Twilight

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So school has started. Politics of Heritage. I absolutely love the module, but I am utterly terrified. The sheer general knowledge that my peers seem to possess is disarming, and the content seems too intensive. After Tuesday's grueling 4 hours of lecture, I resolved to go home and increase the number of neuron connections in my brain so that I would be better prepared for tomorrow's 4-hour tutorial. But as you would have probably guessed from my verbosity, I have not so much as touched authorized heritage discourse. Because of a rather thick, black and red novel called 'Twilight' that became my obsession in a fit of distraction. I gave up on it a while back and Thank God I gave up on it with 12 hours still left before class starts.

The novel is mainly a romantic novel about an ordinary girl falling in love with an extraordinary vampire. The book is so repressive and repulsive, if not repulsively repressive. I mean, Edward Cullen is too perfect and gorgeous. Stephanie Meyer completely indulges in describing him, to the point that it sometimes seems like feminist soft porn. But beyond that, the book is anything but feminist. It's patriarchal to the dot. Bella, the protagonist, steadily loses any substance she might have earlier, through the course of the book. From clumsy to frail to desperate, who would have been long dead if not for her knight in shining skin, the strong Edward who has to trail her constantly to keep her alive. How utterly ridiculous!

First of all, their 'love' does not even make any sense! He is drawn to her because her blood is to his taste, and her mind forbids his otherwise flawless mind-reading powers. She is enraptured his perfection, in terms of looks and skills. How ideal for the woman to be completely captivated by the man's overwhelming greatness! All she seems to do for the rest of the book is hyperventilate and revel in his gorgeousness, completely lost in her obsession. I simply do not understand how her obsession never wanes. If anything, it goes on steroids! No one and nothing else but Edward ever crosses her mind. She thinks, dreams, lives Edward. The extent her obsession can reach seems to be her only strength - otherwise, she is physically, emotionally, and mentally decrepit. James literally became my hero for trying to hunt her down.

The most annoying thing is that she becomes some kind of a puppet under his spell, with zero independence. He picks her up before school, keeps an eye on her throughout the day, 'drops' her back home and stays in her room at night. The only alone time she spends (human minute) is in her washroom, which she rushes anyway. All these freaky things increase her love and devotion, and she romanticizes every single thing he does. Such an idiot. How can a woman of this century possibly love him to such an absurd extent? Possessiveness and protectiveness is alright, even expected, in a new relationship - but the author brings this up to such an unhealthy extent that it becomes creepy and disgusting. If I met someone like Edward, I would spike his food - just finish him off, for all his perfection and creepiness.

Their relationship just does not seem healthy at all. There is hardly any equality - Edward is too head-strong, insensitive and possessive, while Bella simply does not have a brain or backbone of her own. Even if you go beyond the two of them, there really are NO strong women in the book - all of them are largely passive save when it comes to vying for the men's attention, and their thoughts and actions all revolve around the what the men think. SO misogynistic and patriarchal. After a while, everything just overwhelmed me and I chucked it in a corner.

Suffice to say, the book is really, utterly, completely not worth the hype; and Stephanie Meyer is actually an old, screwed up woman from the 14th century who believes and subscribes to patriarchy with all she has got. She totally snapped up the feminist in me. You start to think that the world is becoming more egalitarian, and then this book becomes a best-seller. Psh!