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I have a confession to make...
Nov. 23rd, 2009 06:08 pmI read Twilight over the weekend...
...
...and I liked it.
I used to love romance novels in high school and college for their pure escapism--my favorite one is called Royal Seduction by Jennifer Blake. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've reread it--classic Ruritanian story with a Balkan prince who sweeps into Lousiana looking for the mistress of his older brother who was murdered in their bed--said mistress just happens to be the lookalike cousin of the heroine, for whom the prince mistakes her. He kidnaps her and takes her to his bed--"a passionate punishment that proved she'd never been anyone's mistress" as the back cover copy breathlessly informed us--and even as he realizes the enormous mistake he's made, he refuses to give her up. What makes this book great, besides its classic elements of handsome prince, beautiful maiden, etc.--is how very well-written it is. Seriously. Genre fiction is not at all by definition bad or weak--Gone with the Wind is a romance (an epic one, to be sure) and it won the Pulitzer. Arthur C. Clarke and C.L. Moore, both highly respected authors, wrote genre fiction, as does Larry McMurtry. At any rate Royal Seduction's hero Rolfe is an intellectual who plays a lot of headgames with Angeline and she responds in kind--at one point, discussing his plans to track down her cousin, he says "fortuna favet fortibus" and she replies "fortune may favor the bold, your Highness, but it will take more than that to find a woman who is not there." Rolfe also has this peculiar, very poetic way of speaking that drove me wild--he says things like "you are the twin of my soul, half of my whole, a partnered swan without which you will die, singing." Yeah. Add to that devastatingly good-looking and an incredible fighter (he has a cadre of bodyguards who are a major part of the story, all of whom revere him) and you can see why I lapped this stuff up.
At any rate you can see why I enjoyed Twilight--sure it's silly (and certainly its prose is pretty pedestrian, not even close to Royal Seduction) but it's pure escapism. When the first movie came out last year, I'd never heard of the books and had no interest. Then when I was flying to Italy, I fell asleep just as they started showing it. I woke up, all bleary and exhausted, during that scene in the forest when he tells her "you're like my personal brand of heroine...I can't stay away from you." Even in my stupor I remember thinking "okay, NOW I get why so many teenyboppers love this story." A guy who looks like a Greek God, can protect you from anything and anyone, is all broody and angtsy and needs you that badly? That is crack to the fantasies of a thirteen-year old. Of course they love it. And for a Mormon author writing a series of books wherein very little sex (from what I understand) is had, there is some hhhot stuff going on there! Maybe teenage girls will hold the boys in their life to a higher standard--Edward's standard--and demand to be respected, which is even more hilarious since Edward is played by Robert Pattinson who, in the words of Dickipedia, is "a dick actor, model, and musician best known for playing Edward Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, and very likely the reason your wife or girlfriend has stopped having sex with you." (PS, Dickipedia, he is NOT a dick! :) He played Cedric in Goblet of Fire and for that alone he's awesome! Oh, Cedric...)
...
...and I liked it.
I used to love romance novels in high school and college for their pure escapism--my favorite one is called Royal Seduction by Jennifer Blake. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've reread it--classic Ruritanian story with a Balkan prince who sweeps into Lousiana looking for the mistress of his older brother who was murdered in their bed--said mistress just happens to be the lookalike cousin of the heroine, for whom the prince mistakes her. He kidnaps her and takes her to his bed--"a passionate punishment that proved she'd never been anyone's mistress" as the back cover copy breathlessly informed us--and even as he realizes the enormous mistake he's made, he refuses to give her up. What makes this book great, besides its classic elements of handsome prince, beautiful maiden, etc.--is how very well-written it is. Seriously. Genre fiction is not at all by definition bad or weak--Gone with the Wind is a romance (an epic one, to be sure) and it won the Pulitzer. Arthur C. Clarke and C.L. Moore, both highly respected authors, wrote genre fiction, as does Larry McMurtry. At any rate Royal Seduction's hero Rolfe is an intellectual who plays a lot of headgames with Angeline and she responds in kind--at one point, discussing his plans to track down her cousin, he says "fortuna favet fortibus" and she replies "fortune may favor the bold, your Highness, but it will take more than that to find a woman who is not there." Rolfe also has this peculiar, very poetic way of speaking that drove me wild--he says things like "you are the twin of my soul, half of my whole, a partnered swan without which you will die, singing." Yeah. Add to that devastatingly good-looking and an incredible fighter (he has a cadre of bodyguards who are a major part of the story, all of whom revere him) and you can see why I lapped this stuff up.
At any rate you can see why I enjoyed Twilight--sure it's silly (and certainly its prose is pretty pedestrian, not even close to Royal Seduction) but it's pure escapism. When the first movie came out last year, I'd never heard of the books and had no interest. Then when I was flying to Italy, I fell asleep just as they started showing it. I woke up, all bleary and exhausted, during that scene in the forest when he tells her "you're like my personal brand of heroine...I can't stay away from you." Even in my stupor I remember thinking "okay, NOW I get why so many teenyboppers love this story." A guy who looks like a Greek God, can protect you from anything and anyone, is all broody and angtsy and needs you that badly? That is crack to the fantasies of a thirteen-year old. Of course they love it. And for a Mormon author writing a series of books wherein very little sex (from what I understand) is had, there is some hhhot stuff going on there! Maybe teenage girls will hold the boys in their life to a higher standard--Edward's standard--and demand to be respected, which is even more hilarious since Edward is played by Robert Pattinson who, in the words of Dickipedia, is "a dick actor, model, and musician best known for playing Edward Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, and very likely the reason your wife or girlfriend has stopped having sex with you." (PS, Dickipedia, he is NOT a dick! :) He played Cedric in Goblet of Fire and for that alone he's awesome! Oh, Cedric...)
