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What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today

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ObtuseIntolerant
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
I know, I know! it tells us they read/write SO much fanfiction for and by 11 year olds online, that when the time comes, they can't tell what real fiction is and instead read basically the same thing, written by a 30-something, that just happens to be grammatically correct? (It's tried and true homely girl inexplicably scores hottest - and immortal OMFGZZ - guy around.)

Oh. And then we make a movie out of it.

What do I win?

If it's a Tokio Hotel and Paramore CD box set I am gonna be piiiiiissed.
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ObtuseIntolerant
11/09/08

@ObtuseIntolerant sees lots of work to do.: Pardon me, replace "real fiction" (I am not that prescriptive) with "high quality fiction". Kthxbai.
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Ogiri W Surie
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
I haven't seen the show (my loss, I know) but somehow gay-ish vampires don't put the fear in me. If this were real, I would not feel the need to guard myself with garlic or crosses. I'd be pretty content that a withering look would be enough to make these fey ghouls run screaming into the night.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

@Ogiri W Surie: To be fair, ever since Anne Rice started the trend of Vampires being eternally young and broodingly handsome men it became kind of hard to avoid the homo-erotic thing.
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CoffeeAtDawn
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
How dare anyone compare this drivel to my Buffy.
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Alexis
11/10/08

@ubermeme:

HEAR HEAR!
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PeachesDelux
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
I have like a 5-million word rant on this, but here's the deal. I fucking hate twilight. does stephanie meyer hate women? or does she hate herself? or does she have a terrifyingly appalling relationship? the main character is so busy fawning that she doesn't have the chance, the time, or the inclination to define herself by anything other than her vampire sweetie. and this bothers the hell out of me. when I ask my students what they want to be when they grow up, and a significant portion of the girls tell me that their life's goal is to marry one (or, oddly, sometimes more) of the jonas brothers. and that's it. no career, no travel, nothing. we are clearly not doing a good job of convincing young girls that they need to start defining themselves by what they can do and what they can be, rather than just by what kind of man might want to look at them. and this kind of crap does not help the situation one bit.

(ps: want to make the book more fun? substitute the word "teeth" whenever stephanie meyer talks about edward's golden, topaz, amber, or onyx eyes. hilarious!)
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Alexis
11/10/08

@PeachesDelux:

Please, get out of my mind. Srsly.
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ADismalScience
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
This makes much less sense than Harry Potter. I actually enjoyed the Potter books for the sheer depth of the world and the vague mystery of the characters, but these are absolutely unreadable. And I like vampires.

Maybe it's the absence of strong female characters or something. This series badly needed a Hermione.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@ADismalScience: You should read The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. He's got quite a few strong female characters. Plus, the damn thing is thousands of pages long, so the depth is quite amazing.
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/09/08

@mmstk101: Yeah, for what, the first book and a half? Until all the female characters devolve into Xanthippean caricatures that alternate between being basically insane or fawning after the main guy, and Jordan uses the intervening pages to explore his spanking fetish.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@braak: Hah! I must have missed the spanking fetishism, but touche nonetheless. Moiraine or Egwene? Siuan? They were fairly not insane or fawning . . . Your point is a good one, though.
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number six
11/09/08

@mmstk101:

For a man who dedicates twenty pages a piece to dresses "slashed with cream", he does spin a pretty good yarn, for merely fun reading.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@number six: Let alone the dresses slashed with blue. Or shawls! I grew up reading those books, so I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for Mr. Jordan and his incredible verbosity.
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number six
11/09/08

@mmstk101:

Ditto, haha. But now he's dead.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@number six: Sigh . . . . It's true. I'm curious to see how the final book goes with a new author.
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number six
11/09/08

@mmstk101:

My opinion? Hopefully he'll finish the damn thing.

As it stands right now my middlebrow fantasy readings are mostly comprised of anthologies and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, so my opinion's not worth much, I guess.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@number six: I've never read Martin, but I'm looking for something new, so I'll give it a try! Thanks!

Have you ever read Guy Gavriel Kay? It's definitely different from Robert Jordan, but I like him a lot.
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number six
11/09/08

@mmstk101:

Nerd alert: if you like sex, little persons, profanity, and the majority of middle-ages European history, then you'll like SoIaF. Also, dragons.

Never heard of your Kay fellow, but I will check into it. Mind you, my favourite fantasy book of all time is Heroes Die, so again, anything I say should be taken with the most liberal grain of proverbial salt available.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@number six: Hahaha . . .Little persons AND dragons? Sex AND profanity? Amazing, and I'm sold. I'll go look for it tomorrow.

Ever heard of Jeff Long? The Descent is an amazing book.
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/09/08

@number six: @mmstk101: Allow me, please, to take a moment to recommend R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series, which starts with The Darkness That Comes Before.

A great big epic of fantasy and philosophy.
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number six
11/10/08

@braak:

Haha, nerds. Many thanks, y'all.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
OOH! OOH! Blades on now! Speaking of Vampires..
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andBegorrah
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
It tells us the market has finally reached kids who are too pretty to be Cure fans.
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Minsley Tortimer
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today

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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

@Minsley Tortimer: You found a picture of a Chinese cat?
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@oyvehisyou: Hah!
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Dickdogfood
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
What does the popularity of the book and film have to say about kids?

This is what it says: kids think vampires are FUCKING AWESOME. It's an eternal truth as undeniable as anything in Shakespeare or Kant.
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mmstk101
11/09/08

@Dickdogfood: I think werewolves are pretty sweet too. Vampires do, however, win hands-down.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

@mmstk101: Never been a fan of back hair. Vampires are totally cool though.
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Midwesterner in NYC
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
I can see the appeal. Actually, I may be jealous. All I had growing up was Superfudge.
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Iceland Spar
11/09/08

@Midwesterner in NYC: I grew up with the Bunnicula books (about the rabbit vegetable vampire) and I have a hard time believing that the Twilight books stand up to such classics as Howliday Inn and the Celebrity Stalks at Midnight.
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ObtuseIntolerant
11/09/08

@Midwesterner in NYC: What no Judy Bloom, Madeleine L'Engle and E.L. Konigsburg?
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maude_flanders
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
That is one unfortunate picture...why is one of them shirtless and the "mother" character in the film sitting on the ground, staring up at male cast members' crotches?
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Minsley Tortimer
11/09/08

@maude_flanders: "I haf come to suck yur..."

nah, too easy.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

@Minsley Tortimer: And these days probably against the law in 30 states.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
i'm 21 and I enjoyed the Twilight books... I read all 4 back to back to back to back in about a week... and while they weren't rhetorically strenuous or stimulating, they were fun to read and had a pretty exciting plot.

I'm a fan and I'm looking forward to the movie.

oh yea... Rob Pattinson is HOT!
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bess marvin, girl detective
11/09/08

In reply to What Twilight Tells Us About Kids Today
white, young, beautiful people hanging on to each other...

god, i get sick of media sometimes i just want to go oedipus on myself
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Meg
11/09/08

@bess marvin, girl detective: Ewww. Oedipus retch.
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Oy Veh (Informality Reigns)
11/09/08

@bess marvin, girl detective: Just tell them all BITE ME. Well, I mean, that IS sorta the plot, right?
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