I am a cupcake.

[azurite]

You Are a Carrot Cake Cupcake

You are a complex person. You have many interesting layers to your personality, though others might not know it. You are drawn to a cross section of people. You friends play different roles in your life. You are like a cupcake because you are are deceptively simple. There's actually a lot to you! There are many ingredients in your life, and you only want them in proper amounts. Being you is a delicate art.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

While perusing fanthropology today, I stumbled across two links, including one to Tampa Bay Online that mentions alternatives for 'Twilight' fans that need their fix, considering the DVD's not out yet, the official guide's been put on hold, and 'Midnight Sun' has either been cancelled or put on hiatus for at least two years.

The blurbs indicating how these 'alternatives' relate to Twilight include these gems:
Other books with the name Stephenie Meyer on the cover: "The Host," a grown-up (though still chaste and wholesome) novel with a compelling sci-fi premise

'Twilight' has never been actively marketed by Meyer or her publisher or the moviemakers as a 'chaste and wholesome' story, but Twimoms and other assorted loonies claim that's just what it is, because there's no sex until BD, and when there is sex, it's consensual and they're married and all that wonderful moosh. Never mind how UNWHOLESOME Edward is, sucking all of Bella's free will and control out of her life, or how UNWHOLESOME Bella is for being a two-dimensional fake 'character' whose only distinct trait is her abject klutziness.

With better writing but less sparkly romance: "Chalice," the latest young adult offering by Robin McKinley

See? Better writing and sparkly romance! That's what 'Twilight' is, when you get down to it: bad writing and sparkly romance. There's better writing out there; writing that doesn't need its characters to sparkle to make the STORY itself shine.

With an overly possessive boyfriend and a love triangle: "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

OVERLY POSSESSIVE. Key words, ladies and gents. But no one seems to see it. It's not sexy, it's disgusting. Yeah, believe me, I've been there: I've wanted my crush or love interest or whomever to be madly jealous of other guys who pay attention to me (even in non-romantic ways); I've wanted him to want to spend all of his free time with me. But then I realized how stupid I was being and I stopped caring so much. I stopped being a mental succubus, thinking that it was right for either of us to want to spend so much time together and have no lives outside of each other. Anyone with half a brain can tell you a relationship like that isn't healthy.

That said, at least there's some real LITERATURE on this list. Normally I'm not a fan of fiction from that era at all, whether the writers are regarded as "greats" or not, but better Bronte than Meyer, IMO.

Part of me doesn't want to give Twilight any more time in the spotlight than I already have; practically every post I've made has been criticizing it, but against the absolute WALL OF FAIL that is the fans, I lack the energy to keep it up. I honestly think people who like the writing and think SMeyer is good are stupid and poorly-educated in terms of literature. I'm no book maven, but at least I've made the effort to expand my palate from sparkly vampires (SMeyer never read any vampire lore before writing 'Twilight,' isn't that right?) and writing so flatly you could drive a bike across it. I don't want to waste my time railing on 'Twilight' and its hardcore, insane, obsessed fans any longer, but it pisses me off enough to make me write.

What's sad is when I discovered Wordle and I had it pick through my blog, 'Twilight' featured pretty prominently. If I did it again, taking today's post into consideration, 'Twilight' would be even bigger in font size. Eew. I'll have to let this madness work its way out of my system and then try again.

But while I'm wasting words on 'Twilight,' I found it amusing that Examiner.com had someone interview a fic author who's popular for her AU (she calls it AH, which I guess is the same thing as AU in some circles; my whole thing is, AH seems more like AR to me, and AR is NOT AU) 'Twilight' fic, "Wide Awake." I went to the user's LJ page and skimmed through the first paragraph of the fic, and I got to thinking 'Why bother?' Seriously, if I did endeavor to read 'Twilight' fic, I'd want it to be on the premise that someone can take the shit Meyer dealt and make it into something better. If you alter Bella and Esme and everyone from the get-go, what's the point? Isn't it just original fiction with fandom names pasted on then? (I'm not saying one shouldn't write AU for 'Twilight' or any other fandom, but characterization is key, and even someone like me, who dislikes 'Twilight' but still read all four books and saw the movie and therefore knows the characters pretty damn well could pick up on the fact that the fic author's Bella ≠ SMeyer's Bella. And I want to see justification of why before that kind of thing happens, not paragraphs later.

Comments

[baine.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. I'm so glad not to be the only one to see Twilight for what it really is. (I found someone with a fabulous anti- icon recently; wish I could recall who to show you...)

I think it's hysterical that the TBO author was trying to hint at this to the readers! I knew I liked that site for a reason (though I haven't been on since graduating from UT and leaving Tampa).

Oh, and Chalice was a wonderful book. So happy they recced it. Wishing McKinley writes a sequel...

[heartless-vaz.livejournal.com]

Well, I can say I thought it was funny on Stephen King's point of view on the Twillight series and the author. LOL Because Meyer mentions (or said) that King was an inspiration to her. King only said this

"Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. ... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

[azurite]

Yeah, I just read that yesterday in Life & Style! I was laughing out loud over it!