ipgd wrote...
oh boy more twilight arguments
I think it's sort of sad that a slew of perfectly decent literary tropes have been effectively outlawed from ever being used again just because some ****ty, masturbatory teen abstinence porn novel executed them poorly. It's not like Twilight invented "NO WE SHOULDN'T BANG BECAUSE I KNOW I'M A DOUCHEBAG".
The problem with how Twilight handled it is that Edward is a neutered vegan prettyboy whose actions do absolutely nothing to suggest he's actually any danger to Bella at all. The book expects the reader to take him at his word that he's a heartless killer while providing nothing at all to inspire any sort of conflict or urgency; he just limps around, sparkling ineffectually, talking about how awful he is and doing nothing at all. The worst thing he does is basically stalk Bella, but all of the negative implications of that are somehow entirely ignored and/or twisted into a disturbing romanticism.
But even then, that wasn't what made it bad -- what really makes Twilight awful is that it has absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever. The creepy stalker/simpering doormat dynamic between Edward and Bella even could have been interesting if the book acknowledged that in any way, and actually explored their unhealthy codependency with cognizance that it was unhealthy codependency; instead it's extolled as some kind of virtuous True Love without any irony. And that's where the book really gets creepy, because you can tell that the author seriously and wholly does not understand any of the Unfortunate Implications of anything she's written.
Yes, Anders's romance has the same general trope, but it's handled so differently and so much better that I can't help but wonder if the people who make these negative comparisons have any why Twilight was actually bad beyond the idea that they're supposed to hate it and everthing it did because everyone else does. The trope itself had nothing to do with why Twilight's romance was bad -- it was the book's failure to delve beneath the shoddy veneer of romanticism and examine the gruesome train wreck that comprises the heart of their relationship. Anders is written in complete acknowledgement of the train wreck; it doesn't beat you over the head with the idea that you're supposed to think what he does is romantic. The game knows he's codependant, hypocritical and capriciously schizophrenic. Anders actually has legitimate reasons to think he will damage Hawke, and most importantly, he actually does.
Because this needs to be posted again!
i love you for this, I'm going to cry
I think Im going to save this and repost it whenever Twilight comes up again!
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Modifié par Aynslie, 10 avril 2011 - 03:15 .
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............" for like ten minutes.
