I agree with Kelby on this. It could have been handled so many way and each of them would have been better
I know it has been a while since this thread had been posted to but I thought that I would share this with you all. Monday night we had our first book club meeting for 2009 and the book being discussed well no prizes for guessing – it was Twilight. There were 11 women at the meeting, there are usually 10 but we had a guest at this meeting a huge fan of Twilight.
Of the 11 of us at the meeting 7 loved the book and in fact the whole series (some of them were still reading it) 3 did not like Twilight and have no intention of reading the rest of the novels, 1 was neither loved or hated it. We range in ages from 33 to 79 and I have to say the 33 year old disliked the books the most. This was one of the liveliest discussions that we have ever had and in fact it went for three hours and I had to end up kicking them out of my house at 11pm – some of us have to be up early. We are planning on getting together as a group to discuss the entire series once everyone that wants to has read them all. So these are some of the comments that were made by the group. I should point out that we only discussed Twilight as some of the group had not finished reading the other novels.
Addiction: - there is a strong theme of addiction and denying that addiction throughout the novel. Firstly the vampires addiction to blood and their resistance of that addiction. We are also given a brief look at Jaspers struggle with addiction. Edward actually says that Bella is his own personal brand of heroin and it takes every ounce of self control that he has not to act on that addiction. Secondly Bella and Edwards addiction to each other and it is in fact this addiction that keeps Bella alive even when Edward is forced to drink her blood to save her he is able to stop himself from killing her because he is in love with her.
Bella as a role model: - While one or two people in the group thought Bella is a weak character most of us actual thought she was one of the strongest emotionally in the book. At the age of 17 she packs up her belongings leaves her beloved mother to live with a father is barely knows in a place she does not want to. She accepts Edward flaws and all and knowing that he could kill her. She walks into a house full of vampires and lastly she walks into that ballet studio to face James on her own.
There was one issue raised about Bella that I had not thought of and that is the fact that she does not eat when stressed or around Edward she only drinks. I totally missed this even though I had read the novel several times. Most agreed that was a negative aspect to the character.
Esme was also a large talking point in our discussion and the fact that some of the group thought that she was actually a better “mother” than Renee. In fact some of the group actually thought that the strongest family unit in the whole books was in fact the Cullen’s.
These are just a few of the themes and talking points that we covered in our discussion, I will add more if this stimulates the conversation again. So I guess it goes to show you that a book that has been dismissed by some people, who haven’t even bothered to read it, as trash might actually have something to offer after all. We all acknowledge that these books are not great literary works they never claimed to be but that does not mean that they have no social value.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
