The Twilight Craze

The phenomenon of Twilight, the book series by Stephanie Meyer that has taken over the nation since 2008, is an interesting and strange one. The Twilight books (four total) and the movies (the third just recently debuted) have captured the hearts and minds of all sorts of people - far beyond the teenage audience the book was intended for. People of all ages and backgrounds have been scrambling after the books, the movies, and the merchandise for several years now and the infatuation with the romance between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen has yet to die down. Still many of us wonder why the Twilight books have garnered such success and acclaim - enough so to even be compared to the Harry Potter saga of J.K. Rowling. There is a great deal of conflict over the Twilight books and the success that Meyer has had with not only them but their corresponding movies and while she is often compared to J.K. Rowling there are many who feel she doesn’t deserve the title.

The difference between the two is remarkable, not only in the stories, and the writing but also in the amount of effort put in the books. Meyers novels were written is just a few short years while Rowling took seventeen years to complete the entire Harry Potter saga and no one can blame her for it. While Rowlings books aren’t considered the next Jane Austen or Charles Dickens replacement there has never been any question as to her abilities as a writer and a story-teller. On the other hand, Meyer is constantly receiving criticism about not only her shallow characters, gaping plot holes, but also her perpetually bad writing style. Critics of fine literature hurl insults at her constantly and she has even been accused of stealing the idea from her college room mate. The difference here is paramount. It would seem that while Rowling made an effort to ensure that her books were well written and would be loved by her audience, Meyer simply strung some (awful) sentences together and got lucky. The story line easily appeals to this generation of young teenage girls and it plays on their pent up emotions and raging hormones while creating completely unbelievable characters who not only get everything they want - they also manage to look beautiful while doing it. Anyone who mixes vampires, teenage lust, and a hint of danger together will come up with popular novels and many capitalizing on the teenage frenzy that ensued after Meyers books were published has done just that. Various new vampire books, tv shows, and so forth have emerged on the market to appease a ravenous teenage crowd.

The problem with her novels isn’t only the flawed story lines and the cardboard characters it’s the general disregard Meyer has for good writing in any sense of the term. Her writing has been torn to shreds by critics and many of her fans even admit that it’s simply not good and that, at the very least, her editors should take more care in their work and remove the dozens of errors that appear throughout all of her books - everything from typos to continuity problems. These issues and many more make the Twilight books little more than a teenage trash fiction for more devoted readers but certainly make no difference to the easily satisfied and often less educated members of society. If you take the time to read the book reviews of her work it’s easy to see where the core of Meyers fan base lies. Well written and theorized reviews by scholars, professors, and literary critics alike all debate the books lack of merit, value and general literary worth while angst-ridden preteens write reviews in all caps and texting slang that praise the books to no end. Such feedback makes it difficult to see the Twilight books as anything but a more developed bit of fan-fiction that miraculously managed to get published.

It’s not wonder why the debates continue to rage. Teens and Twilight fans everywhere rant and rave about how wonderful the books are while authors of better merit shake their heads, wondering how our society could have fallen so low to be entertained by such purple and poor writing. Either way the Twilight books don’t seem to be going anywhere and with more movies coming out the fans are only continuing on in their quest for more from Stephanie Meyer.

Meyer has since written several other books, some of them based in the Twilight world and others separate for “adult” novels as she calls them. Her fan base remains steady and as long as the flow of new Twilight related merchandise doesn’t slow it’s unlikely that she will stop writing or that her fans will stop clamoring for more. Her book The Host, was received well enough though many were disappointed by the end of the Twilight series but it still hasn’t come close to the success Twilight has had. This can be easily seen by the constant stream of revenue it produces as retailers sell everything from posters, to calendars, to t-shirts, to bookmarks, jewelry, attire, cell phones, cardboard cutouts, and a great deal more. Much of Meyers new found wealth has come from these sources and many in the literary community attribute this to a sign of her success as not a writer, but a pop-culture blow out.

There are many who believe that such grumblings are the jealous remarks of unhappy critics. Stephen King even made a few comments himself about the quality of the writing which many of Meyers fans backlashes instantly as contempt and envy on Kings part but the facts simply don’t add up. King has been praised throughout his career of sending shivers up and down the spines of his readers of having a a remarkable ability to write and to write well and has sold many hundreds of millions of dollars worth of merchandise in his time, with countless movies having been made from the dozens of books he’s written. More than three hundred and fifty million copies of his books have been sold compared to a platy forty million for Meyer which leaves many wondering just what exactly King would be jealous of? Certainly not the scathing reviews of her work, the countless lawsuits Meyer has been through, and the general lack of disgust from the literary world at her pathetic attempt to consider herself a writer. Whatever the case may be it appears that, for better or worse, the Twilight craze is here to stay.