So today I just finished reading the first book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, a Mormon Mom from Arizona. Since last summer people (all women) having been telling me that I needed to read the book Twilight. I had some time this week so I finally sat down and read all 500 pages. It was a quick read, fun, and exciting. It made me feel like a teenage girl, giggling and feeling giddy at all the many good romantic parts and getting butterflies in my stomach.
Of course now that I've finished the book the problem is that life seems so dull and ordinary. How can anything in real life compare with breathtaking, dangerous Vampire/Human love? Today I felt dejected thinking how nothing in life could measure up to this fantasy. This book has warped my view of reality, how can anyone I date ever be a wonderful as Edward Cullen. I've noticed on facebook that there is group after group with names like this "Edward Cullen and Bella Swan gave me unrealistic expectations about love" or "Because of Edward Cullen human boys have lost their charm".
So is this what is wrong with relationships today-are we just totally unrealistic about what they should be like? When the giddiness of new love is gone and it starts to get hard do too many people just bail? I guess we could blame the media and I do frequently about their portrayals of a basically unreachable ideal. Someone in our stake presidency gave a talk last stake conference and he mentioned the media's power. He talked about one young man in the stake that decided to swear off all forms of media for a month or two. When asked about the result the young man said, "well everyone started to look a lot more attractive!" Very few people are really as attractive as the people in magazines and movies and they are making us look bad!
On the other hand, maybe this a cry by women everywhere that we want to be loved more and better. We want to be loved for who we are, clumsiness and all. We want to be loved for our human-ness, not our adherence to some uberhuman fantasy. If only everyone could love as well, as deeply as Edward maybe then life would be as good as any novel.
7 comments:
Yeah. But Edward falls in love with Bella just because she smells good to him. Her personality has nothing to do with it. Boooo!
The books are a fun escape though.
I completely agree that we live such mediated lives... we're starting to be unable to remove the lens and see things and people for what they really are.
I don't agree with you iieee. Yes, her smell attracts Edward, but he also is fascinated by her. He watches her all the time and wants to protect her. How can that mean he doesn't like her personality?
As far as media influence goes, I agree that men are being persuaded to be attracted to an ideal that does not exist, but I also think it's important to recognize that women are becoming prone to falling in love with an ideal man in the media that may not exist. Of course, I mean in respects of physical attraction.
Bella falls down a lot. She goes to school. She doesn't want her mom to die. Sooo fascinating.
Again, the books are a fun escape, and I've heard Stephenie Meyers is such a nice person, that I try not to hate.
Although, whenever I hear too much hype about the series, I always refer people to this hilarious blog post.
Also, the part in this video about Edward Cullen... FAWESOME. But I think that's more of a Team Jacob thing. ;)
I think you hit on one issue that has always bothered me, married or not: The media.
Just because one is married doesn't mean that all of a sudden you gain loads of self worth. It's something I struggle with even now.
I have found that the media really has little to offer that is of any real value, and so pay as little attention to it as possible.
I also used to read a lot of books similar to the Twilight series (tho I have never read the Twilight books in their entirety) and loved to get caught up in the perfectness of the romance and excitement. The author can make things as perfect as they like -- and I think that it influences people's perspectives just as much as movies or magazines do.
Not to say that such books don't have value as entertainment, but when you hold up those "perfect" people as your ideal, everyone will fall short, and especially those we have meaningful relationships with. It's hard to know where to draw the line.
Hi! I don't know how I ended up to your site (I think it was from another blog), but I'd just like to comment more about the Twilight series. I suggest you don't read the next two books because they are somewhat of a letdown after the first. The weaknesses in the first book (i.e. dragging dialogues) are heightened in the next two since little happens in the plots. I sure do hope the fourth one in August will make up for the letdowns...
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