Twilight

Lately, there's been a storm of resentment building up in me against the whole twilight phenomena. The movie turned out to be such a big deal that I went, grudgingly, with a friend and sat through it. And over the last couple of days, during the trip to Seattle, we've burned through an audiobook version of New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series. I'm not sure why we listened to that before popping in To Kill A Mockingbird, a much appreciated change in pace. It was mostly for Andy's sake, who slept through most of it, due to illness. Of course, I doubt he had sincere interest in listening to the book either. More likely, he was listening to it to gain the infinite female appeal that twilight readership seems to carry with it.

After finishing the last, fourteenth disc of the book (which seemed an ungodly length for a relatively uneventful book), Mom made her own observations. Coining the term from Dad: Bubble Gum, she called it. Tastes alright, but no substance. Now I'm not necessarily against bubble gum media. It can be fun from time to time.

But this has gotten out of hand.

I haven't met a girl who hasn't gotten defensive or irrational when the quality of Twilight came into question. Often, I've heard excuses along the lines of, "You just don't get it. There's a special bond between Bella and Edward. It's true love." THEY'RE TEENAGERS! And what's more annoying is seeing girls almost worship this fictional character in all of his fantastic beauty. I've seen way too many pictures of Edward (from the movie) posted up in girl's locker. I can almost understand it. I mean, this seems to have struck a soft spot in just about every girl alive, the soft spot for romanticism and sentimentalism.

But it's still gotten out of hand.

It also wouldn't be so bad if the book series could actually claim to be a good influence. It's tried to make it's claim as a good influence, but it's not. Edward is abusive, Bella is unhealthy, and the culture that the book's popularity has formed is frightening, and frighteningly large. I know I'm biased, but at least I'm sort of backed up. This book review is from national review online. Here's the link.

If you don't feel like wading through it, here's the final summary.

In the final analysis, Meyer has deprived her characters of both choices and consequences. And young readers are left with the image of a girl who discovers her own worth and gets all she ever wanted, by giving up her identity and throwing away nearly everything in life that matters.

That’s scarier than any vampire.

Yes. Yes it is.

But, if you've seen the movie and are looking for a good laugh at it's expense, here's another link.

Expect pictures of the road trip coming up...