Why Twilight Insults the Intelligence

Now, I'm a lover of fiction. Actually if it hasn't been for Shirley Jackson, I don't think I would have ever been inspired to creatively write anything while growing up. I think what you write is oftentimes a relfection on your influences, as it should be. Sort of an outright applaud to an author that sparked that interest in you.

I'm fortunate enough to be in the company of a 10-year old girl who loves to read. While skimming books at my local Barnes and Noble one night I thought for a second she would enjoy the Twilight Series. After reading the first chapter I immediately put it down and picked up Coraline, which was written by this years Newberry Award Winner. Please keep in mind that the Twilight Series is listed as YA, as in Young Adult. As in the average age of a reader is 9 years old.

I wouldn't even take the time to bother with a rant such as this, but it honestly bothers me that books turned film like "Twilight" have sped off into warp speed Cult status that is normally reserved for REAL cult films (John Waters, anyone?). I'm still boggled as to how "Twilight" would ever be associated OR classified in the same category, but I guess that's up to the public to decide (sad).

I would be more open minded about the book/film should the book had been more properly written. And on that note, lets take a look at some background information on how research was "conducted." She was quoted as saying:

"For my setting, I knew I needed someplace ridiculously rainy. I turned to Google, as I do for all my research needs, and looked for the place with the most rainfall in the U.S. This turned out to be the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State."

And: "During the day, I couldn't stay away from the computer, either. When I was stuck at swim lessons, out in 115 degrees of Phoenix sunshine, I would plot and scheme and come home with so much new stuff that I couldn't type fast enough. It was your typical Arizona summer, hot, sunny, hot, and hot, but when I think back to those three months, I remember rain and cool green things, like I really spent the summer in the Olympic Rainforest."

Case in point: Not only did the author just GOOGLE search her location, she'd never actually been to the city..."Like I'd really spent the Summer in the Olympic Rainforest..." Like. Not that she'd actually ever been there, but it was "like" that. Thank God for imaginations...That's like me setting a story in Russia and only using the 10 percent of my tiny little brain to come up with what I think Russia is like. I would be embarassed to even admit that I'd never been to Olympia, WA, or that I used google as my primary options for research.

When asked who her inspirations for Twilight was, I absolutely had to sit here and laugh. Literally. Here is her list of inspirations:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Romeo and Juliete by Shakespere

Please tell me how those amazing classic novels ever aided in the inspiration behind Twilight because I don't see a lick of it anywhere along the lines.

I mean, how anyone is attracted to dialogue like this is beyond me:



Where is the Shakespere in the above scene? Please let me know how three of some of the most world renound authors mentioned above could ever afford to lend a tinker in the thought process of this novel. I seriously want to know.

Am I being a hater? Perhaps. I feel it's justified by the fact that this is the BS kids are reading these days, and adults are somehow adopting the books as real literature. I'm probably pissing off all kinds of fans as we speak, but whatever man. An unproperly researched book based off of characters from a dream the author had plus the fact that she "purposely geared the series towards 15 year olds." Fifteen is a little too generous in my book.

Twilight has a following.
How do the Brontë sisters not?

Mind boggling.