Marc: Holy [bleep], did I just stumble into actual analysis of this thing?Say what you will about loving it or hating it--you will stumble into an actual analysis, and it will blow. Your. Mind.
3.30.2010
Yes, Twilight is a writing style
This discussion of the writing style of the Twilight novels is one of the funnier discussions I've read. I know hating on Twilight has been done to death (I am especially guilty of this one), but this piece ends with my favorite comment on these books perhaps ever:
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That was side splitting. Somewhere in the middle she nailed it, I think, that the story is what everybody glommed on to.
ReplyDeleteI also think (personal theory, not worth much) that the first timer "telling not showing" worked for Meyer. People who study and write and edit and pare words down for years take pride in not ever telling when they can show but it's hard to do and sometimes hard to read. I think readers, esp. YA genre readers, don't want to do so much work interpreting what the MC is thinking. Hence, the success of "Edward is so amazingly chisledly sparkly beautiful and not even human because he's way better than human since he's so good looking and superstrong so what could he see in me since I have plain brown hair and eyes and I'm normal? He's too good for me. I'm not good enough for him. He's like a superhero. I'm like the girl next door. I have angst over the disparity in our relationship."
No room for guessing on the part of the reader. It's not just the teenagers who like having things spelled out for them, either. I know lawyers, doctors, MFAs, a high level UN official, and of course the ubiquitous housewives all in my personal circle of friends who enjoyed the Twilight books.
Love it or hate it, there's something to be said for taking advantage of novel length fiction as being different from a screenplay, where the only direct insight into a character's thoughts must be done by voiceover.
My favorite quote: "Someone's stupid here, and I think she thinks it's me"
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