Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 2)

As with all things that are titled part 1 there are more to follow, and this certainly holds true with my frustrations that they indeed span at least two different entries, if not more.  But for now I will get back to the story and a major problem with the series as a whole.

Now the target audience for this "saga" are teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18.  Now I know the series has clearly hit more than that but the initial release of the novels, it was for this age group.  The perfect protagonist for this age group is a 17 year old girl who doesn't quite know what she wants from life.  Her parents are separated and she has learned to become slightly independent.  If you read my earlier entry you will see that slightly is the best word to use next to independent.  So a lot of girls in the 13-18 age bracket can look up to Bella and who she has become.  But here comes the problem that lies within the book, what is the message that Meyer is trying to send?  Being a mormon, link, she more than likely has some pretty strong views on sexuality and marriage.  (This is me using a stereotype, if it doesn't fit for her, please correct me)  So what is Bella's and Edward's relationship represent?  Bella is constantly urging Edward to just change her already, usually during the most physically charged scenes.  It is not much of a stretch to switch "change" into "sex."  Like sex once you are changed you can't go back, if you get bit you are a vampire forever, if you have sex you are no longer a virgin, except in Madonna's case, but that is a different matter.

So Meyer is showing the protagonist throw herself at her boyfriend over and over again.  Fittingly Edward says no every time, until the Cullen's hold a vote and everyone would change her, except Rosalie...strange image there on this topic.  Anyway, is this what Meyer wants teenage girls to do?  Constantly throw themselves at boys and hope that they say no?  Kind of a strange thought when thinking of her background and her target audience.

Now the arguments will be, "But they are in Loves," or "But it isn't sex, it's turning her into a vampire."  My rebuttal is simply this, put this situation in real life where there are no vampires.  We know how sexually charged teenagers can get, put them in a situation where they are on a girl/boy's bed, what else are they going to ask each other? How many boys out there are going to say no? Fewer than we would like to think.

Damn, that was longer than I was hoping, there will probably be one more entry if you can stand to read this, and I promise it won't be so negative next time.

tl;dr Bella : teenage girl | Vampire Change : sex           Great image Stephanie Meyer

Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 1)

I have problems with Twilight.  Anyone who has talked to me the past few years knows this and knows my reasoning.  But it has built up too much to just let it simmer, I have to let it out.  I do have some concessions I have to make about the whole thing.  First off I give Stephanie Meyer great credit in striking a chord with the general public in creating such a successful franchise.  The money she has pulled in is unreal and I can't deny it.  I also have to say that a bit of me is jealous that she has been so successful, like any disgruntled guy out there.  But now onto the fun part, the dissecting of the whole series. (I have read/listened to every book more than once and seen both movies)

First off, how did Meyer pull off a series in which the main character can create such large amounts of disgust.  Bella is your normal teenage girl.  She is insecure, undecided, and distant from everyone in her life.  But this isn't the biggest problem I have with the character.  My biggest problem is her reactions towards Edward.  She instantly becomes obsessed with him.  From the first encounter, when he hasn't "fed," don't get me started on their "vegetarianism," when he was completely rude to her, she still wanted to know what he was about.  Who he was, how pretty he was, how mysterious he was, etc...  When they started dating however it becomes even worse.  She cannot be away from him.  If Edward so much as thinks about leaving she latches on as if she is a vampire not allowing him to leave.  And that isn't the worst part.  Her descriptions of him are excruciatingly painful.  To Bella, Edward is perfect.  To how his skin is like polished marble, or his lips are rock hard but soft, or how his eyes are so beautiful when amber, or how his hair is perfectly tossed around, sorry go the movie involved.  Anyway, you get the picture and boy is it disgustingly pathetic.

Now with Bella complete I have to talk about the vampires as a whole in this universe.  Now I have no problems with taking some liberties with vampire rules.  Ok so they can go out into the sun but they are severely weakened, Bram Stoker's Dracula, sure they can drink animal blood and still survive, there is a ruling order among vampires, werewolves and vampires don't get along, all things I can deal with.  But SPARKLES!?!?!?  The worst cop-out to allow vampires to goto school or be seen in public.  Recently there has been a trend to glorify vampires, Underworld and Kate Beckinsale :) or Blade, or Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire, but to give them something has silly as sparkles.  Sparkles should only be on High School homemade banners and Dance Recital faces, not vampires.  Completely discredits any type of bad-assery that a vampire can have.  I mean how can you fight something you couldn't stop laughing at?

Since this one is already lengthy I am going to leave it as is and write Part 2 later this or next week.  Maybe I'll even get some quotes in there, but I don't want to dig through the books so probably not.

Winter blues

You would think that living in Nebraska, where Winter consisted of 20 MPH winds and scooping snow out of cattle troughs, and Minnesota, same but about 10 degress colder, I would have been prepared for the Winter here.  I was greatly mistaken when I found out how cold it can be when you are walking a dog for an hour in freezing temperatures.

Say what you will, but we are very pampered when it comes to cold in the States.  Here the morning consists of getting up, eating breakfast, and then walking Whit and Miki to work, and then back again.  That whole process takes about an hour and a half.  Back in the states, I would wake up, eat breakfast, start my car, wait 10 minutes, hop in with my seat warmers on, drive to work, walk from the car to the office building (taking 1 minute tops), and then complain about how cold it is.  You would think that you would be accustomed to the cold, but you just realize that your body forgets how to deal with the cold.  So no matter what the temp is, it will just seem cold.

One good thing though is that it finally snowed here, and the snow stuck for more than a day.  So hopefully later today and or this week I will be able to get some photos up to show how beautiful this country is.  That is to say that it won't be too foggy/cloudy to actually see anything.