Round One – A Look at Twilight May 31, 2009

I made minor changes to this post and split it in two because it was just too long before.

I am going to try to do this without giving too much away for those of you who are interested in reading this series.  So, here goes!

I read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer late last fall.  It was admittedly during a time in my life when I really did not have the desire to utilize very many brain cells.  I wanted to be entertained without having to think, and the Twilight series fit that bill.  However, now that millions of teen girls (and their mothers) are infatuated with the series, I decided that a closer look into these books and their themes is warranted.

Stephanie Meyer created a world in which vampires exist (in small numbers), and they even have a ruling vampire coven that enforces the vampire rules.  It was funny to me that this particular group of ruling vampires (the Volturi) resides in Italy, which is also home of the Vatican.  :)  One of the only rules is to keep the existance of vampires secret from the humans.

These books are told from the perspective of Bella Swan, a 17-year-old high school junior.  She is clumsy and shy, preferring to read Jane Austen books than to socialize.  The books open with her moving to Forks, Washington to live with her father.  Her mother is married to a baseball player and Bella decides to get out of the way of thier travels and spend quality time with her dad.  Forks is the cloudiest place in the US, making it an ideal place for Meyer’s sparkling vampires.

Bella’s first day of school is strange for the introvert.  Having moved from Phoenix, AZ and being another face in the large crowd, she finds herself suddenly thrust into the spotlight in this small town.  To make matters worse, her new lab partner in biology is Edward Cullen, one of the seven vampires of the Cullen coven who have a permanent residence in Forks.  What sets the Cullens apart is that they have found that living on animal blood sustains them.  The seven of them have chosen not to feed from humans.  This is not always easy as Edward discovers on Bella’s first day of school.  He experiences the rare phenomenon of her blood “singing” to him and finds it nearly impossible not to kill her.  He makes it through the class and battles the monster within constantly when he is around her.

Edward and Bella wind up falling in love (go figure!).  I found most of their courtship in the first book to be touching, especially considering Edward’s age and the fact that this falling in love business is entirely new to him.  Their love is tested, broken, reunited, and consummated throughout the four books.  Bella’s life is threatened at least five times, three of which nearly do kill her.  Each book contains action, romance, and further development of the characters.  And we see action from the vampire police in Italy.

Looking at this from a character standpoint, Bella is not the most appealing heroine.  She is swooning, at times weak, and lacks a sense of self-identity.  Her inability to accept gifts and attention is meant to make her seem selfless, but it comes across as immature and annoying.  Bella is quick to want to give her entire life to another person.  By that, I mean her entire mortal life.  She is willing to permanently give up her parents and ability to have children without seeming to have much of a sense of who she is.  She also unfortunately becomes more manipulative as the books unfold.  I found myself very disturbed in the third book as she and Edward were using sex, marriage, and the end of her mortal life to strike deals with one another so that they could each have what they wanted.  It was supposed to come across as a compromise, but it looked pretty manipulative to me.  She also has trouble letting go of her “best friend”  Jacob throughout two of the books, using and hurting him repeatedly by not letting him go.

Edward’s character is the typical tortured soul.  He has a great deal of self-hatred because of what he is, and really tries early on to stay away from Bella.  Edward does not believe that he has a soul because he is a vampire, which is the main reason that he does not want to turn Bella.  Edward grew up in the early 1900’s and still possess old-fashioned ideas about protecting his girl.  His greatest character flaws are his flair for the dramatic which leads him on a suicide mission at one point, and his knack for trying to play God.  Edward is a mind-reader, and this powerful ability drives him to make a lot of decisions for others.  Unfortunately, he thinks that it is okay to make huge decisions for him and Bella without consulting her.  I will admit that he redeems himself  later in the third book as he learns to let Bella make decisions, and truly reaches the place where he is willing to let her go.

Bella’s parents are unfortunately not great models.  Her mother is flighty and absent-minded, and Bella admits to having parented her mother more than she herself was parented.  Charlie, her police-chief father, is really cool in the movie.  He actually was my favorite character in the movie.  Unfortunately, he is just someone else for Bella to take care of in the books.  He can’t cook or run his household, so Bella does it all.  He clearly loves Bella, but he can’t handle the truth of what is going on in her life so he buries his head in the sand.  I found that to be very unrealistic and disappointing.  I wanted to respect Charlie in the books, but ended up respecting him only slightly more than Bella.  No police chief father would be quite as unobservant in his only daughter’s life.

I enjoyed the secondary characters in these books much more than the main characters.  The rest of the Cullens were entertaining and endearing.  Emmett was a hoot, and my favorite Cullen.  Their dynamics were fun, and they really live as a loving family.  One thing that Stephanie Meyer is good at is character sketches.  I felt like I really knew the characters even if I didn’t like them.

In the next post I will discuss general themes of this series.

Rowling vs. Meyer – My Perspective May 27, 2009

I am not ashamed to admit that I love fiction – very much.  I love it more than non-fiction.  There was a time when I thought that made me less intellectual or philisophical or just less in general.  Now I say who cares?  Jesus loved fiction.  That fact is apparent to me based on how many parables He told.  There is something so very powerful and impacting about fiction.  It bypasses the part of our minds that wants to work it all out logically and speaks to our hearts.  As a heart person, I get that.  Fiction for me is an experience. 

There are two movies hitting the big screen this year based on works of fiction.  Both are part of a series of books, and they have been compared to one another quite a bit.  They have also both been embraced by young and old alike, and the authors of both have become very weathy thanks to their stories. 

I must admit to being irked whenever I see an article with pictures of J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer next to one another.  These two authors penned the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series, respectively.  I am not sure why people seem to believe that they are similar.  Yes, both women created an alternate universe that does not exist.  One consisted of witches and wizards, the other had vampires and shape-shifting wolves.  Both have drawn much attention and spurned moves, bringing fame and wealth to a handful of young people.  One actor went so far as to have played a role in a Harry Potter move and then the lead in Twilight.  In my opinion, that’s just about where the similarities end.

I will take the next couple of posts to discuss these series of books.  I will be looking at the over-all writing, strength of plot, character development, and themes.  Also, since I come from a Christian background and used to be among circles who were literally afraid of Harry Potter, I will look at these books from a moral and spiritual perspective.

I have really thought about this for several weeks and have taken a lot of notes.  Hopefully, I will get this all together in a way that is helpful and  interesting to read (and also infused with some humor ).  I will also include spoiler warnings.  I plan to tackle Twilight first, and hope to have my next post up by Friday.  This topic is important to me as a person who loves fiction and as a mom.  At the end, I will give my input on which series I hope that my kids will embrace when they are old enough to read them.

Please feel free to comment as I tackle this.

Some Spring Photos May 16, 2009

 

Nathan & Brianna at Brianna's 4th birthday party on April 30th.

 

 

Face painting from Artisphere arts festival in Greenville, SC. Not sure what Nathan's was, but it was cool. Brianna turned down all the girly stuff (butterflies, lady bugs, etc.) and wanted to be a tiger!

Free Speech and Differing Opinions – Sometimes It’s Ugly May 8, 2009

I never follow “beauty” pageant news.  Beauty pagents themselves disturb me, but I couldn’t help but notice the media frenzy surrounding the Miss USA Pageant last week.  Miss California, Carrie Prejean, made headlines with her answer to a question regarding gay marriage.  That now infamous moment during the pageant can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY-1cybT6p8.

There is so much wrong about this entire situation.  First of all, why on earth was a question like that even allowed in a beauty pageant?  Perez Hilton, the man who posed the question, has accused Miss Prejean of being divisive with her answer.  Was he not divisive with his question?  Yes, he was.  Obviously, he assumed that whomever his question was posed to would agree with him.  That is the only thing that could explain his outrage over the answer that was given. 

What happened to respecting the opinions of others?  I do have an opinion on the gay marriage issue myself, but this post is not about my opinion.  What disturbs me about last week’s fiasco is that only the current popular opinions are held in any esteem.  It may not truly be the opinion of the majority, but it is the opinion most in vogue.  Therefore, it must be the correct opinion.

Admittedly, Carrie Prejean did not answer the question well at all.  I can understand her not getting much credit for it.  First of all, most Americans cannot choose gay marriage.  They can choose a gay relationship, but not marriage.  It is only legal in a few states.  Secondly, she really needed to answer the question beyond stating that her opinion was based on how she was raised.  There was a time when that held weight, but it no longer does.  My sisters and I were raised to believe that inter-racial marriage was morally wrong.  None of the three of us hold to that opinion today.  One of my sisters even married a man from Nigeria.  Miss California really should have thought out her answer a little more.  Surely there was more to her opinion than the fact that it was her parents’ opinion. 

Since that night, Miss Prejean has spoken out big time.  She immediately spoke to many media outlets, which appears to be in violation of her Miss California contract.  She has also aligned herself with a traditional marriage organization and appeared a commercial for them.  Her public appearances were apparently supposed to be approved and were not.  In these appearances, she has stated that her opinion is based on the Bible.  Again, we can’t throw around the Bible says so anymore and expect it to have any impact.  Exhibiting the heart of God, speaking in love, and not running to the media to claim that you are being persecuted would go much farther.

Obviously, I do not agree with how Carrie Prejean has handled the situation.  However, I must give her props for speaking her mind.  She had to have known that her hopes for the crown were ruined, but she gave her honest opinion. I do think that it took a certain level of courage to do that.  If she had only stayed quiet and gracious following the pageant, she might not be in the position to possibly lose her crown.  They may still have dug up the half-nude pictures of her, but maybe not.  She certainly fueled the attack against her. 

Bottom line – they all need to go to time out!!  Seriously, are we not allowed an opinion anymore?  Carrie Prejean was entitled her opinion, but I haven’t sensed her respect for others’ opinions, either.  Perez Hilton is entitled his opinion, but not at the cost of everyone else’s.  Most of us don’t live on the extreme fringes.  Mature discussion is possible, but it would mean that someone has to close their mouth for a moment and let the other speak.