Wednesday, March 19, 2008

It Bothers Me Just a Little

Work has been really boring lately. Actually work has been really slow so I in turn I am really bored. I hope it picks up soon because I am tired of dealing with data and statistics.

My mom is reading Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Series. I thought I would take this time and talk a bit about these books. I really enjoyed these books, to an extent. The books held my attention, but I was in a state of aggravation through half of it though. The main character – Bella is cute and clumsy until she falls head over heels with the other lead – vampire Edward. After which, she is crazy, obsessed, co-dependent, and only wants Edward. She can’t live without him, she can’t sleep without him, she doesn’t want to do anything or go anywhere without him. If Edward told her to kill herself she would. It is one thing to portray the characters “in love” but Bella’s reaction to Edward is way beyond that.

Being books meant for the young adult audience I think that it is great that Stephanie Meyer cut out the graphic sex scenes that are so prevalent in vampire fiction, but she is still sending a strong message to young girls about relationships. Edward and Bella’s relationship is UNHEALTHY. I hope young girls don’t read these books and think they need to “love” in a similar fashion or try and find a relationship in which they are utterly infatuated and co-dependent upon someone else.

Although these books are aimed at the more high school aged crowd, they were the most dramatic and emotional books I have read yet. But then again, the teen crowd is known to be dramatic and emotional so maybe it fit. I seriously had to scan through the books as fast as I could because I was wondering what in the world was going to happen and I didn’t want to read page after page of things I wasn’t interested in. I actually wished it was a little bit lighter on the “emotional” aspect of the books. I had to read them as fast as possible because I was aggravated with what was going on and wanted to know how it turns out.

The last thing that bothers me is the high school setting. So you are a vampire, clearly older than most people, yet you want to go to high school? Sure you might want to blend in, but why high school? After the second time around you probably wouldn’t learn anything new. Why not just go to college? Who would want to go to high school after years of maturing? They may still look like high schoolers… but maturity, education, and experience-wise they are long past that stage in life.

I look forward to the fourth book when it comes out in August, but I know that it won't turn out the way you want it to... of course, no suprise there. Maybe I will just ask someone else how it ends.

While I am ranting on the various things that bug me about the books I have been reading, I have a few things to say about Octavia Butler’s Fledgling. Sure the book touches on issues of race and prejudice, but there is something a little disturbing about the 10 year old look alike. So the protagonist is a vampire… a “child” in the vampire community, but really about 50 or so human years old. She looks like a 10 year though. Even so, people have no problem having sex with her.

I would think there would be some serious psychological issues in being physically intimate with someone who looks 10 years old. Not just someone who is as short as, but literally, a 10 year child’s body. That just bothered me.

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