Stephenie Meyer, Twilight and the Very Bleak Future of Culture

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