I will admit it publicly. I read the Twilight series. I got curious. I started wondering why every time I turned on the television I heard about vampires and werewolves and Robert Pattinson's latest haircut (CNN updated me on that. Newsworthy). The fever was everywhere I turned. The deciding point was when I read an article that described an 11 year old girl screaming, "You complete me, Edward," to Pattinson at the movie premiere. I got curious.
The first thing I will say about this 'saga' as it is called, is that it took me all of 72 hours to complete the four books. I have always been a fast reader, but even that speed astounded me. I was not completely entranced, but the writing was so elementary, so amateur, it didn't require much concentration. I promise, this will not be an entry on the mechanics of Stephanie Meyer's writing. BUT, Creative Writing 101: It's all about the sentence. The sentence, the sentence, the sentence. Had I found just one in all four books that I actually liked, that actually evoked an original thought or feeling, I would admit it. I would admit that she was a talented writer and I may have allowed the content to slip. But because her writing, at it's most basic level was completely weak and cliche, I was unable to forgive the rest. Stephanie Meyer comes off as a 30-something year old woman who is as unsatisfied with her life now as she was at 17, when she was fantasizing about a non-existent man who would save her so she would never have to save herself.
I will admit one thing. As I was reading these books, I was not always immune to the somewhat charming ways of Edward. Oh the problem of Edward. The enticing teen vampire who doesn't know whether he wants to murder or have sex with Bella. How sweet. He loves her, he loves her blood. What will he do? As it has been noted before, the relationship between Edward and Bella is so obviously a commentary on abstinence that it becomes excrutiating to read. The lovers cannot consumate their love because it could possibly kill Bella. hmm. Interesting.
But the most troubling, the most unsettling aspect of the book, is the character of Bella. If these books had been written by a male, I may have been able to forgive. A man could be forgiven for writing cliches and inaccuracies about one woman's journey through an unlikely and mythical love. But not a woman. For a woman to do so, is inexcusable. I think if I ever met Stephanie Meyer, I would have just one question, "Why did you feel the need to create, in the 21st century, one of the weakest female characters ever written?" As I read, I thought back to the 11 year old girl who screamed to the actor, "You complete me, Edward!" She clearly identified with Bella and that is simply frightening. Before Bella meets Edward in the novel, she seems satisfied to simply float through life. She seems not to have goals or desires other than avoidance. Only when she meets Edward does she find a direction. Shock: the direction is him. I have a problem with a young girl, with no desires of her own, offering up her body and soul to a man who may or may not murder her. And don't kid yourself, that IS what the books are about.
The author calls Bella "stubborn." I would call her "dangerously obsessive," and it would be a cautionary tale for all 17 year old girls. In book two, when Edward leaves, Bella falls into complete despair. She loses the ability to function as a human being. She is even described as "catatonic." Yeah, break ups are hard. We've all had to suffer through at least one. But at some point, you wake up and start over. It seems for Bella, that the only cure is dangerous, "reckless" and suicidal behavior. She takes to motorcycles and interacting with threatening strangers as a way to lure Edward back into her life. She goes to the woods when she fully realizes that predators lurk, waiting to kill her specifically. She throws herself off a cliff. Literally. Meyer plays these actions down. She wants the reader to see these actions as Bella does, acts of love and desire. Attempts to remain close to him. The motorcycles I could stand. I have jumped on the back of one myself from time to time. But it all continues to escalate until Bella hurls herself off a cliff and is prepared to let the waves pull her to her death. Even as she is dying, she thinks only of Edward. There isn't a single thought of her own unlived life.
Her obsession with this man/vampire/whatever, leads to unhealthy, obsessive and suicidal behavior. Meyer attempts to make the American Indian/Werewolf Jacob the remedy, but his character falls flat and the subsequent love triangle is as unbelievable as the rest of the world she has attempted to create. Bella is nothing more than a slave to the men in her life.
For me, the real kiss of death, is Bella's desire to change into a vampire. She is flippant (at best) about ridding herself of her soul. She is next to unfeeling about leaving behind her father and mother forever. She lusts only after immortality (and sex) with Edward. Meyer attempts to make Edward noble, but her heroine undermines everything. He suggests Bella go to college, she suggests sex. He suggests marriage, she suggests sex. He suggests mortality, she suggests sex. It becomes evident that Bella desires little else in her life, than to have sex with Edward. Forever.
Sigh. There are so many problems. Bella constantly requires saving and never once does she save herself. The main character is as weak as the writing and by book four, I believe she loses even the biggest Twi-hards with the unbelievable twists and turns. By book four, the story is cluttered and confused, with Bella literally changing form and character right smack dab in the middle of it.
I find myself (if you haven't figured it out already) furious with Stephanie Meyer. Girls and women are more than the absurdity to which we are diminished on her pages. We are stronger as individuals than we are ever given credit for in this series. We are more than obsession and lust and contrary to what Stephanie Meyer seems to believe and wants other women to believe, we don't need a man to attain completion.
Sigh again. and again. and again. "It's fantasy," I have told myself over and over. "It's a romance novel," has been my mantra. No matter what it is, I cannot forget the damaging and miscontrued concept of femininity found in the books. I cannot get that 11 year old girl's words out of my head: "You complete me, Edward." It leaves me confused, leaves me wondering, leaves me a little heartbroken.
It's tough for me to decide which representation of women I hate more these days: The Twilight Saga or Sarah Palin.
