Unicorns of the Vale

Wow, how did I miss the entire Twilight thread? *laughs!* I don't know anything about the series other than the excerpts available online, so I won't pass judgment on the series as a whole for content or characterization. Stephanie's writing style just didn't do it for me, which is why I haven't read the series past the excerpts.

As a longtime roleplayer and mod, Meyer's vampires give me the willies. Vampires who sparkle in the sunlight would be stamped as cheaters and laughed off of every roleplay hub they joined, unless they were very delicately and cleverly trying to spoof the whole vampire gig. If she'd called them something else, it wouldn't be an issue. K.A. Applegate created a species of alien that looked an awful lot like a centaur, but had different characteristics setting it apart from human mythology. While other characters referenced the similarity, she didn't call them centaurs, because they're not.

It feels to me like Meyer violated the intrinsic rules about vampires created by decades of literature and film and deep layers of rich cultural myth. Personally, I feel these rules are important anytime someone writes about vampires, and if any of them do not apply, the writer needs to respect the myth enough to give good reasons why... otherwise as a reader I will question the writer's credibility and dedication to researching his or her chosen subject, and the rest of the book will be ruined for me. Does she ever explain why the Cullens aren't adversely affected by daylight? Do any of the characters outside of the vampire culture have a problem with this total departure from legend? Does the myth even exist in this world - and if so, how do the Cullens explain it?

I don't have answers to these questions, which is why I'm asking - and certainly not to question anyone's taste in literature. So if you have the answers, let me know! I'm not afraid of getting 'spoiled,' since I pretty much found the story outline through basic research anyway.

Edit: With respect for the original poster, however, if you want to reference something later on in the series, please PM/email it to me, rather than posting it here.

Scylla

-also didn't notice the thread haha -

I think Stephanie tried to make her vampires more believeable to her particular storyline by making them 'sparkle' in the sunshine, rather than turn to tiny bits of ash and dust. Because honestly, would some random teenager like Bella ever had met Edward or the Cullens if they didn't come out during the day? The whole 'Vampires living secretly in society' just wouldn't work if you never saw them living outside in the normal world.

But cloudy days being enough to cover up the sparkle hardly sounds realistic, though it does explain - in a more pansy kinda way - why the vampires don't come out during the day. The whole ashes to ashes thing becomes a myth within a myth in Twilight, along with all the other monstrous myths that would prevent Edward and his Family from acting the way they do in the book.

ANYWAY, anybody want to get into how she alludes to Shakespeare? Clique I say! xD

I see your point, and I agree with you - Bella probably wouldn't have met Edward in the way that she did, and the vampires would have a very hard time living as 'normal' people in society. At the same time, I don't think that answers my questions, because if the reason Stephanie ignored the traditional rules of vampirism is that the rules make her desired story impossible... that's just lazy storytelling. Fiction is based on conflict. Weaknesses and shortcomings are what make vampires such interesting characters to me.

What do you mean by 'myth within a myth'?

By myth within a myth I mean the parts of the book that the cullen vampires are flippantly discounting all the historical myths that have been built up around the vampire, and then makign new ones. And it is lazy storytelling, I think that's part of the reason people sometimes don't like the book. Albeit it is fast paced and a thriller of sorts, for people who know oranges from apples however we can see the shallow lack of conflict that comes from shallow characters. That though is something different altogether perhaps. -ponder-

I... think I may love you.

Talk about letting it all hang out. xD -inane giggle-
LOL FTW!!!

I disliked the books and the movie - although both give me great lulz XD
and I cannot mention this in school, or even bring up any flaws with the story, without like seven people jumping down my throat and trying to rip me limb from limb.

The one thing I like Twilight for is...
Alice Cullen
mostly in the film. She made sitting in there for a few hundred minutes bareable.
nomnomnom *drool*

I love the Twilight books, but the movie just sucked. They really ruined the book with the movie, None of the Vamp stories, not a lot of the questions bella asked, and most of all.......They TOTALLY ruined the cars! Urggg, It made me so mad to see Emmits Jeep, Jeesh, go with the wrangler people! Rosealie's wasnt even a BMW.... and what happened to the Vanquish???!!

(hehe totally missed this thread too)

err soo... um I really was poised to hate the twilight books *ducks the flying objects flung my way* but honestly after "being forced" to read them I actually like them. (I didn't have anything else to read one day while doing laundry, and unfortunately my moms house has a huge lack of anything to do or read, my sister happened to be reading the books and i picked up twilight from her bed to stave off a few hours of boredom) I have to say though that I absolutely HATE the style they are written in. First person is so confusing to read like that and really really annoying. It did seem to read like a journal which made it bearable. Seriously though, I wanna stomp on somebodies fingers if I read any more books with "I" starting almost every sentence.
I don't have the tastes that the general masses do, anything that people like automatically love and imediatly gets a movie deal I generally despise (case in point Harry Potter *ducks more flying objects*) I really like that she has such a unique view on werewolves and vampires. I mean ok there is all this historical mumbo jumbo about vampires and werewolves and for some reason people want to stick to that. Its annoying and old to read/see the same thing over and over again. It was really nice that some one grew some imagination and wasn't afraid to put new ideas out there!
I guess I have to point out that it is mainly the new ideas that I like about the books, not so much the writing style or ever the author. The characters aren't as fleshed out as what I normally like and it is (compared to many authors I like) childish. It was written to appeal to the masses however, and masses this day and age happen to be teen's so i suspose a bit of childishness is forgiven.

I just read the 3rd one yesterday and I have to say (SPOILER ALERT!) Bite the poor girl already! I mean come on! Save her soul, be human do human things, love werewolf boy, bleh blah bleh BLAH! The whole loosing your soul thing if you became a vampire was blandly boring and unimaginiative she'd broken away from every other myth out there, why did she have to stick to the whole "evil" vampire's are soulless thing? I guess there had to be a reason for Bella to remain human, but there could have been something more thrown in there besides "I want to save your soul". Oh and Bella's whole hang up on marriage is just silly. Ya wanna spend forever with him so much that you are willing to die for him, to do anything for him, to become a vampire for him, yet you don't wanna make the (in comparision) small comitment to marry him? Seriously now.

Anyway enough harping. I did really like the books, their ideas anyway. I'm trying to con my sister into letting me read the last one before she finishes it. She's had it for almost a month now and isn't past the first 200 pages. I could knock it out and have it back to her by morning and she'd never notice the difference. lol and I'm too stubborn to admit that I like it enough to actually go BUY the last book. lol the Horror!


*Edit* oh Lady, I just wanted to point out that I'm refusing to watch the movie, just in the trailer I've seen to many things way to different from what happened in the book. I'm one of those sticklers, if a movie is based off a book then it ought to follow the book as closely as possible. I can't stand it when it doesn't. It annoys me, ruins the movie for me and since I have to point it out, ruins the movie for everyone else too. Same thing for Historically based movies. If it deviates from what really happened I get annoyed. A bit of OCD I think. or something maybe I'm just picky lol

Lol, I totally understand! My family wont watch any movie that is made from a book that I have read with me in the room! If they do they gag me.

THIS. srsly.

rofl, I can tell we're gonna get along great. *highfives Disaster*

*highfives back* Oh yes, I see the start of a beautiful friendship! x3 Teehee

ILU MY ACCOMPLICE. <3

ILU TOOOO~

<333

I have to agree - Alice is the redeeming point of "Twilight", even though her family.... well.... they're Cullens. I have anger issues with them. xD


You just made my day with that Anne Rice comment, too. ....
....
Am I the only one who thinks it would be really, really kick-ass to see Lestat suddenly appear in Forks in the middle of the night and attack the sparkle-fairies with Marius, Gabrielle and Armand? =3 Someone needs to write a fanfic of that, 'nuff said.

So yeah, I'm getting in on this too. Didn't care for the books. Gripping yes, but poorly written and each character seemed to be so lost in self-loathing (with the exceptions of Alice, Emmet, Esma(?), and Dr. Cullen) that you could hardly pull yourself up for air. DX

As for vampires in general, I can't say that I've read the Anne Rice series, though I'm thinking I really should... but I really like the vampires in Laurell K Hamilton's 'Anita Blake' series. I like them... a LOT.

There, I'm done.