In other news, I’ve decided that I need to be more connected with pop culture. I’ve started reading the Stephenie Meyer “Twilight” book series. Here are my first impressions of “Twilight.”
1. Although, not as poorly written as I may have expected [from a BYU graduate… No, just kidding.]. It’s definitely not by any means well-written either. The description and word choice are boring and dull. Uninteresting. Basically, it validates my belief that literary use of the English language is becoming simpler, less diverse and bland.
2. I think the only thing Stephenie Meyer has going for her is a unique plot line. A girl falling in love with a vampire?! WTF?! Who would’ve thought! Yeah, that’s an idea I’d like to learn more about and that’s why I’m still reading it…
3. I think if people are interested in fantasy-genre books, which people seem to be with the immense popularity of these SM books and the Harry Potter series, there is a whole slew of fantasy books, that are written SOOO much better and are so much more riveting and complex and fabulous. I would recommend the Lloyd Alexander series and the ever classic Tolkien Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien uses sensory detail, almost Annie Dillard style, and description of forests that will last up to 20 pages sometimes. I would by far, take that over a Stephenie Meyer one-sentence description of Bella’s town. Tell me more, damn it!
4. Lastly and most centrally, I am frustrated with SM’s protagonist, Bella. She is what I would describe as a weak, whiney, insecure, self-antagonizing girl. The problem I have with that is A. Most of the time, that’s what I hear inside my head and what I try and fight against. B. If I were to go back and re-read my lock-and-key diary from 7th grade, it would sound the same way. C. If we were to interview the inner thoughts of the majority of junior high age girls, they would sound exactly like SM’s Bella. I don’t want to listen to another weak and self-defeating woman. Period! I think women have enough voices to listen to selling us products to make us skinnier, tanner, hairy-less, longer lashed, longer legged, fuller headhaired, less frizzed etc. because we seem to be deficient in seemingly significant ways and overabundant in other areas. We’re never going to feel perfectly content with who we are, naturally.
Furthermore, with women being used to sell things, we can never get past the idea, that we’re just a means to an end. We’re the mode that’s accomplishing the product pushing, we’re the reward that will be realized if we purchase the item, and we’re the item that needs to be modified in some way, because we’re not good enough as-is.
My Point: I want and NEED to hear from strong, brave women. I want to surround myself with them. I want to have coffee with Mari A., Cathy D., Heather T., Jenna H., and Karlee J. I want to read the 1940’s era Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy series over and over again- read about Besty who travels the world curious, fearless and sponge-like, soaking up the marvelous world around her. I want to read about Audre Lorde’s 1960’s Zami, who is a misfit, in every possible way. She’s black and lesbian. She doesn’t “match” the world around her, but she ends up developing a new spelling of her name and a new way of negotiating with the world around her. Beautiful! Fantastic! Yes, she struggles, A LOT, but she is strong and she triumphs. I want to listen to Ani DiFranco and Tracy Chapman who make me cry and feel understood and who write the most astoundingly truthful lyrics ever. I want to read Sylvia Plath’s poetry because she infuses her writing with the most personally-felt beautiful life metaphors that can still resonate with women everywhere.
In summary, woman must have and desperately need strong women as role models. In a world where Roman Polanskies get away with the rape of 13-year-old girls for 40 some years because we still live in an age where rape is conceptualized as simply being under force and violent between strangers, one female, young and virgin, and the other male demented, and old, and all the gray areas, of drunkenness, homosexuality, non-consent, and acquaintance-ship make for a much more complicated definition.
I don’t know about you, but I’m crying out for heroines, like Juno, Harriet the Spy, and even Carrie Bradshaw, and I’m just not seeing it in SM’s Bella.
