Author Topic: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book  (Read 21542 times)

Bookstore Guy

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #105 on: April 16, 2009, 03:36:00 PM »
That's just terribad.

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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #106 on: April 16, 2009, 04:11:27 PM »
*stands up cheers and applause*
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little wilson

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #107 on: April 16, 2009, 05:50:34 PM »
Sweet. Thank you, Bookstore Guy. I actually considered giving you credit for it in that post, but this is just as good....
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SarahG

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #108 on: April 16, 2009, 08:41:20 PM »
It seems to me that Twilight does not remove all the evil from the vampire folklore; in fact, most of the vampires are still villains, at least in the sense that they live on human blood and thus survive through killing humans.  Even the vegetarian vampires are not without flaws and struggles.

I'm not saying Twilight is great literature (that statement, in this community, would take more courage than I possess - besides which, it's not true).  It's just that absolutist statements bring out my desire to play devil's advocate.
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little wilson

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #109 on: April 16, 2009, 08:57:35 PM »
Those absolutist statements are in reference to the Cullen's, since they're the vampires that the reader really gets to know. Yeah, I know the Volturi and pretty much all the other vampires are evil. But the Cullen's are the main characters.

Realistically, main characters should have flaws. It's what makes them relatable. It doesn't matter if the main character is a vampire or not, they need flaws. In this case, with the vampires, it's okay to mess around with the folklore, but you really have to be careful with it. I even think it's okay to take out the human-bloodsucker aspect by making them veggie vampires, but if an author does that like Smeyer did, they NEED to give the vampires a flaw .

Resisting the urge to suck blood is not a flaw. It could be considered a flaw, if one of them gave into the impulse. But none of them do. I'm not saying one of them needed to give in, but a flaw would've been nice. Even if that flaw was some explained backfire of drinking the blood of animals in replacement of human blood (and not that animal blood isn't as potent as human...something else).

I can't think of a single flaw in the Cullens. They're perfect. And that's distinctly unrealistic. Yes, they're vampires. I know. Vampires are unrealistic. But they're the main characters. They need to be relatable. No one is perfect. Not even supposedly perfect vampires.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #110 on: April 16, 2009, 09:30:37 PM »
the vegetarian vampires

Blood Lite eh? Vlad the Impaler is rolling over in his coffin...
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SarahG

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Re: Meyer Stops writing next twilight book
« Reply #111 on: April 16, 2009, 09:50:12 PM »
Those absolutist statements are in reference to the Cullen's, since they're the vampires that the reader really gets to know. Yeah, I know the Volturi and pretty much all the other vampires are evil. But the Cullen's are the main characters.
My understanding was that most people (perhaps not you) were objecting to the fact that Meyer messed with the myth so much.  My point was that her vampires DO possess the one most important characteristic of the myth - the desire to drink human blood.  To me, the fact that the Cullens resist this desire is an interesting twist on that myth.  Now, I'm no vampire expert, so there are probably plenty of other evil aspects to the folklore which Meyer casually ignores.  But you can't say she threw ALL the evil out.

Resisting the urge to suck blood is not a flaw. It could be considered a flaw, if one of them gave into the impulse. But none of them do.
Jasper does.  Or at least he tries to, and is restrained by his family.  All the other Cullens except Carlisle and Rosalie have also succumbed to the impulse, at some point in the past.

I can't think of a single flaw in the Cullens. They're perfect.
Flaws and internal conflicts I see:
  • Emmett is too fond of fighting and violence.
  • Rosalie is vain and (at first) jealous of Edward's attention toward Bella.
  • Alice is too fond of manipulating others.  She also has a weakness for fashion and fast cars.
  • Rosalie has not come to terms with her thwarted maternal instinct.
  • Edward is tormented by the belief that his soul is condemned.
  • All of them struggle with self-control, especially Jasper, as noted above.  And while most of this struggle is off-screen, in the past, we do see a little of it at Bella's birthday party.  We also see a good deal of Edward's bloodlust, both toward Bella in several places and toward her would-be-rapists in the first book.
  • All of them have way too much fun killing and dismembering animals.
  • All of them are prejudiced regarding the wolves, and they allow this prejudice to make them unreasonably hostile and antagonistic.  (Of course the wolves share this flaw, in reverse.)
  • All of them disregard the law when it suits their purposes (speed limits, fake IDs).
  • All of them lie when they need to.
I would never argue that the Cullens are the most well-rounded, realistic characters I've read.  But I think it's an exaggeration to say they're perfect and completely unrelatable.
He ate my horse.