I love to read, and I'll pretty much demolish whatever is put in front of me. So when I heard that this "Harry Potter for the Goth set" was the next big thing, I genuinely thought it was something worth hitching my wagon to.
A little backstory about yours truly: I've always been a reader. As a child I demolished the complete Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and everything by Madeleine L'Engle (even the obscenely dry Many Waters, and yes that is a pun considering that the book revolves around the great flood of Noah).
I'd blow through R.L. Stines Goosebumps in a sitting. Bruce Coville's fun kid-horror books like "The Monsters Ring" or his sci-fi "My Teacher Is An Alien" series posed no threat. And while we're somewhat on the topic, when it came to vampires in literature I'd go for anything like James Howe's "Bunnicula" and the subsequent "Howliday Inn" and "Celery Stalks At Midnight" to Anne Rice's "Interview With The Vampire. "The Vampire Lestat, and "Memnoch The Devil".
Awesomeness between two covers
So in summation: I was a kid on the cutting edge who knew my shit.
So when given the opportunity to sink my teeth into this already established franchise (horrible pun), I leapt at the chance.
I have to seriously ask why?
I'm more than halfway through the first book in the series which the upcoming feature film is based off of, Twilight, and I can't help but be disappointed.
The dialogue is clunky and the exposition is terrible. I don't care about any of the characters because there is nothing to them. We can buy the mystery about Edward Cullen since he is the vampire whose mystery we're supposed to unravel, but when your main character (here being 17 year old Bella Swan) really doesn't do anything, what is there to relate to or feel for?
She's awkward and shy. She doesn't excel in gym class. She moved from Phoenix where she lived with her mom to a town outside of Seattle to live with her dad. There, I've summed up everything you can learn about the character in the first 234 pages of the book in three lines.
The first person style of narration doesn't help the book much either, as it feels more like slowing down the story instead of having you involved in it, like it should. But more-so than anything, the book is just BORING. We're treated to days of Bella going to school, where she pines for a boy who's a dick one day, and slightly less dick-ish the next. It moved so slow that I took a four week hiatus from reading beyond Chapter 7, because I felt like the book had just become a chore.
Granted I picked it up again today and read an additional four chapters since I was stuck sitting in a parking lot for an hour and a half while waiting for someone, but it was more out of necessity than actually wanting to read it (as I strongly considered taking my copy of Michael Chabon's "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" instead).
You should probably read this
Working at Hot Topic, I'm in the awesomely pendulumic business of peddling pop culture, and I have to say I don't like where Twilight is leading the youth of today. For how much buzz this film is generating, you'd figure the books could cure cancer, world hunger and the economy all at once, while at the same time detailing your car.
While I'm keeping an open mind, and still trying to read the book so I can see the movie when it comes out, the book is a severe letdown. It's hard to understand why this book has done so well for it's self, not just to spawn a full length feature but also print sequels.
A quick internet search reveals that not only was Twilight not too warmly received but the following books all less so. So much so that a leaked version of the manuscript for the fifth garnered such snark from fans that the whole project was shevled.
The Hollywood machine is a hard one to understand though.
J.K Rowling's Harry Potter has been a grand slam on every front since it's release. Both the books as well as their adaptations have done amazingly well and garnered much deserved praise. It's a safe bet that the remaining film relesases will do just as well, both financially and critcally.
A synonym for excitement: Harry Potter
The Lord of the Rings has been a pinnacle of fantasy literature for decades, and after years of lackluster adaptations it finally recieved a worthy mulitmedia heir while in the caring hands of Peter Jackson.
The Chronicles of Narnia, by longtime friend of J.R.R Tolkein and noted author C.S. Lewis are often mentioned in the same breath when it comes to fantastic all-ages reading. But those movies have struggled to find their audience. So much so that Disney is constantly looking at the box office numbers, dvd sales, and licensing to determine whether or not it's worth it to go ahead as planned on the rest of the films in the series.
A scene from
A similar story can be told for Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. While the books have been fantastically received the film it's self didn't perform as well as expected, and as a result the two sequels didn't even get into pre-production.
So what does this mean for Twilight? Well it'll take a few weeks to see where this goes, and I'm not always the best judge of this stuff. I mean, I'm still hoping for a sequel to Lemony Snicket's "A Series Of Unfortunate Events".
Yes. I'm a sucker
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