.If you haven't read Twilight, don't worry; 100 million other people have, including me.
It is a book which has enjoyed immense popularity but there are, of course, people who don't like. I mean, really, really don't like it.
The panel looks set to be controversial (the panel is called "Fading Twilight" - provocative in itself). The spiel for the panel is here:
August 31: Fading Twilight
Lili Wilkinson, Van Badham, Kate Forsyth, Bec Kavanagh, Nikki Anderson, Jeff Sparrow
BMW Edge 1.45pm - 2.15pm, Tickets $6.
The most compelling books for teenagers ever written... or brain-draining, sexist rubbish? Harmless, escapist fantasy that is inspiring more teens to read than ever before... or mind-numbing, badly plotted tripe?
Seventeen million copies later, the Twilight debate continues to rage. A panel of writers, booksellers, editors and publishers discuss the pros and cons of this best-selling series - pushed and probed by you, our Festival audience. Have your questions ready.
(By the way, you can buy tickets here)
Have you read it? What did you think? Which side of the panel would you be on? Looking forward to meaty and honest responses. Feel free to comment under a pseudonym if you fear being eaten by teenagers.
2 comments:
Ooh ... very interesting. I don't think I fall clearly on any side of the divide. Partially that's because I don't think the advantages of introducing reluctant young readers to books can be underestimated. Today, Twilight - tomorrow, Wuthering Heights. It's not such a big stretch.
Having said that, I do think the Twilight books promote a sexist world view. And I do think that they're terribly written. Should be an interesting panel.
I know I would have LOVED Twilight as a teenager. I used to write continuously in exercise books all these stories about my life as an adult and in almost every one of them I was saved by a bloke then married off (complete with his name) to that same bloke. Shocking. Not a feminist bone in my body as a teenager. I just wanted a man to fall in love with me and take care of me.
Fast forward to my post Female Eunuch/Vagina Monologues self fifteen years later I find Twilight revolting. Completely reactionary. Bella is as weak as piss after you've drunk 4 litres of water in an hour. She hasn't any personality, Edward falls in love with her beauty not her spunk (she has none), I can't stand it. I think she's a terrible role model for young women... but I get why they love it (see above para!).
Still, when you're a teenaged girl, you want to be taken away, you're not thinking about the feminist themes lacking (well, I wasn't, as a kid obsessed with Baby Sitters Club and without a feminist mother).
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