Also, meh. I'm uncomfortable with the common characterization of Twilight as "unpopular fat girl's pathetic daydreams." There's plenty to criticize about it-although more often than not the anti-Twilight anti-bandwagon misses the point-but I think that kind of incredibly personal ad hominem against the author is way out of line.
Generally I'm against ad homimem attacks, but not here for 3 reasons:
1) Nothing is sacred; everything is hilarious.
2) When you write something, or paint something, or create something in general, you put a little bit of yourself in it. Your views, ideas, and outlooks on the world in general are reflected in your work. In this way, any criticism of a piece of art is, at least obliquely, a criticism of the person who made it.
3) In this particular case, the above applies even more so, since the Twilight series can generally be considered to be the most succesful Mary Sue story ever written.
Meh. In general, I think the characterization of the movie presented here in increadibly accurate. Of course, I have not read the books, and have only heard about them from other people (one girl recently called it "The most put-down-able book I ever read."), so I cannot say anything about the books themselves without compromising myself. XD
ad hominem is a completely irrelevant personal attack.
The phrase "unpopular fat girl's pathetic daydreams." is not an ad hominem because the phrase, vulgar as it may be, is relevant to the point. It may be a stereotype, and not always true, but it *is* shorthand for a more complicated situation that means "someone who suffered from teasing and dislike from her peers is likely to daydream about being popular and liked in a manner completely devoid of reality since the daydreamer has no personal experience in that subject."
And I think that's a completely accurate assessment of the story. If the author isn't actually an unpopular fat girl with pathetic daydreams, this story plays out like the product of one.
An ad hominem attack would be to say "You are wrong about your claim that vaccines don't cause autism because you're a big poopie-head and you smell bad". Which is completely irrelevant. One can be a big poopie-head and smell bad and the claim can still be correct ... or the claim can be false, but it's not false because he'
( ... )
Yeah, maybe if someone used the phrase in the context of an insightful and well-informed criticism of the novel and the ways in which the author's experiences have influenced it, it would be kind of acceptable, if still pointlessly vulgar.
Given that criticisms like that linked in the OP tend to be neither insightful nor well-informed, though, I think it's a stretch to view them as anything more than gratuitous name-calling.
In this case, the DC for a succesful insight check to determine "Who is Bella based on?" is about 2. From what I've read of the book and have gotten from the movie, insight doesn't enter in to it very much. XD
It should be noted that the criticisms in the linked OP tend to be more about the movie than the book ("...oh well, the script was written 2 weeks before the movie was released!"), and, in general, my own criticisms tend to be more movie-related, that being what I know.
Allthough don't get me started on shiney vampires. That is, in my own very humble opinion, the stupidest addition to vampire mythology ever. Ever ever ever.
Also, meh. I'm uncomfortable with the common characterization of Twilight as "unpopular fat girl's pathetic daydreams." There's plenty to criticize about it-although more often than not the anti-Twilight anti-bandwagon misses the point-but I think that kind of incredibly personal ad hominem against the author is way out of line.
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1) Nothing is sacred; everything is hilarious.
2) When you write something, or paint something, or create something in general, you put a little bit of yourself in it. Your views, ideas, and outlooks on the world in general are reflected in your work. In this way, any criticism of a piece of art is, at least obliquely, a criticism of the person who made it.
3) In this particular case, the above applies even more so, since the Twilight series can generally be considered to be the most succesful Mary Sue story ever written.
Meh. In general, I think the characterization of the movie presented here in increadibly accurate. Of course, I have not read the books, and have only heard about them from other people (one girl recently called it "The most put-down-able book I ever read."), so I cannot say anything about the books themselves without compromising myself. XD
Reply
The phrase "unpopular fat girl's pathetic daydreams." is not an ad hominem because the phrase, vulgar as it may be, is relevant to the point. It may be a stereotype, and not always true, but it *is* shorthand for a more complicated situation that means "someone who suffered from teasing and dislike from her peers is likely to daydream about being popular and liked in a manner completely devoid of reality since the daydreamer has no personal experience in that subject."
And I think that's a completely accurate assessment of the story. If the author isn't actually an unpopular fat girl with pathetic daydreams, this story plays out like the product of one.
An ad hominem attack would be to say "You are wrong about your claim that vaccines don't cause autism because you're a big poopie-head and you smell bad". Which is completely irrelevant. One can be a big poopie-head and smell bad and the claim can still be correct ... or the claim can be false, but it's not false because he' ( ... )
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Given that criticisms like that linked in the OP tend to be neither insightful nor well-informed, though, I think it's a stretch to view them as anything more than gratuitous name-calling.
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It should be noted that the criticisms in the linked OP tend to be more about the movie than the book ("...oh well, the script was written 2 weeks before the movie was released!"), and, in general, my own criticisms tend to be more movie-related, that being what I know.
Allthough don't get me started on shiney vampires. That is, in my own very humble opinion, the stupidest addition to vampire mythology ever. Ever ever ever.
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