I just noticed that the 4 chapters of Midnight Sun (AKA Twlight, again, as if it wasn’t enough the first time, only at least this time you’re not actually in Bella’s whiny head) that SMeyer has up on her website is 260 pages long.
Just for perspective, the WHOLE of Twilight is 260 long in the same format (PDF – you think I was going to spend money on this to see what the heck everyone was complainin about?)
I thought maybe it was type size or something, but I checked. On a fairly dense page of Twilight Text (namely, Bella whining about… well, everything) there are approx 460 words.
On one page of Midnight Sun – and quite a diffuse page (sorry, couldn’t be bothered to find a more wordy one) there were 330 words.
So FOUR CHAPTERS of Edward moping about Bella is almost as long as an entire BOOK of Bella moping about Edward was?
Oh my. I hope the woman never finishes the thing…
Well, since Edward is so full of ‘chagrin’….:D
Nice blog!
Or at least, he’s full of *something*
thanks!
260 pages for four chapters? Yikes! I’ve only read the first three books, and initially just to see what the fuss was about. After that it was curiosity as to whether they would get any better. Needless to say I haven’t bothered to waste any more money on the saga
This is an amusing but long read, if you haven’t seen it already:
http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html
Tanya (Tanya9771 on FMW)
I understood that Meyer wrote the early drafts of MIDNIGHT SUN to help her work through Edward’s motivations. She made some interesting comments on her website about how Bella’s first day at Forks High wasn’t that big a deal for her, but was a HUGE deal for Edward. He went off to Alaska for a while, and it was worth maybe a paragraph of Bella’s first-person narrative. But Edward had a lot to think about and do in those early days.
Personally, I loved the way the books made me FEEL. It’s not literature; it’s comfort food for the brain. The only literary aspects were the parallels with PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (TWILIGHT), ROMEO AND JULIET (NEW MOON), and WUTHERING HEIGHTS (ECLIPSE).
I’ve downloaded MIDNIGHT SUN, but I’m holding off reading it, in case she ever polishes it up.
Parts of it are interesting, to see Edward’s POV, but it’s still (IMO) overlong. (I actually think Edward is a far more interesting character than Bella – as Robert Pattinson put it, he’s a 108 year old virgin who seems to hate himself. Kind of an intriguing guy!
)
I can understand why some people like the books – but I really don’t. Sorry!
I found Bella a very, very annoying character… she’s so whiny and self centred. People frequently say in the books how selfless and so on she is, but it’s not how she comes across in her reactions to the unprecedented kindness she is shown from so many directions.
Her reaction to Edward is also shallow as a puddle. She obsesses over him just because he is ‘so beautiful’, and declares she’s in love with him when she barely knows him. Is this realistic teenaged behaviour? Yes. Still makes me roll my eyes, especially when reading a few of the articles on Meyer’s site makes it seem that Meyer thinks this is reasonable behaviour on Bella’s part, rather than a rather unhealthy, immature obsession.
And her and Edward’s relationship, for all Meyer seems to think it’s the ultimate romance, borders on the disfunctional. Edward is incredibly controlling and practically a stalker, Bella is manipulative, and dependent on him to an alarming and unhealthy degree. I understand that Edward actually steals her car’s battery at one point to try and get in the way of her friendship with Jacob? In real life, that would set off huge alarm bells. It isn’t romantic, it’s borderline abusive.
I found it pretty disturbing that this is being held up as exemplary to a lot of impressionable teenagers.
Austen, now that I can read as comfort food. Twilight, not so much. As I said, I can see why others might like it, like I can see why people like cotton candy. But like cotton candy, there’s no substance to Twilight, and I find that it just makes me feel slightly ill.