teen romance for the new generation
remember when buffy the vampire slayer was THE show that was watched religiously by the young american populace every week back when the WB and UPN were still separate broadcasting stations? well now that vampiric phenomenon is back with the "Twilight" series, written by a Mormon housewife, Stephenie Meyer. sadly, i have not found the time (nor the motivation, nor the interest) to read this so-called saga, but i do have a fourteen year old sister who is a loyal fan of the books and eagerly waiting for the release of the fourth and final book this August. i haven't really taken notice to the books until i came across this op-ed yesterday on the new york times:
A Virginal Goth Girl
By GAIL COLLINS
"Every so often I discover that the whole world seems obsessed with a pop-culture phenomenon that I’ve missed out on completely. This would be O.K. if I’d been spending my time on more important matters, but unfortunately I’m not all that deep. I’m telling you all this because our topic for today is “The Twilight Saga,” a series of extraordinarily popular books that you may have never heard of, just the way I had never heard of “American Idol” until it was practically passé.
“Twilight” and its successor novels are about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. There seems to be a lot of this going on lately. If you want to become a best-selling novelist, I would definitely advise that you start by making your hero a little bit undead.
Even given this important thematic advantage, however, the Twilights are a phenomenon. According to a spokeswoman for the author, Stephenie Meyer, the first three books sold 6.5 million copies in the United States alone in less than three years. The fourth, “Breaking Dawn,” is scheduled to arrive in the stores on Aug. 2, when it will be greeted by midnight parties in at least 4,000 bookstores. In New York City, there will be a preparty concert of music that Meyer says inspires her writing. When the tickets went on sale, all 2,000 were gone within 45 minutes." read the rest of it here.
my favorite part?
" 'Only a vampire, ladies,' said Jessica Valenti, the author of “Full Frontal Feminism.” She worries that in the real world, young men are spending so much time watching pornography on the Internet that they will never be satisfied with normal women and normal relationships.
This sure sounds like trouble to me: A generation of guys who will settle for nothing less than a porn star meets a generation of women who expect their boyfriend to crawl through their bedroom window at night and just nuzzle gently until they fall asleep."
now i'm not completely cynical and i do believe in love, but i find it believable that teen romance books can shape a girl's view of love, and possibly distort it so that she'll never have realistic expectations. these girls probably are daydreaming about finding that perfect prince charming who has a dark (vampiric?) side, but is a complete gentleman and will not let his hormones get in the way of true love blah blah blah, etc. and why wouldn't they? the media does it often enough through teen romance tv shows and movies, so why not books? while buffy had her love-life as side plots, even she didn't offer to give up her mortal identity and become a soulless vampire for another man. i'll admit that i had my daydreams about prince charming, but it certainly didn't involve vampires nuzzling me in my sleep.
jessica on 07.13.08 @ 11:47 PM GMT [link] No Comments
