Harry Potter News and Commentary
Gina R. Delfanzo doesn’t like the books – thinks they’re contrived and dehumanizing.
Regina Doman liked Twilight for its portrayl of male sexuality under control – called it a “likely classic” and Rowling’s “equal” as a “stylist.”
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Travis, I read Regina Doman’s review earlier this fall while my girls and I were reading the books. Since the review only covers the first three books, I’ve been waiting to see if she’ll write about the fourth one. As I mentioned earlier, that one was really creepy and gory to me and left so many unanswered questions. It really was the fourth book that most put me off the series as a whole.
Woo hoo!
I finally got a copy of Twilight. While I was at the bookstore, I took a peek at Breaking Dawn. Can’t generalize based on a couple of pages, but it looks awfully like a good old-fashioned bodice ripper with an extremely long time (three volumes) for foreplay, a masochistic heroine, and a very, very stern and reluctantly and remorsefully sadistic hero.
Like any romantic comedy/drama, bodice rippers are driven by unresolved sexual tension. But three books is an awfully long time to wait for the payoff.
I used to read bodice rippers. Haven’t for a while. Hope I still have the patience for them.
I haven’t jumped into the Twilight conversation because I haven’t read the books. Not sure I plan to either (though if I had an 11 or 12 year old girl in the house, rather than a 6 year old one, I would likely put it nearer the top of the TBR pile!).
But Regina’s review/assessment is certainly interesting. As I read it, I found myself thinking of another, older teen “fantasy” novel which I have read: Natalie Babbit’s Tuck Everlasting. Sans the glorified vampires, the two books sound like they might be covering some similar ground. I’d be curious to know if anyone who has read both sees parallels.
Well, I’m trying to read Twilight.
She’s really into appearances. Everyone is described from the outside out. Edward has “bronze” hair. Isn’t bronze greenish brown? She’s really obsessed by him. But aside from that, she doeesn’t sound like a teen-ager. Older; she could be in her thirties, or even forties.
It’s hard going. I skipped around a bit, and every page seemed to be just like every other page. A lot of dialogue. Not precisely badly written. At least, not totally bad. Just very – monotonous, in the primary meaning of that word: the tone never varies.
I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
Well, to be fair, there were two interesting details.
Near the beginning of the book, Bella is reading Wuthering Heights Given Edward’s almost direct descent from Heathcliff, by way of Dracula, that’s quite a nod.
The scene at the end of the book is hilarious. Bella accidentally severs an artery (could happen to anyone). The hitherto-tame vampire folk around suddenly remember what they are. It’s like the ball-room scene from Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers Our three non-vampire heroes are taking part in a dance otherwise attended by vampires. Everything is well until they turn towards a wide mirror at the end of the room. The only people visible in the mirror are the three humans. Feeding frenzy ensues.
Well, I’m reading everything but Twilight right now. Am into the first part of Wuthering Heights. Very good despite most everyone being singularly unpleasant. I can see quite a bit of our Potions Masters in Heathcliff or I can see quite a bit of Heathcliff in our Potions Masters. I also blame you, Rocker, for bringing up Dracula ’cause I’m reading that now, too. It’s one of those books that once you start reading it you can’t stop till you’re done despite how many times you’ve read it before. Also listening to Fellowship of the Ring in my various commutes.
Maybe I’ll get around to Twilight next week sometime but if I don’t I won’t feel too desolate.
Just FYI. I’m not commenting on the books, but I did look at the reviews listed above. Gina voices the concerns that I have from everything I’ve heard about the books, and I was frankly surprised that Regina, who had interesting things to say about Harry Potter, was so favorable towards Twilight and that she said Meyer is on the same level with Rowling. Really?
So then I decided to look at Regina’s website and read the comments. One was from a college friend (of Regina’s), which relieves me of any guilt over not reading them:
“I read just book #4 (Breaking Dawn) and did not like it. Its the only book in the series I’ve read. Bella is self-centered, and enjoys being in a love triangle between herself, her husband, and Jacob-the-werewolf. She is no role model of restraint and purity, and needs to GROW UP! It would be different if there was some character development, but aside from becoming a vampire, she doen’s change much. I also don’t like the perfection-eternally theme of the undead. All vampires are physically lovely, and will never change. We have enough problems with people thinking only the beautiful people count for anything!
from “Breaking Dawn’ pg 481:
“He caught up to my mood in an instant, or maybe he’d already been there, and he was just trying to let me fully appreciate my birthday present, like a gentleman. He pulled my face to his with a sudden fierceness, a low moan in his throat. The sound sent the electric current running through my body into a near frenzy, like I couldn’t get close enough to him fast enough.
I heard the fabric tearing under our hands, and I was glad my clothes, at least, were already destroyed. It was too late for his. It felt almost rude to ignore the pretty white bed, but we just weren’t going to make it that fast.”
So, basically, this is just another bodice-ripper, of the Harlequin Romance variety, for adolescents.
I’m a 39-year old mother, who used to like Ann Rice before I started to take my Faith seriously. These books bother me. Its not the fantasy aspect, it’s the moral lessons I see lacking. And the messages I DO see, I don’t want slinking around my teen daughter’s brain.
Shannon”
Anyway, here is Regina’s response, about Breaking Dawn:
“Thanks, Shannon: good to hear from an old college friend! Yes, now that I’ve finished all four books, I’m more inclined to give the series a thumbs down than a thumbs up. She raises questions but doesn’t really answer them, and the grotesqueness of Bella’s pregnancy in Book Four bothered me.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to formulate my review: your information and the other things you sent me in an email are very helpful. I’ve got to write my review of the last two books soon.”
So, it seems that Rowling was able to hold her story together for seven books, and make the last one the best (at least as far as I’m concerned), while Meyer got to the end and negated everything she had started with the first three, leaving some readers very dissatisfied.
And even for a bodice ripper, which admittedly I haven’t read in a long time, I wouldn’t call that good writing.
Pat
I find comparisons between JKR and Meyer pointless, especially now that I’ve started reading Twilight. It’s like something out of Monty Python: a heavy-weight boxing champion vs your granny. And although I haven’t read that much, I can tell you that it’s obvious Meyer and JKR went to different universities; whatever Meyer learned at her university, it was not a classical education. She does not demonstrate much knowledge of mythology, history, Latin, or literature. But she doesn’t seem interested in such things. Just the relationship between her teen-age protagonist and her dream lover.
Red Rocker, since you were skipping around you may not have noticed, but the scene at the end of the book where Bella accidentally severs an artery is actually a sneak peak of the beginning of the next book, New Moon.
Pat, just curious – where did you find the material you quoted above from Regina’s website? The article Travis links to only has four comments that I could see, which are old and don’t mention Breaking Dawn at all.
My apologies for not posting the link. It was from somewhere on her web site:
http://www.reginadoman.org
But whenever I try to find it, I can’t. I think it was under her personal blog which wasn’t available earlier – no idea why. Most things there have to do with books that she has written, etc. So it took a bit of poking around and I can’t believe that I didn’t manage to bookmark it, but I didn’t.
I’ve been having issues with my computer, and the more I looked the more trouble I had, so I gave up trying to find it. And if that link isn’t correct, then follow the one to the review and look under Regina’s profile. At the bottom is a link to the official site.
Maybe if she has taken the blog down it means that she is ready to put up a new review of the series now that she has read the last book, and seems to see it a little differently.
Pat
Don’t apologize, Pat. I found it by Googling “Regina Doman Twilight.” There wasn’t really much more than what you posted above. Here’s the link:
http://reginadoman.blogspot.com/2008/07/twilight-review-by-me.html
I read the end of Twilight last night, after the Habs beat the Caps 5-4. Kosistyn scored with 19 seconds left in the game, putting the puck in from between the D’s legs. Nineteen seconds, and we would have gone into overtime. It was a great game – a nail biter.
Which brings me back to Twilight The sequence in which a rival coven moves into Forks and their leader, a “tracker” James decides to hunt Bella just for the heck of it, and tricks her into meeting him was actually well done. It’s not anything we haven’t seen in a thousand suspense thrillers – movies and books – but still successful. A page turner. The part where Edward invites her to the prom was a bit of an anticlimax – killer vampires don’t segue that well with tuxedos – but that’s the nature of the beast. As are the parts where Bella’s heart regularly needs a defibrillator (thank you Travis!) . You quickly learn to skip over them and your inevitable reaction: “Yes, he’s beautiful; and yes, his voice is like the BBC announcer, but only better; and yes, your bones turn to water whenever you see him or hear the sound of his voice; get over it, already”.
One interesting thing I noticed. Meyer gets a lot of mileage out of Edward’s animal-like nature: he is depicted as very dangerous, only not to Bella. And there is a fair amount of sexual titillation in that. Actually, a lot of sexual titillation (no real sex, of course), but that’s what a bodice ripper is all about.
Verdict so far: given what it is, i.e. a throw away paranormal romantic novel: C- for character and character development; B- for writing; A- for suspense; A for titillation.
I’ve been posting comments over at HogPro about Twilight but I thought I’d finish off here.
I’ve read the beginning few chapters and the last few chapters of Twilight. I’ve also read most of Midnight Sun Enough, I think, to satisfy my curiousity, to pick up on what’s good about the books, and to realize what’s lacking.
I think Meyer has some interesting ideas (the Cullen clan’s divided nature; Alice’s gift of prophecy; Edward’s telepathy). I think that there is entirely too much dialogue in the stories. I think Edward spends way too much time obsessing about Bella, and vice versa. Bella is not a very interesting person (except to Edward, obviously). Edward is a bit more interesting, but familiarity breeds contempt: after nine chapters spent listening to his thoughts, I was glad to be able to stop.
I don’t think JKR has anything to worry about. Even if Meyer did find a ruthless editor who slashed 80% of the endless dialogue, with a few exceptions (the first meeting, the James sequence), her style lacks suspense and mystery. There is certainly no sense of a fully-realized world waiting behind the scenes, no characters with hidden depths, no sense that the author is aware of much more beyond the immediate confines of her story. I think that word “depth” is probably what is mainly lacking from the stories. I realize that some will disagree. Edward does, obviously, wrestle with weighty matters of conscience, and has to weigh his own desires against what is best for his beloved. But a lot of it – all of it? – seems like it’s just words, or lipservice. There is little sense of a wealth of experience, feeling or meaning underlying those words. Especially not after many repetitions on the same theme.
But as I said before, given what it is, it’s not that bad.
I agree with much of Red Rocker’s assessment, although I liked Midnight Sun and found it suspenseful enough to have wished Meyer had completed it. In MS I would have especially appreciated a wider view that included historical/cultural events from Edward’s long perspective, and more on the Cullens in light of this. As the Cullens hate being vampires, I hoped Edward would venture thoughts on what would surely be very mixed feelings about his beloved creator Carlisle turning him into a monster. Alas, disappointment.
But I’m reading it as an adult. As angsty teen lit, it rivals the gothic romances I devoured as a teen, and MS far surpasses Twilight in character exposition and development. The Bella/Edward obsession doesn’t bother me, because the insanity of teen obsessive love is real and I have a strong memory and squirm-worthy high school diary to remind me of this. I think most adult criticism will go completely over most teen readers’ heads.
However, I wish these books had been better executed (pun intended), because the concept is interesting. They’re not competition for more worthy teen lit however, and I wouldn’t recommend them.
Arabella, I recall reading a comment you directed at me a day or two ago, but I think it was on Travis’s post about his Twilight review at Rabbit Room. Travis, did you take that post down, or is it just that I can’t find it?
Anyway, trying to remember what you said, but I did want to let you know that I’ve been looking in at HogPro so I did know that your temporary “reversal”, as I think Travis called it, wasn’t permanent. I just finished reading Midnight Sun, and I agree that it is much better written than Twilight is. I hope you’re right in thinking Twilight is just a passing fad, however. Like you, I think there are many more deserving books out there. I just got awfully tired of my girls and their friends talking about nothing but these books. And of their using “like” at least 129 times in each sentence, but that’s neither here nor there
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Anyway, this Economics major doesn’t have the literary chops to enter any discussions at HogPro (or the more literary ones here either), although I’ve been a fan of both sites for years. I’ve been reading John’s site for a long time, since way before it became a blog, and have learned so much from “listening” in on the erudite conversations, both here and there. My husband and I both became instant Harry Potter fans in 1999 when my daughter got the first book for her birthday, and it was nice for us (eventually) to find someone of a similar background who agreed with us. I don’t even get a chance to drop in here much, with homeschooling, except over the summer and Christmas breaks. But I’m never disappointed when I can sneak those few moments to take a peak.
Mrs. Weasley, no, I didn’t take that post down. I think this is the one you’re referring to?
Hello again, Mrs. Weasley,
First, on the reversal thing. It wasn’t temporary. There was merit in the book I discovered in my second reading (under the radar of the writing quality that hindered my first read) and I revised many of my first-read opinions. That said, it’s not that great a book, although it has good themes for discussion, an interesting concept, a suspenseful story, and a compelling character in Edward. So some of my reverse has been permanent, while retaining some initial opinions/reservations, and I’m currently wearing a neck brace.
I felt Midnight Sun to be the better book and the exploration of Edward’s dilemma much more compelling than Bella’s in Twilight. This is a book I felt worth reading, for the reasons I lay out at HogPro, where Red Rocker and I are having a debate, added to this morning about author/character boundaries.
I think Twilight, is totally, like, not the, y’know, greatest book as a whole (although one with, like, y’know, merit). I don’t think it will, like, cause, y’know, like, harm, and I think the fad, will, like, y’know, fade when the next, like, totally riveting book comes down the pike. But then again, you, like, never know, y’know? You have my, like, sympathies. Totally.
Sorry, Travis – user error! And Arabella, I’m like so headed over to HogPro to like check out that discussion. Later dude.