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I doubt that you could truly enjoy both Tolstoy and Stephene Meyer. They are of such different levels and you cannot appreciate both equally.
I also think that, if one boasts of reading an awful lot of books, one should model their grammar on that of the many books of which they are so proud of having read.
It really depends on the type of person you are.
Me? i absolutely love classics, i love all forms of literature, but fluff.. i mean come on, there's room for that in everybody's life.
For some, older readers, it's Twilight. Your fluff might not be my fluff - and vice versa, but its fluff for all i care.
And i LIKE, fluff.
Also - think about how many different age groups are probably posting on this board..
of course a 50yr old male isn't going to like a book like Twilight.
Hell, if you look at my bookcase you'll see it lined with hundreds of great books, look a little closer behind those books and you'll find sci fi novels with titles like "spooksville"..
Trash, is good.
Meyer has a great talent for entertaining. She can tell a story, and she tells it well. She doesn't need to be a literary great.
Lol, no way was Austen a romanticist. She was actually very much alike to Ann Bronte, whose sisters were definately romantic novelists, but who wrote in a very 'to the point' style which encapsulated quiet wit and a certain dignity.
I think one should pull that gigantic stick out of their *** - before they start talking trash about people they don't even know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allannah
I don't know if the grammar comment was aimed at me or not, but it was quite ridiculous regardless. My best friend can't spell very well and she has read more books than anyone else I know.
You don't think one can enjoy Tolstoy and Meyer?
You're joking, right?
They serve different purposes - it doesn't mean they can't be enjoyable.
It's like a movie - do you only watch one kind of movie?
No, probably not, same goes for books. And honestly, you can't have read that much or enjoy that many if you think two different types of writers can't be enjoyed.
Well, teens tend toward thinking that they are immortal as a general matter of course. Any insurance agent who has to insure one to drive will tell you that.Quote:
Originally Posted by limajean
I sort of took it as a play on perceived immortality vs literal immortality. I think folks who are of the younger ilk (generally speaking of course) will perhaps identify with immortality a bit more than an older person who has perhaps been exposed to a greater amount of mortality in life. Speaking for myself, I KNOW I used to think I was indestructible until life stepped in and proved to me that I was far from it.
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Originally Posted by Allannah
That's what I meant. She isn't a romanticist, and she is often misunderstood.
People write her off as Chick - Lit. I don't enjoy her work that much, but it's clear from a mile away she isn't a romantic writer. She uses satire and irony.
Also Allannah, saying you have read a lot of books in my opinion, isn't boasting.
Especially on a literature website...
I thought the books themselves were poop. The story was redundant, and there was nothing new or interesting to them. The writing style wasn't spectacular. And the only reason this has become as big as it has is not because it is particularily epic, but because it has something teen can identify with (you tell me what, I'm 17 but I've never been a big 'teen literature' person), and because the 'goth-vampire-werewolve-lovestory' genre has become much more marketable and fad.
>.<
Too many people don't give the books a chance because they're snobs. I read Twilight when it first came out, hoping for something along the lines of Anne Rice's work and was sorely disappointed. True romanticism lies in oh, The Vampire Lestat, vs... Edward and Bella... I gave the book a chance and was disappointed.
Blarg. It also doesn't bode well for anybody arguing against the fact that the series is a teen fad that there is a conversation in this thread with regards to who is the better partner for Bella. =/
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Originally Posted by MattG
Look - i don't know, i think some people are really looking to deep in to it.
I don't think on it too much. To me it was a good story, not a fantastic read, but i'm glad it was to the liking of a lot of other people.
Reading back further in the thread and seeing 'fluff' comments.
We're all allowed to read trash sometimes.
Twilight. Is. Trash.
(That's okay!! We're allowed trash! I'm just saying, it certainly isn't an up and coming literary classic!)
Ah, but sadly, you can go that deep. Even a book like Twilight is open to interpretation... in fact, like any work of writing, it must be interpreted, at some level, merely to be comprehensible.Quote:
You say you haven't read twilight? to be honest, there is no need to analyze it. Its clear that Meyer wrote it simply to tell a story. Not to make a statement, not to present us with an idea - but to tell a story. At least, that's how i interpret it. I mean, to me its like asking what the meaning of Harry Potter is. You just cant go into it that deep.
And JBI, I'd say you pretty much hit the mark pretty closely with your analysis. I have read Twilight, and the book can be summed up as a kind of literary safe sex for the Young Adult crowd. Twilight is basically only about sex, all of the repressed kind.
I'm not sure if Edward the vampire qualifies as "allegory". It's too obvious for that... he doesn't represent the dangerous, attractive bad boy, he is the dangerous attractive bad boy. It's Bram Stoker, updated and sanitized. Instead of representing a dark, Eastern, threatening kind of male sexuality, predatory and deadly, the vampire in Meyer's book is a pretty and politically corrected boy. You can practically smell the hair gel and the Axe body spray.
Problem is, the book is only superficially politically correct. And this is where the perils of unavoidable analysis come in-- at least they did for me. Read superficially, it's a fun story, full of romance and the bubbly enthusiasm of youth. But there's a bad smell underlying it all.
Because Bella is a girl attracted to a beautiful, dangerous, moody, unstable and unpredictable boy who can break her in half. And she is attracted to him precisely because he can break her in half. She doesn't know this of course, and I suspect that I, the reader, am not supposed to notice this either.
Problem is, I did.
To limajean;
Okay, okay. I hereby remove the stick and formally offer you my apologies. I was being unnecessarily picky. All better now? (:
Yes, I'm being serious. I think that you're misinterpreting me or choosing not to understand the obvious. When you read two books of such different levels, you, if not conciously, subconciously compare both- in this case, Twilight unfavourably, because it's so evidently lacking. You can enjoy them both- but you will not enjoy them to the same degree; I think that this is how I should have made it clearer. And appreciation, of course, contributes to enjoyment..
You're actually right- I haven't read half as many books as I should have- but you wouldn't have been able to deduce that from the opinion that I expressed in the post to which you were referring, for I think we were thinking in different contexts (:
In what sense do you believe that? I think it is very easy for someone to enjoy both. It is for me and for many others here on litnet. But then again a lot of people do tend to stick to mainly one genre or just classics. But as i've said many times here over the last few years, each to their own.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allannah
haha true.
That book is ah.. pulsing?
with sexual tension :\
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Originally Posted by Allannah
Really? it's been removed? Good, because you were looking a little out of place there...
Yes i agree with that.
However, comparing Tolstoy and Meyer is like comparing apples and oranges..
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Originally Posted by limajean
imajean I agree with you I am a terrible speller always have been and I read a lot also. My grammar is not much better I am sure, it has nothing to do with how many books you read believe me.
I have read both Tolstoy and Meyer and I enjoyed them both but for very different reasons. Lets not forget that they are very different books and is it really fair to compare them? What purpose is there to reading the same type of books all the time regardless of what they are. I read books for many different reasons but one of them is to escape and another is to extend myself and they require very different types of books.
By the way JBI the birthing scene is pretty bad but it is a small part of the book and quickly forgotten when the action between Bella and Edwards heats up. For the record birthing doesn't always go well for us non vampires if that was enough to turn women off the population would be in a lot of trouble.
Now that is a very true statement. Its almost like trying to compare an epic fantasy book to chick lit.Quote:
Originally Posted by limajean