Cambridge Deems Twilight Worthy of Analysis
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
That western cultures like books which have 20 pages dedicated to how Edward looks without his shirt on? Forgive my crudeness, but even a cursory examination of this series it appears as nothing more as shower nozzle masturbation material written by a lonely woman.Good morning blues said:
Oh hey, I guess I just earned a diploma from Cambridge.
*grabs gun and puts it in mouth* if my school gets this, I'm pulling the trigger. though, it is good that they said that video games can teach. some have deeper stories than twilight and will keep kids attentions, but we are focusing on just twilight.
Brilliant!GodsAndFishes said:
There is still hope for the future! (Although it's not much.)
It doesn't seem hard to know what the Twilight fans like... a mediocre romance plot is one of those things.
They should stick to Shakespeare and the like.
I can see how this turns out
"Alright students, when Bella accepts her abusive boyfriend/stalker for the past murderer that he is, what does that signify"
"That she's insane, and really messed up."
"No"
"Alright students, when Bella accepts her abusive boyfriend/stalker for the past murderer that he is, what does that signify"
"That she's insane, and really messed up."
"No"
This is fair enough, though. I don't envy those who have to study it, but that doesn't mean that there is no legitimate reason to do exactly that.
When something is as popular yet critically pathetic as the Twilight franchise, either the writer won a lottery and managed to put their hand on the pulse of a generation's desires, or the writer cynically attempted to appeal to a gullible audience with no sense of taste in literature. (Not to mention, they got the eye of a publisher capable of giving them worldwide fame, which any writer will tell you is fantastically difficult.)
If there is a cynical approach to its writing, then Twilight is worthy of analysis merely for how it appealed to that audience. Cambridge isn't stupid enough to ignore something that breaks so many records, even if it is poor from a reviewer's point of view. After all, to a degree in the world of literature, all publicity is good publicity.
Nevertheless, the Harry Potter works would have been a better choice for many reasons. I suppose the main reason why that is avoided like the plague is that every person past a certain age has already read it, except the teachers. Teachers prefer to have the advantage and be ahead of their students so that classes have a meaning, and that would be impossible when every one of their students probably knows the difference between a Nargle and a Thestral. Then there's the fact that some will know it better than others, who know it backwards, straight off the bat. But Twilight has that problem as well.
When something is as popular yet critically pathetic as the Twilight franchise, either the writer won a lottery and managed to put their hand on the pulse of a generation's desires, or the writer cynically attempted to appeal to a gullible audience with no sense of taste in literature. (Not to mention, they got the eye of a publisher capable of giving them worldwide fame, which any writer will tell you is fantastically difficult.)
If there is a cynical approach to its writing, then Twilight is worthy of analysis merely for how it appealed to that audience. Cambridge isn't stupid enough to ignore something that breaks so many records, even if it is poor from a reviewer's point of view. After all, to a degree in the world of literature, all publicity is good publicity.
Nevertheless, the Harry Potter works would have been a better choice for many reasons. I suppose the main reason why that is avoided like the plague is that every person past a certain age has already read it, except the teachers. Teachers prefer to have the advantage and be ahead of their students so that classes have a meaning, and that would be impossible when every one of their students probably knows the difference between a Nargle and a Thestral. Then there's the fact that some will know it better than others, who know it backwards, straight off the bat. But Twilight has that problem as well.
It seems more likely that they're studying from a cultural perspective - why it's popular, considering its qualities (or lack thereof), and what writers should do to make a similarly powerful impact on teenagers, without being quite so shit. It's the fact of the phenomenon which is an interesting study, more than the merits of the book alone - after all, when the most well-known book of a generation holds such a reprehensible message, surely it's important to try and find why it can be so successful, in spite of its numerous flaws?Elesar said:
You're kidding me right? Twilight doesn't need to be read in schools, it needs to be purged from the collective social mind and sent to the deepest circle of literary hell! They needs stuff like Artemis Fowl and the Bartimaeus trilogy!
I just thought of a possible solution. Require that all students studying Twilight in school also read Bram Stoker's Dracula (and, if they want to add some more pop culture, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Then they'll realize that the old-school vampires are much cooler than the glittery new ones.
Wasn't there an article on the escapist a while ago that actually determined why twilight was popular? I'm pretty sure it was because it had the "Unpopular, tragic, misfit girl gets the dream-boy, becomes immortal, is desired by pretty much everybody and ends up being the hero" plot.Article said:
OT: If this ends up happening anywhere in Australia I will either a) burn every copy of the book ever (virtual or real, it matters not, fire will destroy it) OR b) lose all faith in humanity and go on a murderous rampage ... alternatively I'll just cry myself to sleep at night, and cry myself awake, and cry the food down my throat, and cry my work finished, and cry my way home, and cry mmyself to sleep, etc.
blimey. well i approve of harry potter. maybe with twilight they'll work out how meyer has managed to create this form of strawberry-flavoured chocolate in writing. You know, foul-tasting and wrong in every sense of the world, yet loved unfailingly by young teenage girls the world over.