A Pair of Teal Deers

[rhaella]

I am alive! Okay, so I’ve been stuck on dial-up for the last two weeks, which sucks (mostly because I really wanted to stream Doctor Who episodes), got sick a week ago (am better now!), and spent way too much of the intervening time playing Oblivion, now that my brother actually has a computer that will run it

Comments

[merigreenleaf]

Wow, you made it through Twilight? I tried because one of my friends likes it so much (and I figured what the heck- I love to read and it can't be that bad), but I only made it about a third of the way in before I gave up. It was just horrible! I really fail to see why so many people are interested in it.

I mean, kudos to the teens and whatnot for actually reading (definitely not enough people reading nowadays, in my opinion), but I just wish they had picked something better to read and get obsessed with. You know?

[rhaella]

Yeah... definitely agreed. And there are so many things that are better out there. Or even passably decent.

I didn't have too much of a problem in the beginning, though the Overwhelming Rage all the Edward-worship inspired in me was... hard to overcome. But if I put it down and wandered away for a bit, I was able to calm down enough to continue. XD

And I had nothing else to read at the moment, which helped. XD

[merigreenleaf]

Seriously! I mean, I'd gladly recommend some good books to people, but I doubt they'd want to read them since they're not all the rage or whatever. People in general are way too influenced by what is popular.

lol! I think I would have started reading an old textbook, the back of a cereal box, anything if it meant not having to read Twilight. XD

[tju_tju_tju_tju]

I agree that the Twilight series probably would have been better if it was aware of how dark and disturbing it really is, instead of the angels and fluffy bunnies it would like to be.

[rhaella]

@_@

Also, less thesaurus abuse. And frightening descriptions that left me wondering whether or not I was supposed to be getting statue images.

[bluestalking]

....thank you. for this icon. thank you SO MUCH.

[gospikey]

Good thing Alice is just so *awesome

[rhaella]

The e-books have been suggested before... I don't think my eyes could handle them, though. I'm so, so prone to chronic headaches, it's horrible.

I don't think I'm going to bother doing anything more with the series, seriously. Just needed to at least see what it was really about. XD

[kucheekybadkuya]

lawl you finished book 1, here is your medal (or brain bleach, if you prefer). I'm still stuck in the middle of the book, the horrendous writing + misogyny + edward's chara being flatter than a loli's chest = can't dooo itttttt, esp not when there's so much fun timez to be had reading quality Snarry fic lololol

On a serious note, it's incredibly depressing/disturbing when I take stock of: Females from teenaged girls to 40 y.o. housewives thinking there's nothing wrong with Edward and Bella's rship at all oh gosh it's all amazingly romantic!!!!; millions of people actually thinking this is good literature (especially painful when I read awesome fanfic and think wow, I would so buy this author's work if she published original fic - then remember that among the bajillions of excellent writers struggling to get their stuff published while they dabble in fanfic for fun on the side, somehow a steaming pile of self-insert fanfic poopoo pastiched from every pop culture vampire thing ever managed to get published and sell over 40 million

[rhaella]

Hehehe, the middle is definitely the hardest part to deal with. If you get past it, it gets a bit better. Or at least, it did for me. Until I afterwards was annoyed at how little was done with those exact characters who got me through to the end.

And... my god YES. Good literature, at the worst. I've heard it described as "harmless romance fluff" as well, which is just... no. Not at all. Unless by "romance" you mean medieval notions of chivalry, in which case... perhaps it is. But that is so many different kinds of DO NOT WANT.

I would love to know how she managed to get published at all. =/

[judetwee]

I've been told the books only get worse from there. I could only make it to the part where Edward sparkled before my brain just shut off. What really bothered me about it is how strained the writing seemed, and how contrived the events were. She knows what she wants (if what she wants is the basic impression she gets from every novel she's ever read), but her execution is shit. Instead, she tells us what her characters are and what the story ought to be but fails to back it up with action.

Also, a hell of a lot of Mormon doctrine was put in there completely subconsciously.

The thing with the serious fanbase is that it's carried onward by the power of imagination and self-delusion. "I thought there would be more action in it!" say the ones who gave up on the series after Breaking Dawn. See, what they didn't realize is that because they didn't read the first three books properly, they deluded themselves into seeing action that wasn't there because SMeyer told them it was there (via the power of imaaaagination!) and then expected it in

[rhaella]

Contrived is a good way to put it. Even the way the characterizations worked... so bad. So flat. And then using all your secondary characters just to build up this idiotic, disturbing romance when you could have been doing so much more with them?

And HE RAPES HER? How... that doesn't surprise me. At all. Considering that he practically kidnapped her in the first book. =/ And then at the end refused her desires to be turned into a vampire, and thus have a more equal relationship. =/

[judetwee]

Well, he basically knocks her out on the marriage bed and has hot, hot sex with her unconscious body, leaving bruises everywhere and a bitten pillow (LAWL). Because, you know, his love for her is so incredibly intense.

...then she gets pregnant with a demon baby that breaks her ribs, spines, and makes her drink blood (as a human), then has to be chewed out by heroic Edward, and ages super fast and has awesome psychic powahs AND THEN JACOB IMPRINTS ON HER AND BECOMES HER ONE TRUE LOVE. And then Bella becomes a vampire, and maybe it was sort of cool but it cinched her Mary Sue status. Pretty sure the relationship is still not equal because the writer is a Mormon and equal relationships are just not possible.

CHECKLIST FOR ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP TRAITS
Total isolation...check. Bella is isolated by her new vampireness, and is taken into the Mormon family