Spring Break
'Twilight' sucks, and yes, I'm judging you
Ryan Nowell
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Opinion
I guess my issue is it didn't stay in that demographic. It took, what, 10 years to shake off the last cash cow to come trundling out of the children's section, and without pause, here comes the next wave of pseudo-literate juvenilia, destined to be hoisted atop the bestseller list and reign as the at-large definition of what modern writing should be.
This series in itself wouldn't be an issue if it was an exception, but it's a drop in the rather dour looking bucket of brainless indulgence the American public is guiltlessly guzzling. Well people, start feeling the guilt.
Glancing at the bestselling fiction list, it seems Toni Morrison is the only one not there just to pick up their check.
Tom Clancy is a man who by all accounts is still playing with his GI Joes. John Grisham is churning out the same old lawyer-fantasies with the unwavering fixation of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patient. Kathy Reichs has spun her bad novels into a bad TV show starring the bad Deschanel sister. Nicholas Sparks has found a way to filter and concentrate pure tree sap into bestselling paperbacks.
And now Stephanie Meyers.
Now, there was once a time when the authors people paid attention to were folks like Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. They were all kinda-to-certifiably crazy, led messy, inglorious lives and released linguistically dense books that they couldn't care less if you understood.
These books are hard to read, they take a lot of time, and even if you finish them there's no guarantee you'll know what they're about. But they are works of art. Why? They are trying to say something to you, not sell something to you.
Whether you're being sold Diet 7-Up, trite teen romance, canned lawyer dramatics or just a blithely happy ending, we should all consider a little aesthetic asceticism.
It's called summer reading for a reason. Pick up a damn winter book already.
Ryan Nowell is a senior English major. His column appears Wednesdays in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.
This series in itself wouldn't be an issue if it was an exception, but it's a drop in the rather dour looking bucket of brainless indulgence the American public is guiltlessly guzzling. Well people, start feeling the guilt.
Glancing at the bestselling fiction list, it seems Toni Morrison is the only one not there just to pick up their check.
Tom Clancy is a man who by all accounts is still playing with his GI Joes. John Grisham is churning out the same old lawyer-fantasies with the unwavering fixation of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patient. Kathy Reichs has spun her bad novels into a bad TV show starring the bad Deschanel sister. Nicholas Sparks has found a way to filter and concentrate pure tree sap into bestselling paperbacks.
And now Stephanie Meyers.
Now, there was once a time when the authors people paid attention to were folks like Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. They were all kinda-to-certifiably crazy, led messy, inglorious lives and released linguistically dense books that they couldn't care less if you understood.
These books are hard to read, they take a lot of time, and even if you finish them there's no guarantee you'll know what they're about. But they are works of art. Why? They are trying to say something to you, not sell something to you.
Whether you're being sold Diet 7-Up, trite teen romance, canned lawyer dramatics or just a blithely happy ending, we should all consider a little aesthetic asceticism.
It's called summer reading for a reason. Pick up a damn winter book already.
Ryan Nowell is a senior English major. His column appears Wednesdays in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 9
Lavar
posted 12/03/08 @ 12:54 PM MST
Right smart prose.
But I don't pine over a mythic golden age where everyone loved Joyce and Proust; there never was one. Modern trends don't bely any dumbing down. (Continued…)
Props
posted 12/04/08 @ 2:11 AM MST
Way to go with the reading rainbow reference!
Jay
posted 12/04/08 @ 4:39 PM MST
That has to be the best headline I've ever seen in my life. Well done.
Mark
posted 12/04/08 @ 4:44 PM MST
This piece is incredibly self-indulgent. It's also the funniest thing I've read in months.
Jackie Fortier
posted 12/06/08 @ 4:25 PM MST
Obviously some people haven't read into our media past. In response to the first comment, the media has been pandering to the lowest common denominator since the 80's. (Continued…)
Azeo Sparker
posted 12/06/08 @ 6:36 PM MST
hmmm, i dont like your approach to this, and twilight dosent suck, but twilight is very addictive. it kinda makes you feel like real world isnt worth it. (Continued…)
Lavar
posted 12/08/08 @ 11:31 AM MST
I'm indeed familiar with media, and don't need a movie to give a ham-fisted punch to my intellect. I concede you may have a point with the "dumb-down" of media beginning in the 80s, mostly because this has no century associated with it. (Continued…)
Jeff
posted 12/08/08 @ 10:03 PM MST
*sigh* if only the Rocky Mountain News had published Twilight excerpts...
The "twilight" craze may be annoying because now a bunch of kids want to be mythical blood drinking creatures originally coined after what we would refer to today as war criminals to scare the illiterate public into church; but its just that - a craze. (Continued…)
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