[stylist] Book review on the Twilight Series

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

I don't usually jump on board pop-culture bandwagons until well after
the fact, but in light of the continuing, seemingly never-ending,
popularity of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, I decided to read
through her series to see what the commotion is all about.

The Twilight series by Meyer is made up of four books: Twilight, New
Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. The entire series revolves around the
teenage love-triangle between Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.
Bella is a human girl who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her
bachelor father. She meets Edward, who, as it turns out, is a
ninety-year-old vampire who appears to be only seventeen. Edward and his
vampire "family" are non-human eating vampires, vegetarians as they
jokingly call themselves. The Cullen's choose to live off of animal
blood as opposed to human blood, and they practice being good, able to
follow a morality not usually an option in most vampire tales. Jacob is
the son of a chief to a local native-American tribe, some  tribes
members having the ability to shift-shape into over-sized wolves in
order to protect their land against the Cold Ones, or vampires, Jacob
being one who can shape-shift. Edward and Jacob are both in love with
Bella, but her choice is Edward, though she does harbor feelings for
best-friend Jacob. The series revolves around whether Bella will join
Edward's world, A. K. A. becoming a vampire, or if they can live
happily-ever-after until Bella grows old and dies while Edward remains
young and immortal, or whether she will choose Jacob, who she loves too,
but not as intensely as Edward, but Jacob is the "human" choice since,
though he can shape-shift, he's wholly human.

Upon cracking the first book open, so to speak, I had to stick with it
since it had a slow start. Though popular in young adult literature, the
first person narrative bogs the story down a bit in my opinion. Except
for the final book, when the story switches briefly to Jacob's POV, we
are only privy to Bella's, the main character, side of the story. The
entire series relies heavily on Bella's inner thoughts meaning we end up
with more of the proverbial "tell" rather than an equal exchange of
"show." And in this instance, I'd rather have engaged with scenic
development instead of Bella's thoughts.

When Meyer decides to actually use some senic development, she ends up
with descriptions and writing that isn't half bad, but before we can
revel in this new contribution to the plot, she places us back into
Bella's swirling, angsty thoughts; actually, it's a bit like finding the
gate to the yard  finally unlocked, and you step out into freedom,
taking a deep breath, enjoying the change of pace, but being violently
yanked, snapped back into the house by a jumbo rubber band.

For a story about vampires and werewolves, there's very little action.
I'm a girl, and even I want action. For anyone waiting for a showdown
with some ass kicking, you will only get a tiny helping in the third
book, Eclipse, and you will be totally let down at the end of the final
book, Breaking Dawn, which has a huge build-up with no release by the
conclusion. Meyer does not stick to traditional concepts of vampires and
werewolves, and though theoretically the concept behind her inspiration
seems like a good one, it does not work out in the end. Virginal
vampires, humans tempting mythic logical creatures, the power of love,
acceptance... It's just too much and doesn't lend itself to creating
great young adult literature in Meyer's case.

Meyers does create characters with complexities, however, unlike J. K.
Rowling, who Meyers is often compared to, the complexities are too
obvious, to distinct from one another instead of a blurring of traits.
Characters don't always feel organic though they are chalk full of
complexities, as though Meyers is trying to make a point, which she is,
but it's to obvious to endear these characters to readers, obviously not
a view held by everyone though, hence the immense popularity of the
series. It is like when artist skillfuly use shading to create
dimensions with pictures which blend into one another unable to separate
from one image to the next. Meyer does not create this allusion,
however, with attempting to layer complex emotions, thoughts and actions
in her characters.

The closest she comes to with accomplishing this feat is in her
character Carlisle Cullen, leader of the Cullen vampire clan, or family,
as they think of themselves. Carlisle is a hundreds-year-old vampire who
has only sired other vampires in order to save them from excruciating
deaths as he does with Edward who at seventeen, is dying from the
Spanish flu during the early nineteen hundreds. He teaches them, though,
and expects them to drink only animal blood and not human blood, which
is apparently a hunger that disipates after time. Carlisle is a doctor
who has learned to work around not only humans as a doctor, but to be
around blood constantly without his animal vampire tendancies being a
temptation. I found myself more intrigued by this character and wanting
more, but we learn little about Carlisle other than what I have already
mentioned here. Meyer's depictions of her other characters fall short of
the mark in terms of three-dimensional characters though.

Meyer credits such books as Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet and Anne
of Green Gables as being her inspirations, and she attempts to employ
each as literary references to create metaphors, but it's blatant,
poorly done and usually there's a weak thread connecting her Twilight
series to these literary giants.

Controversy  has plagued Meyer's series including teenage abuse,
manipulative relationships and anti-Feminist ideas. I will not go into
debating this, though to be fair, some critics take elements of the plot
out of context making, in my opinion, a weak argument associating
certain behavior and ideas to such things. That being said, contrary to
what Meyer has said during interviews, Bella Swan comes across as a weak
person, not even female, but just person, who is easily manipulated by
others. Meyer tries crafting moments to enlighten the reader to Bella's
alleged independent nature and unwillingness to follow anyone other than
herself, but these moments are eclipsed (ha-ha) by her actions that
suggest a nature more inclined to following and participating in
one-sided relationships. And this is not playing to heavily on Feminist
ideals, though I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with
that, but Bella is not a great role model for young girls, or any age of
girls for that matter. In my opinion, I see no redeeming qualities in
most the characters but Bella in particular. Meyers wants us to believe
that Bella is a vibrant, independent young woman who actively makes her
own choices, but this is not how it translates onto the page. She is
overly concerned with aging, hence a leading reason she wants to become
a vampire along with loving Edward; she allows others to exert certain
ideals onto her and she often comes across as the submissive one in each
of her relationships, and not always in a good definition of the word
submissive. And while Meyer's characters exhibit moral qualities such as
abstaining from sex and drugs or vampires who don't want to hurt humans,
Bella comes across as a weak character unable  to make good, independent
decisions, and she is so single-mindedly focused on being with Edward,
she thinks of nothing else, has no other goals, and even Edward tries to
get her to have more than one goal to work towards.

Review after review criticizes the series for this very reason, not
displaying the equality in a partnership, but depicting a young woman
whose only goal in life is to be with her boyfriend at any cost to
herself or others, and she sees no other ambition in life. She refuses
to consider university, though even Edward pushes this idea; she has no
sense of priorities; she is ready and willing to give up her human
family, never to see them again, in order to become a part of Edwards
vampire family; she even stops cultivating any relationships with other
people her age including Jacob and focuses solely on Edward. Not traits
I wish my daughter to pick up, and yet millions of teenage girls pour
over the pages of these books romanticizing the characters and their
situations.

Over-all, I found the Twilight series to be to big of a literary concept
and it just can't live up to it's own expectations. And quite frankly, I
found it boring. Grant it, this is geared towards young adults, but
anyone seeking an Anne Rice vampire will be sorely disappointed. Though
it has its moments, the writing is poor, the characters aren't
three-dimensional enough and the plot over-extends itself leaving
readers wanting at the end. I don't recommend this to anyone, young or
not so young.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan