Twilight Saga - New Moon

I'm gonna see it in 3 days. Let's just hope it's better then the first. It'd be a shame if they got wayyyyyy off the book topic.

Harry Potter was genuinely good for a while, though - not the last two books perhaps, but the first five were at least marginally respectable, with some exception. I cannot in good faith say the same of the Twilight saga, which has effectively and efficiently dissected vampire mythology and brutally neutered it. The romance aspect of it is the only thing worth being noted on, and it's so sickeningly sweet that I'd probably be sick to my stomach if I tried to read it, nevermind watching the movies.

Part of me demands that I be insulted at least in some capacity by that, since I genuinely believed that the first few Harry Potter books were good. With a bit more effort they could have been truly great, or at least been a step closer to being great, at any rate. But yes, the marketable value of the two series' is something to be admired (and be jealous of, as you said).

It really is hilarious, though, that there are people that aren't prepubescent romance enthusiasts that think Twilight is good. I mean when the first book came out I couldn't go anywhere at school without hearing people raving about how great it was, and then I look it up out of curiosity and almost throw up on the premise alone. Vampires that can not only walk in daylight, but shine or something like that? Really?

Even more hilarious is the new book coming out. Out of some morbid curiosity I investigated, and was dismayed but not surprised to discover that the plot revolved around the threat of child birth killing Bella. That really made my day, realizing that the much respected series is a crappy soap opera in literary form.

It's got nothing to do with the attention it gets. It's got to do with the fact that I'm an enthusiast of vampire mythology, and from what I know of Twilight it dissected vampires like a lab frog. I'll be fair and say it could potentially surprise me and be good, if only to satisfy you by keeping an open mind, but I am entitled to my well placed skepticism until I can be bothered to swallow my pride and give my opinion some solid backing.

Twilight is the biggest crap in the movie world, as well as the world of books.

Harry Potter at least has unique stuff. She went to the trouble of creating unique foods and spells and tell unique stories.

The biggest problem with Twilight is the biggest part of it is plagiarized from other, older vampire novels.

I'm not talking themes, or the genre. I'm talking actual events. I had a friend who used to go on and on about how great Twilight was.

The fact is, Liao Wei was right, the most people who like it are the teenager girls that want a dark and sexy teenage vampire to come in and carry them away. All it really amounts to is a kinky sexual thrill they have with vampires.

Sadly, they keep going to this, and they'll continue making the garbage. It's the same reason we have a Saw 6 out, mindless drones keep going out to watch it.

I've never read the books, and only watch the trailers because the networks force it on you.

I know what I know because a friend I no longer speak with is one of the broody teenage girls with a vampire fetish who insanely loves Twilight, so she had to come tell me everything about it.

I've read a number of vampire novels over the past couple years, and I could almost immediately point out stuff that was stolen. I could almost wish that those books had been turned into movies. The stories in them were much more realistic to the vampire genre.

All in all, if you are thinking of seeing these movies, I'd say don't waste your time. Go pick up the Dark series, or Anita Blake. Those at least have better writing. ((Which the creator of Twilight plagiarized from in her novels.))

Edit: About the wizards in Harry Potter. It's commonly accepted that wizards have familiars, brew potions, and use wands to cast spells. And of course using brooms to fly. That's the traditional myth surrounding them.


Second Edit: Just thought I'd throw in the plagiarized parts.
There is actually more than I originally thought...

::First Novel::
Bella moves from Arizona to Washington to live with her father. She meets Edward, who's family only drinks animal blood, and falls for him. James, from a rival family, tries to kill her.

Plagiarized from: The Vampire Diaries, published about 10+ years before this.

The minor difference in Vampire Diaries is that the girl lives in one place, and the vampire love interest comes back to town. He drinks animal blood and she falls in love with him. The second difference is that the bad guy is his brother.

Not a big one, so it's not as bad.

::Second Novel::
Edward and his family leave Forks because he believes he is endangering Bella's life.

Plagiarized: Vampire Diaries.
The vampire keeps trying to leave, because he is putting the girl in danger.

New Moon also starts in the love interest of the werewolf Jacob for Bella, and her love for him.

Plagiarized: The Anita Blake Series
Over the course of this series, Anita falls in love with a vampire, and later a werewolf, though it differs only slightly in that she decides to shack up with both.

The last bit I can find off hand, is the fact that Bella is pregnant with the child of Edward. This is taken from the first book of the Dark series, in which the male and female have a girl child.

The plagiarism bit comes into play because in the Dark series, the oldest of the vampires, Gregori, recognizes the child as his soulmate. In Twilight, you have Jacob seeing Bella's child as his soulmate.

Let me say that I'm not against the books because of the massive following. I'm just against the copying of other peoples work.

Further evidence of this can be found on the wiki for the series:

Stephenie Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the transcript of what is now chapter 13 of the book.[20] Despite having very little writing experience, in a matter of three months she had transformed that dream into a completed novel.

While it's not a sham that a writer can dream up their novel, to have a completed novel in as little as 3 months just screams implausible.

I'm a fairly adept writer myself, and I've known published authors. Books just do not come together that fast without something underhanded taking place.

About the only thing I can say as an end to this is that I totally applaud Stephen King's assessment of the author. Though I personally don't read King's type of books.

Hm ok well I love how much effort people go to just to hate Makes me lol but fine we all have our opinions