In compiling the hangovers for today, I realized I’ve accumulated enough Breaking Dawn-related links to make their own post.
I was highly amused by Leila’s live blogging her reading experience ("47 – Of COURSE it’s Pachelbel’s Canon") and Jen Fu’s entry "live texting Breaking Dawn: a Novel of Vampire Doing-It" ("PAGE 360 OH MY GOD THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN").
The wonderful and insightful Liz Hand’s review in the Washington Post is the real piece de resistance though. She read all four books and spots some troubling subtext:
Yet there’s something distinctly queasy about the male-female dynamic that emerges over the series’ 2,446 pages. Edward has been frozen at the age of 17. But he was born in 1901, and he doesn’t behave anything like a real teenager. He talks and acts like an obsessively controlling adult male. He sounds far more like a father than a boyfriend, and Bella’s real father remains a detached if benign figure. Bella consistently describes herself as stupid, accident-prone, unworthy of her beloved’s affection.
…snipped for length…
This bland passivity has been excused as a way of allowing female readers to project themselves into Bella’s place, but the overall effect is a weird infantilization that has repellent overtones to an adult reader and hardly seems like an admirable model to foist upon our daughters (or sons).
More from Liz here. Matt Ruff uses the review as a jumping off point to talk about the fact there’s an element of this in every romance involving a young person and a centuries-old vampire and recommends a British miniseries called Ultraviolet that sounds really interesting.
And for the even more controversially inclined, there’s the ongoing conversation about race in the series. I suspect this post at Dear Author pretty much nails that one.
I’d say you should track down Ultraviolet. It’s not the Sandbaggers or Cracker, but it’s pretty good stuff.
Also, I am either developing a neurological disorder, or your CAPTCHA is getting a lot harder.
This from the guy that consistently leaves the “I” out of his own country’s name.
I always suck at CAPTCHA — I wish Typepad would just switch to the kind where it asks you easy questions instead.
I’ll second that recommendation for Ultraviolet. One of the best treatments of modern-day vampires, I thought, except for the last episode.
I always felt Ultraviolet was more interesting in premise than execution, but it definitely has its moments and an interesting modern take on vampirism.
I’m sorry to hear that Meyer’s books aren’t. I kept meaning to read Twilight, but now I think maybe I’m better off not.
Def. have to see Ultraviolet. Is excellently hammy and ominous. I loves it. And it’s exactly how I’ve always thought vampires would be. EVIL.
Though show was tragically cut short. I believe there were meant to be many more eps and series even.
And what Chris said about your CAPTCHA. I HATES it. Has eaten many of my comments. Though maybe that’s a good thing . . .
I’m new to the whole Twilight phenomenon, and didn’t even realize such a series existed until one day I was cruising around Goodreads.com and kept seeing references to it in the — get this — inspirational quotes section. Yes, there next to the famous words of H.L. Mencken, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Mark Twain were lines like:
“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb…, ” He murmered [sic]
“What a stupid lamb, ” I sighed.
“What a sick, masochistic lion.”
Ultraviolet is way cool, although I agree with Justine, pretty hammy. Though Jack Davenport has most excellently floppy British hair.
P.S. Gwenda, I had no idea your blog was so durn pretty. I usually only read the feed in Google Reader.