OT (other topics): Gender Bender? Gimme
A Break! #Twilight #BooksAndStuff
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| All images related to Twilight series of novels and films created by Stephanie Meyer. All rights reserved for their respective owners. |
If you're one of those few people in
the world that actually do live under rocks or deep in the woods in
little Middle-Earth hovels then you probably haven't heard the
life-altering, earth-shattering news that Stephanie Meyer hit us with
earlier this week (last week if you're really going to be technical
about this). What news? She was releasing a new Twilight novel. Yay!
Yes, that is a genuine "yay!" and not an ironic one and
actually would have made an indelible print in the awesome-sphere
that is cool stuff (you don't know what I'm talking about or think
that last sentence is confusing? I ain't got time. Look it up!).
Sadly, she wasn't releasing a brand new book in the twilight series.
What does that mean?
These were my thoughts exactly until
she whipped out the most ridiculous and money-grabby excuse of a book
I've ever seen in my life (maybe outside of Grey, an erotic
novel told from Christian Grey's viewpoint). She and her publisher
decided to do a gender bender with the original twilight book making
Bella into Beau and Edward into Edythe. While I like the name Beau I
despise the hipster spelling of Edith and don't particularly care for
the name but that's just my preference. The names, however, are not
where I have my gripe. No, my disappointment in this lazy
turn-for-profit is twofold.
The first problem I have is the
reasoning behind switching the genders in the first place. Listen, a
romance is a romance. There's tons of cheesiness in every romance
whether it is good and life-changing or run-of-the-mill kissy-face
stuff. It is one of the few genres in the world of which everyone
seems to become jaded before the age of ten. The cute and popular guy
who smiles at the dark and brooding girl; the two socially awkward
teens who manage to discover themselves and each other; the
domineering man with a soft side and weakness for the one woman who
reminds him that he's human and imperfect and it's OK--all of these
tropes, cliches, archetypes, etc. are overplayed and have been done
to death so often both in fiction and real life that when someone
gets hold of something that really enlivens them to believe in the
magic of love, they generally obsess over it. This is what happened
with Twilight. And you know what, great! It was fantastic that Meyer
and her books had a huge fanbase but she shouldn't have forgotten
just that: she had a huge fanbase!
Listen, was I a huge fan of the
Twilight books? Not nearly as much as the movies (yes, I'm a guy and
I liked the movies. Does that amuse you in some way? Do you think
that's funny? Funny how?), but I could respect the fact that people
liked and read the books. Most of the fans were female, many of them
teenage girls though plenty were grown women (I'm lookin' at you E.L.
James) with fantasies of their own. But that is one of the best parts
of being an author. She had a fanbase large enough to get her books
turned into movies, large enough for those movies to spawn a
five-ilogy (I can't know every word for everything) and spawn the
careers of a few future stars, large enough to spawn the biggest
online fan fiction community probably ever and that is taking into
account Harry Potter (Star Wars is a different animal entirely). She
had fans. Fans that actually still wanted more ten years after the
release of the first book. So, why then did she release a new book
that isn't a sequel but rather a reboot (yeah, she rebooted her own
novel. Like, I thought only movies could do that? When is that
Stephen King It novel reboot coming) of the original? Optics.
In her interviews with... sources--it's
late and I'm pretty lazy right now as I'm on a three day break
between book projects. I don't wanna look it up--she implies that she
felt hurt by the feminist criticism of the original books that said
she made Bella into a weeping teen girl who could easily be
controlled by Edward because of her obsession. "She makes women
look weak!" apparently. Sigh. So, in order to give the story a
more feminist twist, she puts the power into Edythe's hands and makes
her the aggressor. Sigh. This way we're supposed to know and
understand that love and obsession can be damning, and effect anyone
in adverse ways regardless of sex (as if we didn't already know that;
refer back to my jaded comment a few paragraphs up). Big sigh.
Look, I don't know how many seemingly
anti-feminist posts I'm gonna have on my blog after the whole Grey's
Anatomy/Ellen Pompeo thing, but I will say that again, I am not
trying to be anti-feminist here. Rather, I am trying to stick up for
an author who was either tired of doing it herself or just really
wanted the money it could generate from catering to a certain
clientele. My problem that I have with this is that this is not
really in service to the fans--you know, the main and really only
people you should be in service to. The majority of the criticism
came from/comes from (present tense? Past tense? Uh, I'm not sure
now) people who didn't particularly care for the book in the first
place, many of which went along with the bandwagon because it was the
in thing to do. Others who brought this up generally had a
laundry list of gripes of which this was just one of the filthy
things they wished they could wash from their memory. As an aside,
who the hell makes a list for their laundry? Shouldn't you just clean
it if it's dirty? Where the hell did that saying come from? Hmm, I
don't know.
I'm running long so I'll cut through
the BS here. Just because some people said that Bella was a weak
character does not mean that you as an author should go back and
change her. I get so tired of everyone wanting the same kind of
character in a book, then hating the book for it. Guess what?
Everyone in life is not some strong, heroic but flawed person. Some
people really don't have redeeming qualities for a very long time.
Some people do bad because that's what they want to do. Some people
are boring. Some people need others more than we want them to. And
some people don't consider every flaw they have a flaw. Characters
should be the same. Authors should be able to stand by a character
the way they wrote that character. God, for all the creative writing
classes we have in high schools and colleges across the country, do
we have to also have a creative reading class in order to teach
people that not every novel needs to conform to your political
standards and views and that not every character needs to be likable,
sympathetic or strong. Didn't people used to read and tell stories to
experience a life of someone else that they knew they'd probably
never lead? Or even to learn about the differences in people? Since
when did the anthem become: "I want to read a book with
characters exactly like me or someone in my subset of friends and
family or else it's just gonna piss me off!" No wonder the world
is the way it is right now, because apparently we're even pushing
diversity out of our literature (as in any readable content. Don't
give me that face).
Growing up and still to this day I knew
plenty of girls who were shy, who were strong and domineering, who
were meek and gentle, who were intimidated by men and who intimidated
men. Every one loved differently, not to say that they love me or
that I was a lady's man... but I am implying that I may have carried
favor with the ladies. Was that an eye roll? Hoo! I can feel your
eyes rolling through the internet. Fine, it's not true, but it's my
blog and I should be allowed to say what I want, how I want to say
it. A-ha! Sneaky writing, right? Yeah, circled back around. And you
thought it was just another parenthetical tangent minus the
parentheses.
Some of you are mentioning
right now or a few paragraphs ago that young girls were taking this
romance as an example of how love works and that's bad. Listen, I got
news for you just in case you've grown that out of touch with
adolescence. Girls and boys not only get it wrong all the time when
it comes to teen loves, they draw comparisons and standards for their
own hearts from everything, chief among those things being their
parents. Love during that time has always been difficult and
confusing and teens drew from wherever they could before finally
coming up with something of their own. The trick was to get them to
that stage where they could be mentally ready for romance. And while
Bella may have appeared obsessed and controlled by Edward, guess
what? It's human. It happens. "But it shouldn't happen to
children." Unfortunately, it does. It did before the book and
will long after Twilight stops being popular. Plus, I don't remember
an uproar about Katniss in Hunger Games pimping her heart out for the
masses. Even though I love that book, she was basically Kim
Kardashian with a bow and arrow. "Oh, but it was life and death
and she had to do it." Right, because a fourteen-year-old girl
who reads that and then grows up and ends up homeless and penniless
is not going to remember how Katniss dressed up nice, painted her
face, paraded in front of a crowd of gawkers just to put some food on
her table (yes, homelessness is actually becoming a much bigger
problem than we'd all care to talk about right now). If we're
breaking it down, Twilight is to "weak women" what Hunger
Games is to "gold diggers."
I'll try to make my second gripe
quicker. The second big reason I didn't like this really stems from
the struggle of self-publishing and being an author in general.
Stephanie Meyer has a name, has a brand, has market recognition. As
such, she can use those things to leverage more of her own works,
more of her writings. This is why I don't like to write about writing
on my blog because this next thing might hurt some would-be authors,
but I have to say it. If you as an author are not thinking and
developing new ideas and new projects at least every year, then this
might not be a career for you. It can be a fad, something you do once
and get out of your system, but plenty of authors have so many ideas
wrestling around in their heads that they can't get them out fast
enough. And no, that does not mean just with the same characters and
amassing a stock pile of watery sequels. As I look on her website and
wiki page, I count a total of three other works not related to
Twilight. Where's the beef?
See, as a self-pub author I struggle to
get people to read my stuff because they don't want to buy it or they
don't know the name or they think it's crap (just being honest.
Still, I just hurt myself a little) or a thousand other reasons. But
for authors who have a cache of followers and people who want to read
their books, I don't understand why they dwell only on what they've
already written so much. I understand contracts and launching new
properties is hard, but someone has to do it. Novels, just like TV is
now, should be a place of crazy invention and vibrant imagination.
This is from where new stuff should emanate. Don't get me wrong, I
understand the allure of a series, but in-between a series, use your
name to start another series or put out a stand alone book,
capitalize on your success because there are so many others out there
that would step into your shoes and knock it out of the park. I am
one of the few people that enjoyed both book and film of The Host.
There are two frontiers which still beg for exploration: space and
the human mind. Even with all the mind's creativity seemingly
plundered, there's still more. Give us more, because that is
what the fans really want.
Sorry I went long, but I felt it had to
be said. What do you all think? Am I blowing this out of the water
and being ridiculous? I know it's a money grab and I'm definitely not
against that but I was thinking that she should instead do an
extended edition of each book or the final book or that short story
she did on Bree, making the environment even more rich for the side
characters, as I have made plans to do on some of my own books. Are
you going to buy Life after Death or are you done with the series?
And what do you like from your favorite author: new ideas or the same
thing over and over and over and over again? Let me know in the
comments below.
If
you’re looking for Halloween scares check #AFuriousWind,
#DARKER,
#BrandNewHome
or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
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blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, “I know what you
are.” "Say it... out loud." "A vampire." "Are
you afraid, Bella--or, Beau. I'm sorry am I Edward or Edythe right
now? Either way I still wanna eat you and suck your blood, I mean...
fall in love with you. Yeah, that's what I meant."
P.S. OK, so when are we going to get
the fan fiction where Bella and Edward meet Beau and Edythe and they
all realize just how awkward they are? Anyone?
P. P. S. I've learned that even Stephanie Meyer has said that this is not technically a real book. Glad somebody said.
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