Kristen Stewart plays the main character :
Posted on 11/23/2009 5:35:21 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" features long, steamy, smoldering gazes by handsome, shirtless young men who are vampires or werewolves.
Despite those lingering, lustful looks the film includes only four kisses and not a single sex scene.
Women and girls, who made up 80 percent of the opening weekend audience, said that is one reason "The Twilight Saga" appeals to them.
"I actually like that, the fact that they don't have bedroom scenes or anything," Gabrielle Rivera, 15, said.
Clearly the storyline is working. In the first three days, the box office raked in $140.7 million, according to studio estimates.
That places "New Moon" third behind "The Dark Knight" and "Spider-Man 3" on the highest-earning films for an opening weekend on the domestic charts.
The movies are based on the "Twilight" books, written by Stephanie Meyer.
Meyer, a Mormon, wrote her lead character, Edward, to be a chaste and noble protector of his love interest, Bella.
This may explain why the movie is a hit among so-called "Twilight Moms" who have described Edward as "the perfect man."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
“People who fear their children being adversely influenced by a novel really aren’t very confident of their parenting skills, IMO.”
Folks who feed their children literary Ding-Dongs aren’t very discerning, either.
My youngest daughter is 12 - why would I WANT her to read a book about a domineering, abusive male who watches his ‘girlfriend’ sleep in her bedroom - and who is ‘good’ because of it?
I can’t stop my daughter from reading it, but I can make sure she knows how pathetic the characters and the book are!
As i said you are entitled to your opinion and to raise your daughter however you see fit. Personally, i have no problem with my daughters reading it, they are not likely to get involved with domineering abusive vampires just from reading a book. i’ve raised them to know better : )
The simple fact is you have awful literary taste. This isn't an issue of censorship. Rather, appalling taste from lowbrow, semiliterate women who are MUCH too old to be giggling over some teen romance novel.
By the way, your list of reading materials is high on trash and lacking in anything substantive. "Clan of the Cave Bear"? For Pete's sake grow up.
I really don’t care what you think of me, personally, or my literary taste. Personally, I don’t presume to judge others based on what they read, or even post on FR. You feel free to make whatever value judgments you deem appropriate : )
Characterizing xsmommy's posts as "reacting like a hysterical female" is hilariously ironic given the next hyperbolic comment in your post:
Face it, it's a dumb story with cardboard characters, a halfa@@ed plot and pure female-oriented pornography as its only attraction.Just out of curiosity, did you think the underwear section of the Sears & Roebuck Catalogs you used to get in the mail when you were growing up were fantastically erotic?
I wasn't criticizing the Twilight series for pornographic content per se - but in the context of it being of a low literary standard. Read my remarks in full.
Okay, so your statement that "female oriented pornography" was its "only attraction" wasn't really your assessment of the Twilight series - per se - but rather just your way of characterizing those who read the series.
My point was that characterizing the appeal of the Twilight series (which I consider pretty lame by the way) as "female-oriented pornography" seemed a lot like the hyperbolic overreaction of those who used to find the underwear/bra section of the Sears & Roebuck catalog so offensively explicit and erotic; and it was quite ironic and amusing because of your comment that immediately preceded it.
I agree, and I think this attraction is something we should teach young women to control, instead of glamorizing it and idealizing it in books and movies.
Just as young men should be taught to control their attraction to loose women or self-destructive machismo.
Mrs. Slim, 7:15 AM 11/23/2009.
It is simply factual that the underlying mood of the Twilight series is erotic arousal of a kind peculiar to women. That is the root of its appeal - and the reason I condemn the series on literary grounds. It's simply bad writing.
As an aspiring writer I can recognize bad writing when I see it without having to read a whole book. Twilight has horrible writing and I agree, it’s basically porn for teenage girls. Women aren’t as turned on by visual images as men are, so something that elicits a similar level of arousal in woman is probably going to be less obvious than the equivalent for guys. Women don’t usually like admitting this, which is why women who read romance novels would flip out if their husbands are reading Playboy but it’s the same exact thing.
Me, I love the Harry Potter books. They aren’t literature either but the writing is better and the stories are less inane. I’d let a ten year old read Harry Potter. Heck, I might read HP to my daughter when she’s ten. But I wouldn’t allow Twilight. It’s not a concern for me because this literary flash-in-the-pan will be long forgotten by the time my daughter is a tween.
Kristen Stewart plays the main character :
Thanks. She always looks scowly to me.
“The fourth book carries what could arguably be called a very pro-life message.”
Considering both my *angels* read the series, it’s a very good thing.
You don’t see many *mainstream* messages like that.
Maybe there are different versions. I don’t know.
I’ve only seen the first movie but, my daughters have read all the books.
In the first movie, I was impressed that the lead vampire was able to control , not only his urge to suck her blood but, also wanting to have sex. Pretty admirable these days.
See post # 115
Well, he did have his victorian upbringing, plus his well-founded fear that he might kill her if he had sex with her.
(In that regard, it’s like Smallville-Clark not wanting to have sex with humans because he’s afraid he’ll lose control and kill them).
I’ve read all the books. My daughter also read all the books, but then she got disgusted by the hype of the first movie, plus she likes “real” vampires, so she sold her books into the market from the 1st movie, and moved on.
We still go to the movies, we’re going today.
I thought the books were OK — but I read mostly JA fiction anyway these days, so maybe I’m just used to that level of writing.
I even read the author’s preliminary version of a book from Edward’s perspective, which I actually found more interesting than Bella’s take from the Twilight book.
The fact that you see neither the hyperbole nor the irony doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I didn't perceive any prudery in your comment; I just noted the irony of the comment, expecially in light of your characterization of the post to which you were responding as "reacting like a hysterical female".
Also, the fact that as a libertarian you defend pornography while simultaneously condemning a book series on literary grounds is equally ironic. The fact that you can't see that speaks much more about your perception than mine.
Bingo. 2 hours of it. Totally sensual. Nothing for the mind. At all. This kind of movie can help put sensitive girls in bondage.
The sensuality aspect is present in many Dracula movies as well to some degree, though the horror aspect also makes them entertaining for men. But "Twilight" is way more blatant in its sensuality.
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