I'm watching Twilight...

[eumelia]

...as I write this.

I'm not ashamed.

I decided to watch it, so that I could pin-point my hate of this franchise. Yes, I went into it knowing that I'd hate it.
Twihards, I know Good Vs Bad is hard to resist. I also know that reading about a girl who could be you (because you can transplant your personality onto her) being with a handsome boy who isn't all about the sex (though it really is) is compelling.

But let's get one thing straight; abusive relationships are not romantic. Thinking your boyfriend is a predator is not sexy. Stalking is a crime.

Also, my god she could be replaced by a blow-up doll and it have the same effect on plot, narrative and her personality.

That's great female role-modelling you've got there.

WTF! Sparkles?!

*sigh* I'm disappointed in literature sometimes, and thus the human race.

Related to this, I've taken to reading fandomsecrets. It's very fascinating, what anonymity enables us to say and do. Most of what's written there is quite common and a large amount of the secrets repeat each other in variations.
By reading F!S I can also tell which Fandom is bigger than others.

Today, this secret appeared:

.
You can read the comments here.

I'm not planning on commenting.
Mainly because I find the "secret" a fascinating one. To me it reads as someone who possibly enjoys reading fiction that they are ashamed of.
Fiction and possibly fanfiction because it is de facto unedited by an outside reader and usually Beta readers (the editors of the Fanfic world) encourage the writers to go beyond what they consider their limits - you can read that often when authors thank their Beta readers.
The all encompassing offence of this "secret" is just incredible.

The way I see it, fiction gives us the ability to discuss all the "offensive exploitation and glorification of real issues" - humanity is not really good with dealing with things head on. We do truly horrible things to each other.

The monsters of fiction (Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies... whatever) are yet to have been verified by science - but we all know those people who suck the life out of us, those people who can be the sweetest people one second and then without warning can make you cry from the violent cruelty they impose and who hasn't met those people who just wander through life without passion and want nothing but to take the passion out of others.

Most of life's bad things are not actually spoken about. We do not talk about torture or how sexual it is. We do not speak about the fact that rape is a crime against humanity and that it is committed against 1 in 4 women, 1 in 10 men, 1 in 6 children of any gender - usually by someone they knew.
That incest is far more common than we want to imagine.
Fiction is able to present us with a disturbing, yet palpable picture of the world.

The "secret" is obviously accusatory, but I think it's more inward than anything else. The person who wrote the "secret" most likely has read a bunch of fiction that "offensive" and "glorified violence", enjoyed it and was ashamed of pursuing the stories that were gritty, disturbing, kinky and fantastic (= fantasy, not "amazing").

I say, if we can't discuss, talk, explore and live fictional lives how can we do the same for non-fictional lives - in which we hide, repress, suppress and oppress so much more?

As I finish writing this, the credits of Twilight are rolling. A more boring movie I can't remember seeing. Disturbing gender, race and class relations abound.
This is fiction that many find meaning in. It is bad, it glorifies behaviour that in our world can get you killed, relationships that can wreak emotional havoc and personalities I hope one day get help to sustain healthier lives.

If we can't say that on a world found in books, how will we ever be able to say it about the world that exists at the end of our nose?

Comments

[sanat.livejournal.com]

Have you read this LJer's interpretation of the Twilight books as basically fangirling for Joseph Smith (http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html)? It's possible, considering the author's insistence that she's still devoutly Mormon despite dabbling in fantasy fiction.

I could also see the series as a recap of Psyche's quest for Eros or any weak mortal's longing for a perfect eternal love. That's pretty much the ONLY way this would be remotely acceptable--taken literally, yes, it's very abusive and impermissible.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I can find no redeeming quality in the movie. I may attempt to read the books again at some point... I may not, though.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Paged through Breaking Dawn to distract myself from the unsexy boredom of the movie last weekend, and oh man, the prose. I found myself wondering how it had ever gotten through an editor.


That secret disturbs me, not because of its criticisms but because of the worldview behind it. How joyless would a world without fiction be! And I definitely agree with you about the potential for fiction (particularly sff, in my opinion) to criticize the world-as-it-is. To take a hackneyed example, reading Uncle Tom's Cabin did for many Northerners what decades of anti-slavery campaigning by abolitionists and Abolitionists couldn't, namely convince them that slavery in the United States was wrong.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The world view behind the "secret" is not only joyless but patronising in the extreme.
How dare people enjoy things! And stories that depict Bad Things... gross.

*sigh*

Then again some people will always be sticks-in-the-mud.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

The world view behind the "secret" is not only joyless but patronising in the extreme.
How dare people enjoy things! And stories that depict Bad Things... gross.

Oh yeah, that too. That way lies Big Brother, doesn't it?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Now we're just doing the icon thing, aren't we :-)

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. But it's so fun!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes it is!

I consider myself a Gryffinclaw as well :-)

There was once a quiz that told your house along with your horoscope IIRC, but it was many a year ago that I did it and I wouldn't even know where to start looking.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Most quizzes I took told me that I scored dead even between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and had me do a tiebreaker question, which I always picked Gryffindor for, which is why I say that I sorted Gryffindor. But I am quite happy with my Gryffinclaw icons (and the Ravenclaw makes sense, since my zodiacal sign is an air sign, and Ravenclaw is air).

And now I am out of HP House icons.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

The one redeeming quality for me is that from the first book through the last, Bella does every now and then berate Edward for being an eternal powerful vampire and not wishing her to become one herself (that's another failing for me--why on earth do so many vampires seem self-hating? You'd think more would just see themselves as just another creature, not some sinful thing...), and begs him to change her so they can be equal.

Again, I'm taking this from the metaphoric interpretation of wanting to be united with a divine eternal love, not OMG WITH MY GORGEOUS BOYFRIEND FOREVAR. I waver between agnostic and mystic in my reading of everything from religion to fiction.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Both your points about Eros/Psyche and "Make me equal, damnit" have merit.
The Eros/Psyche retelling would work if Edward weren't essentially dead and unchanging, which if I recall my mythology is a bit of an anti-thesis to Eros.

The "make me equal" could be construed as a criticism of the lack of male allies in feminist movements - because only once those with power chose to ally with those without can change happen (or at least it'll happen faster). But that maybe a very broad reading and giving Meyers too much credit.

[sanat.livejournal.com]

That's true about Edward being dead and unchanging---from Bella's POV it seems awesome to be a vampire just because they're so strong and "perfect", and she doesn't get why Rosalie hates her so much just for being able to have babies. Never mind that the unspeakable Renesmee is the result...

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Meh, that's not a secret, it's a troll born of a melodramatically pessimistic and uncreative mind.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

On a second reading, I think they're bitching about not being able to write whatever the hell they feel like without someone complaining or being offended. The invocation of 'political correctness' sort of fits with that, because all they see is the overbearing 'look at what a good white person I am!' stuff.