounts of adjectives to describe the "dreamy" vamp of her life, Edward Cullen.

Oh, Edward Cullen. How I loathe thee. This talking mannequin is spoken about for pages upon pages with what looks like a late-night session on fanfiction.net with a teenager and a thesaurus. Like Boring Bella, Ennuyeux Edward is without depth and without flaw. Know what else Bella and Edward are without? CHEMISTRY. This is pretty much the book version of Neo and Trinity from the Matrix, except even worse. A third of the book is spent with these two Barbie dolls enjoying fake, unrealistic sexual tension akin to an episode of InuYasha until an awful plot forms. The important thing is that it ends with Cullen and Bella at the prom... AWWWWWWWWW, NO ONE SAW THIS COMING. AWWWW.

There is a lot more to say about this offense against literature, but this is just a quick little review from me. Despite all of this bullshit, the most infuriating thing about this 4-part story is that it isn't rotting on LiveJournal where it belongs. It is out there making millions with people who wouldn't know quality if it punted them in the vagina. It offers nothing to the reader. Just some clever marketing, some clever abuse of the masses. It is a superficial story that leaves readers with the image of a girl who discovers her own worth and gets all she ever wanted, by giving up her identity and throwing away nearly everything in life that matters. For this reason, Twilight's fame is far more understandable. For this sacrifice of self for the shallow and meaningless truly captures the spirit of the generation it's written for, or at least, the lack thereof.
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Re: Twilight

Post by Lethal Interjection »

Edminster wrote:Quality of writing is key, not popularity with a target demographic. Just because the people it is written for feel like they can 'identify' with a piece of writing does not mean that it is excused from being judged harshly.
Sadly, this is the world we live in. Where the text itself has little importance, and the meaning it gives to reader is more important. I'm generally a postmodern at heart, but I've always had a problem with this view of literature. That the author and text mean nearly nothing once the book has been in the hands of a reader.

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Re: Twilight

Post by Edminster »

I think my main issue with modern fiction for children and adolescents is the sheer focus on material things and shifting blame away from where it is due. Time was that books actually imparted valuable moral lessons to the reader, like how it is your duty to fight against tyranny, or that survival is all dependant upon ingenuity and your will to live, or that mankind is simultaneously despicable and priceless beyond value.

Yes, those all link to Heinlein novels. Some of the best lessons that I have learned come from him, many of which come from his most recognisable character.
Lazarus Long wrote:Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.
Lazarus Long wrote:A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Lazarus Long wrote:All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly, which can — and must — be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly — and no doubt will keep on trying.
Lazarus Long wrote:Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.
Lazarus Long wrote:The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.
The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.
Lazarus Long wrote:There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature" — but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the Naturist reveals his hatred for his own race — i.e., his own self-hatred.
In the case of "Naturists" such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women — it strikes me as a fine arrangement — and perfectly "natural" Believe it or not, there were "Naturists" who opposed the first flight to old Earth's Moon as being "unnaturaI" and a "despoiling of Nature."
Lazarus Long wrote:The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute — get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.
Lazarus Long wrote:Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)
Lazarus Long wrote:Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.
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Sahan
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Re: Twilight

Post by Sahan »

Those are some good quotes. Now someone juxtapose this with the most meaningful quotes from Twilight to make a point.
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mountainmage
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Re: Twilight

Post by mountainmage »

Sahan wrote:meaningful quotes from Twilight
Isn't that an oxymoron?
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Re: Twilight

Post by Edminster »

mountainmage wrote:
Sahan wrote:meaningful quotes from Twilight
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Maybe we can make it a scavenger hunt! Points to whomever first reproduces any of the above quotes by deliberately misquoting any of the Twilight books. Simple rules, each word must come later in the text than the previous one; you are not allowed to skip backwards to get a word you needed. You are allowed to drop letters when necessary. For example:
I lead my company in being skilled, professional, and compassionate. Some have likened me to Mother Teresa.
becomes
I ... killed ... Mother Teresa.
ol qwerty bastard wrote:bitcoin is backed by math, and math is intrinsically perfect and logically consistent always

gödel stop spreading fud

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Re: Twilight

Post by Laneth »

Edminster wrote:I lead my company in being skilled, professional, and compassionate. Some have likened me to Mother Teresa.
becomes
I ... killed ... Mother Teresa.
Now that is just evil, awesome and reminds me of Russell Crowe.........y'know, a beautiful mind when he goes nuts and thinks people are communicating in code in all the national newspapers?
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