Same here. Seriously, a lot of this stuff made sense to me (in the sense of, "Okay, the reason Bella/Edward/etc. is such an IDIOT is X") from growing up surrounded by Evangelicals--but the layers you can add to my understanding are just amazing.
It actually makes me not sorry I've read the books.
"It actually makes me not sorry I've read the books."
I can now scratch off on my goal sheet: STOP THE INSANITY. :D
The whole underlying dogma is so pathetic to me. It just smacks of all the lame LDS novels that we were supposed to be reading as kids. (Which, I couldn't. They're horrible.)
I think that's true of all religious novels--that is, novels written for the sole purpose of illustrating This Is What Good [Insert Religion Here] Do, because plot and character become minor points.
I'm still sorry the books exist, mind you, but at least I learned things. Other than "really terrible fiction can be published."
See, I'm holding to my original impression that she doesn't know she's doing it.
Like, think of it this way: a person that's raised in, say, an unber-right wing fantatical Christian home where there's no question that they believe in Creationism. The kids in that house growing up knowing something is truth, for them. So they go to school and just knee-jerk spout off the things they believe, without any intent to sway, preach, or dig, that's just what they believe.
And that same kid - on the playground - is going to have his Bad Guy be Darwin, because that's what he was taught. As they get a little older and out of kindergarten, it's not specifically Darwin, it's some old, long beared man that thinks people come from monkeys, that sort of thing.
I think she's just re-working her trained idea of Bad without having a skill set or inspiration to have layers. I mean, I can't stress it enough: these books HAVE NO LAYERS. It's mind boggling how 2-D they are.
The moment stoney321 blogged about the super-white/darky-demon parallels between Mormons and the Vampires/Werewolves is when I first started suspecting the very same.
Re: We feminists have a joke too...solipsiaeSeptember 22 2008, 21:04:43 UTC
I wish more feminist jokes were funny. :( I actually made a joke about how un-funny feminists (necessarily, I'd argue) tend to be (when making jokes about the oppression of women - which I'd argue is never funny so jokes about it can't ever be funny). It's bad taken out of context, and it was actually about lesbians and not feminists but now I'm too afraid to reproduce it here in case it's offensive.
But it was performed in a queer theatre comedy group. So, you know, it wasn't that off-cuff.
Re: We feminists have a joke too...stoney321November 24 2008, 15:02:51 UTC
Or this one:
A feminist gets on a full bus, and a man stands, freeing his seat. She thinks to herself, "This man is trying to further the patriarchal custom of helping poor defenseless women off their feet, as if I'm fragile!" She shoves him back down into his seat.
A few minutes later, he tries it again with the same result of her shoving him back into his seat.
After another few minutes he stands up, and yells, "Listen lady, you gotta let me up! I'm two stops past my house!"
Also WTF!
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And seriously!!! WHAT THE FUCKING FUUUUUUUCK?!?!?
AAaaaaaand I've been singing "I hope they call me on a mission" all morning, and that makes me sad in my brain.
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It actually makes me not sorry I've read the books.
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I can now scratch off on my goal sheet: STOP THE INSANITY. :D
The whole underlying dogma is so pathetic to me. It just smacks of all the lame LDS novels that we were supposed to be reading as kids. (Which, I couldn't. They're horrible.)
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I'm still sorry the books exist, mind you, but at least I learned things. Other than "really terrible fiction can be published."
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It's making me think this isn't a subconscious use of LDS themes, but quite intentional on SMeyer's part.
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Like, think of it this way: a person that's raised in, say, an unber-right wing fantatical Christian home where there's no question that they believe in Creationism. The kids in that house growing up knowing something is truth, for them. So they go to school and just knee-jerk spout off the things they believe, without any intent to sway, preach, or dig, that's just what they believe.
And that same kid - on the playground - is going to have his Bad Guy be Darwin, because that's what he was taught. As they get a little older and out of kindergarten, it's not specifically Darwin, it's some old, long beared man that thinks people come from monkeys, that sort of thing.
I think she's just re-working her trained idea of Bad without having a skill set or inspiration to have layers. I mean, I can't stress it enough: these books HAVE NO LAYERS. It's mind boggling how 2-D they are.
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But it was performed in a queer theatre comedy group. So, you know, it wasn't that off-cuff.
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A feminist gets on a full bus, and a man stands, freeing his seat. She thinks to herself, "This man is trying to further the patriarchal custom of helping poor defenseless women off their feet, as if I'm fragile!" She shoves him back down into his seat.
A few minutes later, he tries it again with the same result of her shoving him back into his seat.
After another few minutes he stands up, and yells, "Listen lady, you gotta let me up! I'm two stops past my house!"
Ba dum bum CHING!
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