Last week, The Baltimore Sun‘s book blogger Dave Rosenthal proclaimed the ’00s “the Stephenie Meyer decade” — a move destined to manufacture heated debates and, naturally, more traffic to the paper’s site. His post predictably stirred the passions of 15-year-old gi… er, 32-year-old women, who finally found a national cause they could rally behind. (Sorry, health care.)
And while this stunt could be viewed as a calculated traffic lure for the Sun, I doubt it’ll cause many of the commenters on this post to read the Sun more often. Given the sheer volume of feedback on Rosenthal’s post, most Twilighters evidently pounce on any mention of Meyer’s name with the nerve-rattling speed of heat-seeking abstinence missiles, which obviously leaves them little time to read anything else. (Except — judging by the neverending “JK Rowling is better than / worse than Stephenie Meyer” arguments — for Harry Potter.)
But even if the Sun suddenly did see an uptick in readership, it would be bad news for its readers at large, because the level (and subjects) of writing necessary to “hook” this audience for the long haul would drive the Sun to sub-tabloid levels of journalism.
To wit, some actual comments from the post:
JK may sell more but stephene sells to a wider audience of all ages. Stephenie also stayed light dispite being about vampiers. JKs books got darker and darker and not approprite for thier intended audience.
stephenie meyer is a excellient writer she has great books i didnt like reading until i saw her books at first i thought they were boring until i really got in the middle of the books i love you stephenie keep up the good books
im fully on team stephanie. her writing is unbelievable…each book gets more and moe interesting…and they are so relatable. i can sit and actually be in the main characters place whe i read her books. Jk Rowling simply makes up fake words…no wonder people think her books are complex…because they have to spend so much time trying to figure out what the heck she is talking about.
Stephenie Meyer soo deserves this title
all of you’sz shut your Mouth
She is a VERY tealnted author, and ONE of the most biggest sensational, phenomenal hits of ALL time.Congratulations to Stephenie, she urned the best author of the decade!
I am 32 and LOVE the Twilight Series. Stephanie’s writing is so intuitive of the feelings surrounding true love in both the female and male perspective. Not only that, she is able to show the drama of dealing with that kind of passion at such a young age and showing the beauty of waitiing until the moment is right. My girlfriends, all in their 30′s love it too. My dentist reads it with his wife for four play. She is amazing! Stephen King is stupid.
The books are very well written for THIS era and personally, Twilight got me into reading again. I’ve read all of the books MANY times. Stephanie has a unique style of writing, JUST LIKE EVERY WRITER IN THE WORLD! everyone writes different, every PERSON is different. This day in age, people are so quick to judge and ridicule everyone and I think it’s just plain stupid. My generation is the future of this country right now, maybe people should start listening to us more!!!
And on… and on… and on…
Am I being elitist in my dismissal of the Twilight phenomenon as a wrong turn on the pop culture superhighway? Yes.
Am I dense enough to believe that a litany of breathless praise from semi-literate web commenters is representative of the entire Twilight fanbase? Almost. But since blog commenters the world over tend to be semi-literate, it’s hard to hold this against the Twilighters specifically.
Instead, let me pose some larger questions, like…
- If Meyer’s books have inspired people to read, why have they not also inspired them to write coherently?
- If an author succeeds by spoon-feeding her audience exactly what they want, delivered in short, unchallenging, candy-coated morsels, is her success truly so unexpected as to be worth commending?
- Will Meyer’s youngest readers grow up unable to appreciate more complex literature — or more complicated discourse?
- Have we reached the point where children AND adults now automatically consider “the best-selling” to be “the best,” period?
- What’s the appropriate response when Meyer’s teen and young adult fans, whom Meyer has “empowered” through self-identification, and who are living in a world marketed as youthful entitlement, invoke the “we’re the future of the world and people should listen to us” clause?
And, of course: should the newspaper industry, which is desperately fighting to stay afloat, be celebrating the success of an author whose debatable skills (and the questionable effect those skills are having on her audience) demonstrate why newspapers are struggling to find an audience in the first place?
Which raises an even thornier issue: what if Rosenthal was right? What if this really is “the Stephenie Meyer decade” of literature, with all that implies?
In that case… where do we go from here?
Tags: art, audience, books, perception, pop culture, Sociology
Hi there, Justin! I thought this was an interesting post. My first thought when I got to the comment section was, “Can these people even read/write?” – and then you went ahead and commented on their semi-litteracy yourself, which calmed me down a little bit.
I have to admit that I am a Twilight fan and I love the books and the movies. Though, it’s the story I love, not the writing. Stephanie tends to use the same adjectives over and over again. I wouldn’t say she’s the best writer and I would even bet her books required MANY hours of editing from the publishing company. As for the Sun’s celebration of her work, I’m not sure they could afford NOT to cover it.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Justin Kownacki, Casse No-I. Casse No-I said: Yes. What *if* Rosenthal is right :-/ RT @JustinKownacki: Stephenie Meyer, Twilight & the Very Bleak Future of Culture: http://bit.ly/6qXoGf [...]
I think some of those comments were so bad I lost a few brain cells.
I think that anytime you have something that sparks fanaticism (whether it be religion or something else like Harley-Davidson, Ford, Star Trek, Twilight or Harry Potter etc) people feel the need to force their opinion on others without taking a moment to see that both points may be valid.
To me, Twilight is candy coated goth teen chick lit, but it’s that same shallowness that adds a bit of fun to it. I think those readers that are most attracted to it (and maybe the most fanatical) probably aren’t likely to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Kate Chopin because those authors don’t appeal to them.
I’m not saying that everyone who reads the series is ignorant by any means, but more that everyone craves a different style of writing for their own reasons. Some only like their books shallow and candy coated hence the romance genre being what it is, others only read that which requires serious digestion and analysis, while still others like to read a balance of everything.
If anything, I think the bigger concern isn’t intellectual discourse, but that Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series will be providing a replacement for the “Cinderella Complex”.
Total and complete elitist here. I hated Meyer’s first book, and I refuse to read anything she has written. Utter and complete shite.
Now, that being said, I have two girls who someday will be teenagers, and if they choose to engage in Twilight and all it begets, I will engage right along with them. Because I want to be the one to point out a) Bella is a weak, stupid girl, and if they ever carry on the way she does, I will have to smack them upside the head b) Edward is ABUSIVE. And a vampire, so natch. and 3) Meyer is a terrible writer.
As for your bullet points and the difference between “best” and “best selling”, I think the key is a discerning adult, whether English teacher, parent, librarian. Someone to point out the difference between readable, good, great, classic, etc. literature.
And I’m a huge Stephen King and JK Rowling fan, so maybe not so much elitist as completely disgusted by her disregard for the rules of the vampire genre. (Sparkling. Walking around in the daytime. GOING TO HIGH SCHOOL. Ahem.)
ciao!
rpm
Being elitist is awesome.
Especially when you are amongst those that can’t spell/use grammar effectively.
Will Myers’ youngest readers grow up unable to appreciate more complex literature?
Yes, I think so. The books are written at such an incredibly low level that I think, for all the “I’ve never read books before” people, it sets the expectations dangerously low. Even among other “teen lit” books. For example, I don’t think that one of these “non-book readers” could jump from Twilight to, say, L’Engle’s “A wrinkle in time”. Especially if they feel, as one of the commenters mentioned, that Harry Potter was challenging. If they then try to go on to read other books, they are going to struggle.
So no, I don’t think writing for a teen/adult audience, at a grade school level does anything to help increase literacy.
That said, I do have to mention that I have a teenage daughter who is IN LOVE with the books, and has been well since before the movies came out. How ever, since she also loves Pride and Prejudice, and Where the Red Fern grows, I’m not to worried about her literacy. I chalk her love of Twilight up to being a goth-y abstinent teenager. And think that, like her love of the olsen twins, it is a phase she will grow out of.
You have to admit, the whole ‘Twilight Phenomenon’ makes for excellent fodder for making jokes. Other than that, I have no use for it.
Seriously though, while I understand the above ‘reader statement/defense’ of the laughable series kind of makes me lose a little of what minuscule faith I still have left in humanity.
Oh, and for a really excellent (as well as disturbing) read about the sometimes violent history of Mormonism, check out ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ by Jon Krakauer. I’m sorry, but when your religion constantly preaches that God speaks directly to you, literally, you have a recipe for all sorts of evil.
I promised you a ripping tirade. That one’ll go shortly on my own site; it’s fairly long, and about more than Good Miss Meyer. In any case.
Are you a fan of the Oatmeal? They explained a lot of Twilight recently – http://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight
I’ll let you know when the blog post is up. I wrote most of it here, but it was almost rudely long to use as a comment. More soon.
[...] by WP Greet BoxThis post originated as a comment on Justin Kownacki’s post about Stephenie Meyer, Twilight and the Very Bleak Future of Culture. It got a bit bloated, so I thought I’d drop it here instead, because I feel the points are [...]
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I haven’t read or seen any of the Twilight stuff, but it’s pretty natural to compare Meyer’s success to that of J.K. Rowling.
It’s easy to try to correlate the lack of grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills to the success of a writer like Meyer, but the decline has multiple causes and I doubt that her books will have a huge impact on most people’s skill development. Unfortunately, though, I’m sure Twilight inspire dozens of rip offs for teens; Harry Potter doubtless inspired the publication of more than a few as well.
On the other hand, Meyer’s best seller status isn’t going to help the cause of literature, either. Best seller status doesn’t have much impact on me in terms of whether or not I’ll be interested in buying a book. However, I think it can have a huge impact on the books that are carried in airport newsstands and book stores, which may have a larger impact on our culture than we realize.
Actually, I blame the LOLCATS. For everything. There, I said it.
Ian: I’m not usually a fan of The Oatmeal, but you’re right, he nailed it this time.
Mark: You’re right about “bestseller status” impacting our culture. That’s why I’m confounded at the Sun’s choice to coronate Meyer. Isn’t criticism partly a matter of cultural curation? Pointing out that something was a bestselling phenomenon at the end of a decade is obvious; it’s like if Paste Magazine dubbed this The Jonas Decade in order to move a few more year-end issues.