Friday, December 05, 2008
The real question
Is why can't I write as well as Caitlin Flanagan, who has now convinced me that I must read some 4,000-page tripe about vampire romance which I was previously utterly unwilling to touch?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
Sigh. I am so conflicted about Caitlin Flanagan.
I'd be much more pro-Flanagan if she didn't take as a starting point the 'fact' that American junior high is one big oral-sex orgy. Then again, maybe at coed schools, it is.
Not a big fan of Ms. Flanagan (though she certainly writes well).
However, certainly the public junior high school I went to was one big oral-sex orgy. I think there is probably less of that going on now than there was in my day, but it's easier to get kids to admit it to social science researchers nowadays.
Twilight is wretchedly, horrifyingly awful. I know, because I'm halfway through the third one and I can't stop readying them.
The movie was awesomely terrible though.
I'd be interested to know what you think of these books Rita. To me the portrayal of romantic love instead of rampant sex is not the takeaway. It's true to an extent that it's there, but much more striking, and the reason I would be disturbed if my 12-year-old daughter were reading these books, is the fact that Bella needs Edward in order to survive (literally, both emotionally and physically, over and over again) and that her sexuality is a dangerous and bad thing between them.
You could always read Lord of the Rings first. There's less sex.
I TOTALLY agree, Becky! (With your concerns, not about how I am engrossed, because I slammed the first book shut in disgust half-way through.)
I never read Judy Blume, and I really don't understand Twilight.
becky: wait, so if you agree w/ alex that it's awful, why are you on the third one?
withywindle: never.
Stephenie Meyer is the J.K. Rowling of vampire novelists. Anne Rice (no great intellect herself) did everything better and more interestingly 15 years ago.
Stephenie Meyer is not even on the same plane as J.K. Rowling, and it's not like I think Harry Potter is great literature.
And Rita, I can't stop reading them because it's like watching a car crash. I have to know what's going to happen next. I'm almost done with #4.
Well, at least this means that reading those 4,000 pages doesn't take very long.
If you want to read something long, try "Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century" by Fernand Braudel. I'm only halfway through the first volume, but it's holding up so far. Not a page-turner, but I am interested to see how it comes out...
People seem to either love Twilight on an emotional level or hate it on an intellectual one. I read it and thought it was OK, but I don't understand Edward Cullen's appeal to fans. Is it OK to be a stalker if you save the object of your desire from her five other stalkers?
Post a Comment