On the love/hate thing:We all have our guilty pleasures. Some rather respected members still collect and love Transformers, even though the original series is kind of crap compared to other shows within the same genre. A lot of us watch anime, which can be a spawning pit for dorky guilty pleasure in general. This is a forum originally dedicated for theorizing a Zelda timeline that probably doesn't exist and if it does, is one of the most needlessly complicated storylines ever created. Some of us probably read fanfics, which are definitely guilty pleasures. A smaller number have probably written them. We all have a book, a movie, a show, whatever that we know is horrible. But we like it anyway, and often for no sensible reason.
So yes. Most of the people making fun of Twilight are guilty of the same kind of thing.
Twilight has fallen into the same media-hate-niche that Halo did. Halo was not a very original game. The storyline in the actual games, especially the first one, was mostly unimpressive and had to be fleshed out by novels and media on the side. Halo's best feature was accessible multiplayer, and it was obvious that other shooters dominated the immersive single player experience. But Halo gained many fans, and they went nuts over it. They wouldn't shut up about it, and they would react to criticism in a hostile manner. That hostile reaction encouraged the detractors to get even louder. Soon we had shouting matches, and both sides became overly sensitive.
Twilight has the same problem. When you get down to it, Twilight is a clean Harlequin novel for young girls. It was written for fun by a novice and then submitted for publication on a dare. It's pretty obvious that there wasn't much planning involved when it comes to the plot, especially throughout the series as a whole. It's not an epic with every meticulous detail planned out by a professional. Meyer got lucky after being rejected multiple times, and it helps that vampire/werewolf/supernatural stories like that are easy sells.
The problem lies in the fanbase, because a significant portion don't realize that they're reading a clean Harlequin novel for young girls and assume it's quality fiction. Just like the fans of Halo didn't realize that other games were better. That generates the "oh come ON" response that detractors have. Then the shouting matches get bigger and bigger until everyone hates each other. Then even casual fans who DO recognize it as a guilty pleasure feel ganged up on by default, and they lash out as well.
PopularitySo if it's clear that Twilight is horribly written and has a convoluted plot, why is it so popular? As mentioned above, it could appeal to an untapped niche (sappy eye-candy for women). Although it could simply be due to the emotional strings it tugs on - I've noticed that people, especially women, will keep reading something they know is crap if they can get some kind of emotional catharsis from it. Twilight touches on teenage angst, first love, a man devoting his entire life to one woman, and an otherwise ordinary girl being fought over by two hunky men occasionally minus a shirt or two. Most female readers respond well to all those emotions, therefor, they eat the book up despite all its failings.
Romance novels tend to be porn for women. Okay, that's usually
trashy romance novels. But this is like... entry level for the youngin's, or for the older women who just like the emotional ride they get rather than the figurative physical one. Chelsea Handler has ranted about this phenomenon before, and I can try to find that clip if you want, but you probably get my point. I think she was saying something along the lines of "I can't just wank it to the thought of Johnny Depp. There's no context, no story! I mean, why I am even in the same place as Johnny Depp? Doesn't he have kids? What about his girlfriend? No! How did this happen? I can't just randomly be screwing Johnny Depp!" It's all about the story and lead up - that little flirtatious 'dance' that leads up to sex. That's why every romance novel is full of needless complications that ups the drama and 'romance' of it all. Pride and Prejudice wouldn't be so well loved if Lizzy met Darcy and said, "Pardon me, sir, but I find you most attractive. Would you be interested in courting me?" "Yes, madame, I would." The end.
Likewise, male-oriented books (generally speaking) might have more logic involved, but at the expense of emotion. Even the Lenabot gets put off if an otherwise interesting novel has no emotion to latch on to. That's why I sometimes have a difficult time reading classics - the authors held back on emotion quite a bit compared to contemporary writers.
Twilight as ArtI'm of the opinion that just about everything in the media is art. Like it or not, Twilight is probably going to be an influence. There is such a thing as "bad art."
BiasI hate Twilight, I'm just trying to be realistic here.
Edited by Selena, 09 December 2009 - 08:10 PM.
