Twilight
Normally, when a hit series comes out, I make my scorn widely known. Harry Potter, for instance, which I believe are probably great books but everyone and their mother and grandmother have read them. Someone asks me if I'm a fan and I sniff loudly and say I'm saving that series for retirement. I thought Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series would be the same. Massive hoopla surrounds this teen love story of a mortal/vampire love affair staged in the hallways of a rural highschool, and by November when the movie came out, I had already put on my smug face, ready to claim it didn't interest me, too mainstream you know. Then I read Manohla Dargis's review of the movie for the New York Times. The review took the social criticism perspective and claimed that the whole story is a whopping metaphor for teen abstinence; "there actually is something worse than death, especially for teenagers: sex". Being from Colorado Springs, center of the conservative Christian movement, this piqued my interest. So I read the book. Or shall I say, inhaled it (500+ pages in just under five hours). And I must beg to differ with Ms. (or is it Mr.?) Dargis. Just because a teen book doesn't feature pre-pubescents more versed in sexual satisfaction than the Kama Sutra doesn't mean it's condemning sexuality. Quite the contrary, a big part of sexiness is the tension that exists where there's no sex. In fact, I enjoyed reading a teen book that grasped perfectly the deluge of arousal that saturates young lovers before they know what actual intercourse is, that early horniness that is so intense it feels like a sickness. It's a sign of our moral decrepitude when teens not having sex means they must be crazy politicized metaphors; they could just be accurate depictions of reasonable American youth. Also, as an adult, Mr. (or is it Ms.?) Dargis should be ashambed of basically saying "I want more teen sex! And I want it now!" Confession: this is a very sexy book, precisely the lack of explicit material made it such a great, well, mind fuck, pardon the pun.
.jpg "Ryan Riss | November 4 - October 28, 2011")
Comments
You must be signed in to comment.
SimoneJanuary 27, 2009
yeah...I just finished the second book and I kinda' see what the NYT review was talking about. Edward wants to marry Bella before he'll turn her to the dark side. I'll have to keep reading to decide for sheez.
SimoneJanuary 27, 2009
yeah...I just finished the second book and I kinda' see what the NYT review was talking about. Edward wants to marry Bella before he'll turn her to the dark side. I'll have to keep reading to decide for sheez.
isismarinaJanuary 25, 2009
I kind of do see the whole abstinence theme in the book, especially since it is written by a Mormon...great review though.