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Reading; Twilight
So, during the copious free time that accounts for much of my working day, I stumbled across the following articles on the reading habits of young wimmins, which set me a-ponderin' (and apparently turned me into a grizzled old prospector).
Article the first has some fairly appalling generalizations and stereotypes about pre/adolescent girls (despite being written by a woman), but it does contain a very interesting critical analysis about why Twilight appeals to so many women, both old and young (and all shrill -- I know; I was there). Everyone knows vampires are (not so) secretly about sex, and the Twilight has an actually appealing theme of abstinence (no, seriously), but this article, amidst the gender fail, laid out exactly what its take on it seems to be, and why this is so relevant to teenage girls these days (with their iPods and their Myspaces and their text messaging -- in my day, we had to call our friends on the phone! And there was none of this speed-dialing phonebook entry stuff -- we had to look up the numbers, or memorize them, and dial them by hand! Uphill both ways! In a snowstorm!).
One thing the author is entirely uncritical of, or possibly didn't even register, is Twilight's infamous setting-feminism-back-100-years attitude, which I rather suspect ties in to her gender fail in the article. However, I did find one statement rather interesting:
The salient fact of an adolescent girl’s existence is her need for a secret emotional life—one that she slips into during her sulks and silences, during her endless hours alone in her room, or even just when she’s gazing out the classroom window while all of Modern European History, or the niceties of the passé composé, sluice past her. This means that she is a creature designed for reading in a way no boy or man, or even grown woman, could ever be so exactly designed, because she is a creature whose most elemental psychological needs—to be undisturbed while she works out the big questions of her life, to be hidden from view while still in plain sight, to enter profoundly into the emotional lives of others—are met precisely by the act of reading.
Basically, this did not describe my adolescent reading experience AT ALL, but I suspect it does describe a lot of other people's. One of the commenters on article the second stated that "it doesn’t describe teen female mentality - it describes being an introvert." I dunno if introvert is quite the right word, but I agree that it's the category of readers given to personal introspection and tending to express their strong emotions, which of course crosses gender and age lines, and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that love/romance is as popular with these readers as it is with, you know, pretty much everyone.
Stephanie Meyer, intentionally or no, seems to have produced books that appeal directly to all of these traits, hence their popularity with all sorts of random people in addition to the target of teenage girls, many of whom fall smack dab in this category.
Article the second responds to article the first, as do its commenters, and bring up the very good point that girls are also social readers, and have been for hundreds of years. I suspect this will only be surprising to someone who has never been on the internet or has no idea what the word "fandom" means -- after all, Team Edward/Team Jacob aren't exactly the result of millions of readers sitting in their rooms and quietly squeeing to themselves. Teenage girls are fairly notorious for thoroughly dissecting their every thought and emotion with their friends, and this applies to those about fictional characters presented to your local chapter of the Team Edward fanclub or your flist. But, again, this isn't just limited to teenage girls -- see "the internet" for more examples, or those parts of Academia that deal with the unseemly beast Literature, or any time you've gone "THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVAR" and force everyone you know to read it.
(Mostly unrelated: there are also some good comments about the pernicious rumor that guys don't read -- turns out that many of them just aren't reading fictional novels.)
However, the most important thing about these articles is, of course, how they relate to MY reading habits. :D To aid in the discussion, I've thoughtfully included a list of my formative reading experiences: these are all the books I read obsessively over and over when I was younger, in the approximate year I started reading them (I couldn't really remember some of them, so I took my best guess). The + means I read them for several years after, and the ++ means I still read them (and that you should, too). I started rather young, because in my experience reading levels are something that happens to other people.
Dave's Favorite Books Throughout the Ages: A Comprehensive and Somewhat Embarrassing List
(NB: I was still getting used to the whole reading thing when I was in first grade.)
SECOND GRADE:
+Babysitters' Club -- Ann M. Martin
+Daulaire's Mythology
+The Collective Works of Roald Dahl
THIRD GRADE:
+Little House on the Prairie (series) -- Laura Ingalls Wilder
++The Enchanted Forest Chronicles -- Patricia C. Wrede
Ida Early Comes over the Mountains/Christmas with Ida Early -- Robert Burch
+Caddie Woodlawn -- Carol Ryrie Brink
FOURTH GRADE:
Soup (series) -- Robert Newton Peck
Spooksville -- Christopher Pike
FIFTH GRADE:
+Catherine, Called Birdy -- Karen Cushman
Gemini Game -- Michael Scott
++The Blue Sword -- Robin McKinley
++The Belgariad/The Mallorean -- David Eddings
SIXTH GRADE:
+The Immortals/The Lioness Quartet -- Tamora Pierce
+Redwall (series) -- Brian Jacques
++Sabriel -- Garth Nix
+Hero's Song -- Edith Pattou
SEVENTH GRADE:
+The Elenium -- David Eddings
++Harry Potter -- some British chick
EIGHTH GRADE:
+The Golden Compass -- Philip Pullman
NINTH GRADE:
++Discworld (series) -- Terry Pratchett
ELEVENTH GRADE:
++The Lord of the Rings -- some British dude
CONCLUSIONS:
- This explains a lot (up to and including why I occasionally sound like a grizzled old prospector)
- Why yes, I am a huge dork
- I had fairly gender-balanced reading habits (based on authors and main characters)
- If I was "enter[ing] profoundly into the emotional lives of others", they had better been in the middle of some awesome adventure
Basically, I probably would have finished the Twilight series by 6th grade, and scorned the lack of action and Bella's complete inability to kick ass.
Also, while I've always been a reader, I didn't really become a social reader until I was basically a teenager. However, it's hard to tell if this was because I hit puberty, or because my grade-school friends and I didn't really read the same stuff until Harry Potter came out, and I bonded with my own dorky kind in high school and made them all read Terry Pratchett books. Now, of course, I've graduated with a degree in English, blab at length on LJ and gchat about random things I'm reading, and routinely fling books at people while shouting "READ THIS NOW! BEST BOOK EVAR!" so I think it's safe to say I still tend to read socially.
So, how did the whole reading thing turn out for you guys? Comments? Thoughts? Bueller?
Article the first has some fairly appalling generalizations and stereotypes about pre/adolescent girls (despite being written by a woman), but it does contain a very interesting critical analysis about why Twilight appeals to so many women, both old and young (and all shrill -- I know; I was there). Everyone knows vampires are (not so) secretly about sex, and the Twilight has an actually appealing theme of abstinence (no, seriously), but this article, amidst the gender fail, laid out exactly what its take on it seems to be, and why this is so relevant to teenage girls these days (with their iPods and their Myspaces and their text messaging -- in my day, we had to call our friends on the phone! And there was none of this speed-dialing phonebook entry stuff -- we had to look up the numbers, or memorize them, and dial them by hand! Uphill both ways! In a snowstorm!).
One thing the author is entirely uncritical of, or possibly didn't even register, is Twilight's infamous setting-feminism-back-100-years attitude, which I rather suspect ties in to her gender fail in the article. However, I did find one statement rather interesting:
The salient fact of an adolescent girl’s existence is her need for a secret emotional life—one that she slips into during her sulks and silences, during her endless hours alone in her room, or even just when she’s gazing out the classroom window while all of Modern European History, or the niceties of the passé composé, sluice past her. This means that she is a creature designed for reading in a way no boy or man, or even grown woman, could ever be so exactly designed, because she is a creature whose most elemental psychological needs—to be undisturbed while she works out the big questions of her life, to be hidden from view while still in plain sight, to enter profoundly into the emotional lives of others—are met precisely by the act of reading.
Basically, this did not describe my adolescent reading experience AT ALL, but I suspect it does describe a lot of other people's. One of the commenters on article the second stated that "it doesn’t describe teen female mentality - it describes being an introvert." I dunno if introvert is quite the right word, but I agree that it's the category of readers given to personal introspection and tending to express their strong emotions, which of course crosses gender and age lines, and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that love/romance is as popular with these readers as it is with, you know, pretty much everyone.
Stephanie Meyer, intentionally or no, seems to have produced books that appeal directly to all of these traits, hence their popularity with all sorts of random people in addition to the target of teenage girls, many of whom fall smack dab in this category.
Article the second responds to article the first, as do its commenters, and bring up the very good point that girls are also social readers, and have been for hundreds of years. I suspect this will only be surprising to someone who has never been on the internet or has no idea what the word "fandom" means -- after all, Team Edward/Team Jacob aren't exactly the result of millions of readers sitting in their rooms and quietly squeeing to themselves. Teenage girls are fairly notorious for thoroughly dissecting their every thought and emotion with their friends, and this applies to those about fictional characters presented to your local chapter of the Team Edward fanclub or your flist. But, again, this isn't just limited to teenage girls -- see "the internet" for more examples, or those parts of Academia that deal with the unseemly beast Literature, or any time you've gone "THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVAR" and force everyone you know to read it.
(Mostly unrelated: there are also some good comments about the pernicious rumor that guys don't read -- turns out that many of them just aren't reading fictional novels.)
However, the most important thing about these articles is, of course, how they relate to MY reading habits. :D To aid in the discussion, I've thoughtfully included a list of my formative reading experiences: these are all the books I read obsessively over and over when I was younger, in the approximate year I started reading them (I couldn't really remember some of them, so I took my best guess). The + means I read them for several years after, and the ++ means I still read them (and that you should, too). I started rather young, because in my experience reading levels are something that happens to other people.
Dave's Favorite Books Throughout the Ages: A Comprehensive and Somewhat Embarrassing List
(NB: I was still getting used to the whole reading thing when I was in first grade.)
SECOND GRADE:
+Babysitters' Club -- Ann M. Martin
+Daulaire's Mythology
+The Collective Works of Roald Dahl
THIRD GRADE:
+Little House on the Prairie (series) -- Laura Ingalls Wilder
++The Enchanted Forest Chronicles -- Patricia C. Wrede
Ida Early Comes over the Mountains/Christmas with Ida Early -- Robert Burch
+Caddie Woodlawn -- Carol Ryrie Brink
FOURTH GRADE:
Soup (series) -- Robert Newton Peck
Spooksville -- Christopher Pike
FIFTH GRADE:
+Catherine, Called Birdy -- Karen Cushman
Gemini Game -- Michael Scott
++The Blue Sword -- Robin McKinley
++The Belgariad/The Mallorean -- David Eddings
SIXTH GRADE:
+The Immortals/The Lioness Quartet -- Tamora Pierce
+Redwall (series) -- Brian Jacques
++Sabriel -- Garth Nix
+Hero's Song -- Edith Pattou
SEVENTH GRADE:
+The Elenium -- David Eddings
++Harry Potter -- some British chick
EIGHTH GRADE:
+The Golden Compass -- Philip Pullman
NINTH GRADE:
++Discworld (series) -- Terry Pratchett
ELEVENTH GRADE:
++The Lord of the Rings -- some British dude
CONCLUSIONS:
- This explains a lot (up to and including why I occasionally sound like a grizzled old prospector)
- Why yes, I am a huge dork
- I had fairly gender-balanced reading habits (based on authors and main characters)
- If I was "enter[ing] profoundly into the emotional lives of others", they had better been in the middle of some awesome adventure
Basically, I probably would have finished the Twilight series by 6th grade, and scorned the lack of action and Bella's complete inability to kick ass.
Also, while I've always been a reader, I didn't really become a social reader until I was basically a teenager. However, it's hard to tell if this was because I hit puberty, or because my grade-school friends and I didn't really read the same stuff until Harry Potter came out, and I bonded with my own dorky kind in high school and made them all read Terry Pratchett books. Now, of course, I've graduated with a degree in English, blab at length on LJ and gchat about random things I'm reading, and routinely fling books at people while shouting "READ THIS NOW! BEST BOOK EVAR!" so I think it's safe to say I still tend to read socially.
So, how did the whole reading thing turn out for you guys? Comments? Thoughts? Bueller?
no subject
i have not read twilight, but i tend to blame its success on the fact that the snippets that i *have* read are the sort of melodrama i used to write when i was a preteen/early teen. you know, the sort of things i go back and read now that had potential, but the style makes me cringe.
i know that people our age read it, but they tend to be more cognizant of the fact that the writing style is overly dramatic. sometimes it makes me wonder if there is some sort of hormonal thing going on in puberty and heading along toward menopause that makes that sort of writing attractive.
at the same time, i was one of the few people that wanted to hurl regularly while in the pit orchestra for The Most Happy Fella, which is a romance of soapoperatic proportions. Also with "modern" chords aka cat banging on the piano. Don't let the composer's fame fool you, it's pretty much crap. There's three good songs, though, and a cute side character.
as far as my reading, i did the hobbit in second grade, the white company in third, various novella-type-things, lotr in fifth, i dont even know what in middle school, arry pottah in hs, and patrick o'brian in late hs/college. i came to the conclusion fairly early on that the sort of books i liked best were the ones written more or less for young boys in the 19th century- basically character-driven adventure novels, generally illustrated by NC Wyeth. (Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, &c. I found my copy of The White Company in the boys' section of a gift shop.)
so basically i did not read the same things as most of my female peers did, and i didn't really have the same interests. my taste for romantic melodrama runs basically to the relationship between Alleyne and Maude in the white company, which is cute and Technicolor. many of the books i enjoy the most are obscure enough that most people haven't even heard of them, let alone read them, but i like socially reading Terry P, cos he is full of win.
Now i'm not saying that biologically i am an unusual girl for reading things that arent mushy, but there are cultural trends at work too. For one, Harry Potter really did a lot in the generations of the new millenium for making reading fashionable, and E-ragon continued it, and i bet you Twilight follows in that trend. Not that they are bad books, necessarily, but it is fashionable to read them and fan(girl/boy) them, and if you haven't read them you get ZOMG WHAT?? from all directions. Also check the merchandising. Also, HP is pretty much awesome, but there's pretty much consensus that E-ragon was what we all wrote in middle school, and Twilight as well. I wonder if part of their charm is the feeling of "dude, I could have done this!"
who knows.
no subject
I am a human being, I tell you! A HUMAN BEING!
i know that people our age read it, but they tend to be more cognizant of the fact that the writing style is overly dramatic. sometimes it makes me wonder if there is some sort of hormonal thing going on in puberty and heading along toward menopause that makes that sort of writing attractive.
I don't think we can blame hormones for this one :D While they're not the main audience, there are many women our age, and guys of all ages, who also enjoy the books. My friend Mallory, for example, freely admits that she is addicted to them like crack. I think that like J.K. Rowling, SMeyer is a very compelling storyteller, and if you are the sort of person who enjoys melodrama than these books are very attractive.
I think that teenage girls are much more tolerant of melodrama, and maybe there's something about not internalizing or developing certain standards of entertainment, but there are many
otherwiseintelligent people who also still enjoy it, which is why so many shows end up with very soap-operaticy elements, or people watch shows like Dawson's Creek, the OC, and Gossip Girls ironically. (In case you couldn't tell, melodrama is not and was never my thing, unless I'm allowed to point and laugh at it :D)Also, I am deeply suspicious of anything entitled "The Most Happy Fella" :D
as far as my reading, i did the hobbit in second grade, the white company in third, various novella-type-things, lotr in fifth, i dont even know what in middle school, arry pottah in hs, and patrick o'brian in late hs/college. i came to the conclusion fairly early on that the sort of books i liked best were the ones written more or less for young boys in the 19th century- basically character-driven adventure novels, generally illustrated by NC Wyeth.
I'm gonna take a stab at it and say you were also more concerned with adventuring than emotional development :D Also, it's cool because most of your faves aren't just about older time periods, they were written in them. It's almost like you like history or something :D
so basically i did not read the same things as most of my female peers did, and i didn't really have the same interests.
Yeah, until high school there was a pretty wide divide in what I enjoyed with my friends, and what I enjoyed on my own.
For one, Harry Potter really did a lot in the generations of the new millenium for making reading fashionable, and E-ragon continued it, and i bet you Twilight follows in that trend.
I totally agree with you about HP -- there were definite non-readers in my class in grade school who loved them -- but I don't know if E-ragon and Twilight occupy quite the same role. HP is pretty much universally popular, and got that way initially by word of mouth -- the news only picked up on it because there was such a demand for them, especially in the times when it was released in England before the US. Whereas I think E-ragon gained popularity because it was media-friendly (zomg written by a teenager!), able to ride HP's coattails (I know a TON of boys who were given it after they finished HP, because hey, all fantasy's the same, right?), and because it obviously appealed to a group who are noteworthy when they enjoy reading, i.e. boys (probably because it is essentially Star Wars with dragons). There's not nearly as many adult readers of E-ragon, for example. Twilight operated more like HP, where it became a media hit only after it got huge by word of mouth, but it was much more specifically popular (i.e. teenage girls and housewives), and still kind of is.
I wonder if part of their charm is the feeling of "dude, I could have done this!"
To be fair, SMeyer is a better writer than Christopher Paolini. She's still not an AWESOME writer, but she only has the occasional foray into the purplest of prose. I think her forte is taking the PLOT of things we wrote in middle school, and polishing it up a bit.
no subject
Whereas there is one seller that makes my inner fangirl very happy:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21421384
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21421115
In terms of our age group, both Avatar and Twilight appeal to people in their 20s. There are 16 results for Avatar stuff on etsy (searched "airbender" because "avatar" has so many alternate meanings) and 10,981 results for "twilight", most of which are accessories and clothing. I recognize that Avatar isn't as popular as Twilight by any means, but the discrepancy is pretty astounding, especially considering how artsy Avatar is. I choose etsy because it's stuff that's made for and by the fans, and is more of a depiction of how the fans themselves express their fandom-- and Nickelodeon has been totally faily about Avatar merchandising (i want a dang soundtrack!! XD )
no subject
There's more Avatar stuff on cafepress.com, but the disparity with Twilight is still just as bad. (However, there's way more Avatar stuff than Eragon stuff! Dragon of the West > Dragon of the FAIL)
Google fights are biased because Twilight's titles are all common nouns, curse them.
both Avatar and Twilight appeal to people in their 20s
But Twilight's target audience is teenage girls, whereas Avatar's is pre-teens. Twilight thus gets the happy cross-section of a population with a lot of disposable income AND creative ability, so they can make their own sparkly shirts, whereas Avatar's is more limited to official merchandise your parents get for you. Avatar totally has an older fanbase who do produce stuff you can buy, but the target audience is less likely to buy them because fewer of them do their own shopping, and much of the peripheral audience is going to want to keep their real life dedication to the show on the down low.
Also, it's really easy to design a shirt that says TEAM EDWARD, which is a sufficiently meaningful statement in Twilight fandom, but it's a lot harder to make something with an equally cool impact for Avatar.
In conclusion: I am buying you a "TEAM ZUTARA" shirt for your birthday. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
no subject
tru dat on the age groups-- and there is a decent amount of avatar flair for people our age. i personally and probably unsurprisingly have Iroh on my flair board being awesome and Iroh-ey ^^
anyway i am totally not team zutara :P i am all for team kataang BUT when they get older because Aang is WAY TOO YOUNG for serious romantic commitment. also mei is totally hardcore and i heart her and zuko's weird relationship ^^
no subject
tru dat on the age groups-- and there is a decent amount of avatar flair for people our age. i personally and probably unsurprisingly have Iroh on my flair board being awesome and Iroh-ey ^^
The internet doesn't count as the down low, really. Also, we are geeks who WOULD wear Avatar t-shirts, so we are the exception :D
anyway i am totally not team zutara :P
That's why I'm getting it for you! It will have ~*~sparkles~*~
no subject
i do actually love sparkles. saddest moment of my life was when i found out i couldnt wear rainbows anymore without being misunderstood. i had this really cute little top with rainbow sparkles all on it and luuuuuurved it :(
well sokka totally calls them team avatar, so it could be a pune, or play on words :D
no subject
no subject
but it would have to have uncle iroh on it and that would confuse the issue! XD
Iroh/tea :D
no subject