just when you thought it was safe to read my LJ... it's another Twilight post
Instead of the writing binge I'd hoped to start, apparently I'm on an organizing binge, though now I'm working on the computer rather than the CD pile. This has been on my hard drive for a while. At one point I said I'd make another post about Twilight and my religion before the next movie came out. Uh... does posting this before the third movie count? And this isn't really about religion, it's about how romance novels in general.
I've seen many rants about the whole Twilight phenomenon, ranging from the inappropriateness of the books being marketed for teens to tying any and every plot point, especially the ones they dislike, to Meyer's (and my) religion. My own reaction was that I was reading a very typical/stereotypical romance novel.
Disclaimer: I'm a bit concerned about coming across as bashing romance novels. It's okay to like them, really!
As a teen I read lots of romance novels. And mystery novels and sci-fi/fantasy novels, but the first part is what matters right now. In theory my mother didn't know about the romance novels. In reality, I'm pretty sure she did, even though I was secretive. As soon as I started reading Twilight, the parallels to a certain style of romance novel were obvious; that would be the dominant male/'ordinary' female.
The first books that come to my mind when I think about that convention are the Harlequin Presents line--they have white covers and a circle illustration of the couple in the book. They look almost exactly the same as they did when I was a teen. And they must still sell well, because they're available at Wal-Mart, which is not known for its extensive book selection. Key words in the titles often include: billionaire, virgin, secret, tycoon, prince/princess/sheik/royal, innocent/innocence, blackmail, scandal, and mistress.
eta: Harlequin books are sold as Mills & Boon in England and Australia.
Edward Cullen holds a lot of the power in the Twilight series. He's wealthy, super strong, ridiculously attractive and so forth. He has everything--except love. Yes, I'm giggling as I type this. He's basically the same as the tycoons, princes, sheiks and billionaires of the Harlequin lines, except for being a vampire who attends high school. (Yup, giggling again.)
Because I'm a completionist, I went and read a book from the Harlequin Presents line, for the first time since... um, I'm not sure when. That's not a style of romance novel that I enjoy now. For the record, it's The Sicilian Boss's Mistress, by Penny Jordan. Why that one? Because it was at the thrift store and it was published last year. Also maybe because I recognized the author's name as one I used to prefer. There's a reason why this admission is in small type. YOU'LL SEE.
So Our Hero, Alessandro Leopardi, is a misogynist who refuses to hire female pilots for his private jet. Trained pilot Leonora Thaxton, hoping for a job with Leopardi anyway, disguises herself as her brother and flies his plane. When Leopardi realizes he's been fooled, he decides to blackmail Our Heroine into pretending to be his girlfriend for a weekend. Apparently wealthy, devastatingly attractive men have a hard time getting dates for those family gatherings.
Alessandro and Leonora find each other attractive. But they must repress it! He's been hurt in his past and therefore believes all women are only after him for his money. She's traumatized by her ongoing virginity and feels that she can never act on any desires she might have because then the man would know her tragic lack of experience. Oh, the shame! I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. Really.
(Stop that snickering right now! Yes, you in the back! I can see you!)
In the weekend that Alessandro and Leonora spend together at his brother's home, they go from angry avoidance to almost-sex, to sex and engaged. The proposal happens right before it's announced at a party--because Alessandro has already arranged to make the announcement even before asking his bride-to-be. Yup. And rather than continuing with her pilot aspirations, Leonora is happily planning her future children with her fiancé. (There's nothing wrong with this choice. I'm pointing this out because it's another criticism I see of the Twilight series--that by the end the lead female has a goal of motherhood. It's common in these novels. Side note: I generally like it when people want to be parents. "The world must be peopled!" Preferably by people who would rather be parents than not.)
Now that we've gotten the basics established, here are some fun parallels between Twilight and The Sicilian Boss's Mistress.
Already covered by my summary: the lead couple has some force that compels them to stay apart, and the lead couple also has a force that compels them toward each other. (That would be hormones love.)
appearance = characterization
There's a huge emphasis on appearance and physicality. This is my favorite description of Alessandro from Leonora's POV (page 31): He exuded an air of male virility that aroused within her a raft of unfamiliar and complex emotions that undermined and weakened her. There was something about the way he turned his head, the look in the slate-grey eyes and the shape of his wholly male mouth that disrupted her ability to think logically and forced her to keep looking at him.
stalking
Alessandro spies on Leonora while she's in a dressing room. Not because he's a pervert--of course not. He's focusing on the emotions on her face. Clearly this makes it okay.
At some point I meant to skim through the book again and find another stalking bit, but, uh, I purposely lost the book during a recent move.
extreme physical reactions to mild arousal
Breathing is important in this book and Twilight as well. (Or not breathing, as Bella is prone to doing when kissing Edward.) Two good sentences about how Leonora's breathing is affected by Alessandro:
Page 79, while looking at him seated next to her: Her heart itself did a series of back flips that threatened to leave her severely deprived of oxygen.
Page 153, contemplating the idea that she might be in love with Alessandro: Her heart went into full washing machine spin cycle.
Hee! Give me a minute to compose myself...
Finally, can't get no satisfaction!
There are several scenes where you think the lead couple will "consummate their relationship" but they don't until much later in the book. Or for the Twilight series, the fourth (and final) book.
I'll let other people argue over the young adult classification of the novels and what that means. I've already mentioned that authors don't necessarily control how their novels are classified. From what I've read, Meyer didn't have YA classification in mind when she wrote Twilight. She just wanted to write the story in her head. Maybe Meyer should have titled her novel The Vampire's Forbidden Virgin Bride. Or Vampire Tycoon, Secret Mistress. Whatever anyone thinks of how the Twilight series is classified and/or marketed, I can say this: many teenage girls read romance novels, even when they're not labeled for them. Shocking, I know!
As for religious connection to the series, I'm certainly not automatically opposed to examining the influences an author has had in life, but so many of the statements I'm seeing about Twilight seem to be ignoring the really big, obvious force on the books; that would be the genre. It's as if someone examined Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind for traces of Spielberg's Judaism and never acknowledged that first and foremost, it's a science fiction movie.
I've seen many rants about the whole Twilight phenomenon, ranging from the inappropriateness of the books being marketed for teens to tying any and every plot point, especially the ones they dislike, to Meyer's (and my) religion. My own reaction was that I was reading a very typical/stereotypical romance novel.
Disclaimer: I'm a bit concerned about coming across as bashing romance novels. It's okay to like them, really!
As a teen I read lots of romance novels. And mystery novels and sci-fi/fantasy novels, but the first part is what matters right now. In theory my mother didn't know about the romance novels. In reality, I'm pretty sure she did, even though I was secretive. As soon as I started reading Twilight, the parallels to a certain style of romance novel were obvious; that would be the dominant male/'ordinary' female.
The first books that come to my mind when I think about that convention are the Harlequin Presents line--they have white covers and a circle illustration of the couple in the book. They look almost exactly the same as they did when I was a teen. And they must still sell well, because they're available at Wal-Mart, which is not known for its extensive book selection. Key words in the titles often include: billionaire, virgin, secret, tycoon, prince/princess/sheik/royal, innocent/innocence, blackmail, scandal, and mistress.
eta: Harlequin books are sold as Mills & Boon in England and Australia.
Edward Cullen holds a lot of the power in the Twilight series. He's wealthy, super strong, ridiculously attractive and so forth. He has everything--except love. Yes, I'm giggling as I type this. He's basically the same as the tycoons, princes, sheiks and billionaires of the Harlequin lines, except for being a vampire who attends high school. (Yup, giggling again.)
Because I'm a completionist, I went and read a book from the Harlequin Presents line, for the first time since... um, I'm not sure when. That's not a style of romance novel that I enjoy now. For the record, it's The Sicilian Boss's Mistress, by Penny Jordan. Why that one? Because it was at the thrift store and it was published last year. Also maybe because I recognized the author's name as one I used to prefer. There's a reason why this admission is in small type. YOU'LL SEE.
So Our Hero, Alessandro Leopardi, is a misogynist who refuses to hire female pilots for his private jet. Trained pilot Leonora Thaxton, hoping for a job with Leopardi anyway, disguises herself as her brother and flies his plane. When Leopardi realizes he's been fooled, he decides to blackmail Our Heroine into pretending to be his girlfriend for a weekend. Apparently wealthy, devastatingly attractive men have a hard time getting dates for those family gatherings.
Alessandro and Leonora find each other attractive. But they must repress it! He's been hurt in his past and therefore believes all women are only after him for his money. She's traumatized by her ongoing virginity and feels that she can never act on any desires she might have because then the man would know her tragic lack of experience. Oh, the shame! I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. Really.
(Stop that snickering right now! Yes, you in the back! I can see you!)
In the weekend that Alessandro and Leonora spend together at his brother's home, they go from angry avoidance to almost-sex, to sex and engaged. The proposal happens right before it's announced at a party--because Alessandro has already arranged to make the announcement even before asking his bride-to-be. Yup. And rather than continuing with her pilot aspirations, Leonora is happily planning her future children with her fiancé. (There's nothing wrong with this choice. I'm pointing this out because it's another criticism I see of the Twilight series--that by the end the lead female has a goal of motherhood. It's common in these novels. Side note: I generally like it when people want to be parents. "The world must be peopled!" Preferably by people who would rather be parents than not.)
Now that we've gotten the basics established, here are some fun parallels between Twilight and The Sicilian Boss's Mistress.
Already covered by my summary: the lead couple has some force that compels them to stay apart, and the lead couple also has a force that compels them toward each other. (That would be hormones love.)
appearance = characterization
There's a huge emphasis on appearance and physicality. This is my favorite description of Alessandro from Leonora's POV (page 31): He exuded an air of male virility that aroused within her a raft of unfamiliar and complex emotions that undermined and weakened her. There was something about the way he turned his head, the look in the slate-grey eyes and the shape of his wholly male mouth that disrupted her ability to think logically and forced her to keep looking at him.
stalking
Alessandro spies on Leonora while she's in a dressing room. Not because he's a pervert--of course not. He's focusing on the emotions on her face. Clearly this makes it okay.
At some point I meant to skim through the book again and find another stalking bit, but, uh, I purposely lost the book during a recent move.
extreme physical reactions to mild arousal
Breathing is important in this book and Twilight as well. (Or not breathing, as Bella is prone to doing when kissing Edward.) Two good sentences about how Leonora's breathing is affected by Alessandro:
Page 79, while looking at him seated next to her: Her heart itself did a series of back flips that threatened to leave her severely deprived of oxygen.
Page 153, contemplating the idea that she might be in love with Alessandro: Her heart went into full washing machine spin cycle.
Hee! Give me a minute to compose myself...
Finally, can't get no satisfaction!
There are several scenes where you think the lead couple will "consummate their relationship" but they don't until much later in the book. Or for the Twilight series, the fourth (and final) book.
I'll let other people argue over the young adult classification of the novels and what that means. I've already mentioned that authors don't necessarily control how their novels are classified. From what I've read, Meyer didn't have YA classification in mind when she wrote Twilight. She just wanted to write the story in her head. Maybe Meyer should have titled her novel The Vampire's Forbidden Virgin Bride. Or Vampire Tycoon, Secret Mistress. Whatever anyone thinks of how the Twilight series is classified and/or marketed, I can say this: many teenage girls read romance novels, even when they're not labeled for them. Shocking, I know!
As for religious connection to the series, I'm certainly not automatically opposed to examining the influences an author has had in life, but so many of the statements I'm seeing about Twilight seem to be ignoring the really big, obvious force on the books; that would be the genre. It's as if someone examined Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind for traces of Spielberg's Judaism and never acknowledged that first and foremost, it's a science fiction movie.