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I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall

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hippiechick
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
I'm a smart, independent 17 year old who likes these books. It makes me mad that I'm stereotyped into this category with retarded tweens. I am fully aware the book has Mormon undertones, and I am sure that the movie won't be anything like the book. But, I'm okay with that because no movie has followed a book perfectly. And books, like Twilight, aren't going to please everyone. It's not real, get over it.
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Alexis
11/18/08

@hippiechick:

Um, sorry to lump you in with the other teens, but most of us just feel like Twilight hysteria is just that, hysteria. And from what I gather, they're trying to make it as close to the book as they can get. Most of us feel like the messages in Twilight are pretty...skewed and that it's not a really positive thing for young women to obsess over.

And I'm pretty sure we get that it's not real.
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thegirldetective
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
I am 24 and have jumped on the excellent YA fiction franchise bandwagon many times now(Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, the Libba Bray books) but was an anti-trend teen myself. However, the hysteria surrounding the Twilight books is creepy for (at least) one reason, and it has nothing to do with trends: the main character, Bella, sucks. (Pun not intended.) She glories in letting others (especially boys) make her decisions for her, rejects offers of friendship from well-drawn, kind characters because she feels better than them, feels it is a fluke anyone loves her because she is so plain and clumsy, and consistently endangers herself just to hear Edward's voice. She demonstrates no growth, experiences no self-strenghthening moment that is not undermined by her happy admission of dependence on Edward and the Cullens. I get way girls are drawn in by the vampire myths and Robert Pattinson hotness. Just not at the cost of their own self-worth and esteem.

Maybe the movie will do Bella better? I hope so.
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Alexis
11/18/08

@thegirldetective:

*applause*
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sybann
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Ah Sadie! Twin daughter of a different mother. I always find that resistance to sweeping Pop culture phenoms ends up being futile if you're the curious type.

I now have first editions of all but the first 2 Potter books - read the last one in a weekend.

My (equally mature) friend Paula is nagging me to read these. I'm still holding firm. But that's because my stack of lit could break my foot if toppled.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Didn't Jezzie cover some of this book and it's major issues of co-dependency and just plain abuse?
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5AMfrenchtoast
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
My summation of Twilight:

Bella: Edward, you're mean! Why are you so mean?

Edward: Because you are delicious smelling! Like a cheeseburger!

Bella: Oh you're so hot! I'm clumsy. Isn't it endearing? It's the extent of my personality!

Edward: Cheeseburger! Can I has?

Bella: I fucking love you.

Edward: I fucking love you too.

THE END

(oh yeah and don't forget about the climactic probably awesome fight that WE DON'T SEE. Trendy or not, I have to agree that good LORD this book was awful. All aboard the Hate Train!)
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anibundel
11/18/08

@5AMfrenchtoast:

That Was Hilarious. Thank You.
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Alexis
11/18/08

@5AMfrenchtoast:

I knew these points sounded familiar...
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TheFormerJuneBronson
11/18/08

@5AMfrenchtoast: Thank you. That saved me some hours of life that I can now waste on something else. Equally-bad erotic novels, probably.
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RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee)
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
I bought Twilight out of curiosity, boggled at the female lead (Perils of Pauline-Mary-Sue, geeze), yet am still curious to read the rest. It's crap writing but it's crap writing that turns off the thinking centers of the brain for a bit. Sometimes a girl just needs some mindless book candy.
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ObtuseIntolerant
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Sadie, I love that you wrote this. Nicely done.

I'm not interested in Twilight, but I was a pop-hater in my youth (my bestie and I tore NKOTB Bop magazines to shreds and pretty much danced on the mess...I mean this quite literally) and now I am a young mom who adores the Jonas Brothers with every fiber of my being. With maturity comes the ability to discern what you truly identify with and separate it from the marketing.

The marketing is my bag and it truly fascinates me...I have seen Jonas Brothers fans who obviously don't actually like them who are going along with what is the trend for their peer group, and I have seen girls who like them but pretend not to for the same reason.

One of the most interesting things I have seen with Twilight though, is what I see as a conscious choice to have the film's own LEAD ACTORS vocally disdaining the hype, not so subtly backhanding the craziest fans and the Disney scene. It seems like a ploy to get to their own backlash first and solidify their credibility with the emo-lite demographic they are courting, who are mainstream-averse (but end up consuming just a darker version of the mainstream). It's insidious but so brilliant I have to respect that in away.

Anyway, even though it hurts my feelings when too school for school kids diss my dear Jonas Brothers, that wholesale rejection of whatever is such an important part of being an obnoxious teenager, and growing up.

(Adults who do it though, I have less time for - grow up. Heehee.)
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Cam/ron
11/18/08

@ObtuseIntolerant: It was a little refreshing to hear the star candidly say that the hype was absurd. He also retold the story about him being creeped out by a girl seriously asking him to bite her neck.
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
As a once teenage trend-bucker myself, I can say that it wasn't the fact that everyone else squealed and followed these various fads that boiled my potatoes, it was, if you looked for more than a brief moment at them, that these trends repulsed me because somehow they always appealed to the lowest common denominator. And god knows I was determined to aspire to a higher power - like any 14-year-old Leonard Cohen and Frank Zappa fan would.
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BytheSea
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Ahhhaha, my teenage co-worker was there. She said it was insane. It was supposed to be Q&A, but he asked them 2 questions, and the rest was screaming girls. She said they made him really nervous and his handlers even told them beforehand to stay calm. She said the smell was overpowering, which remidned me of one of the Beatles handlers who said that to him, Beatlemania smelled like girls' urine.
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The Queen of No
11/18/08

@BytheSea: Wait, what smell was overpowering.. ?
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TheFormerJuneBronson
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
I was never a trend hater, but as I got older, I just didn't have the energy or the inclination to get all excited about things because everyone else was. Too bad this caught me just when I woke up; I know I sound positively comatose. I blame graduate school, though, for this attitude. After some years of it, not having time for anything that hasn't been on the agenda for weeks becomes a knee-jerk reaction. Pleasure reading? Check. That I haven't read before? Park it on the to-be-read shelf and wait for me to have a spare hour. Possibly after 2012.

I let Harry Potter pass me by, and Titanic, and popular music in general, and a lot of movies, and this most likely will too.
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Cam/ron
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
I also underwent a "non-conformist" phase in MS and HS where I stopped listening to CDs that more than five classmates liked (ex. Rage Against the Machine, Primus and Rancid), hated the "poseurs" with all of my heart and adopted contrarian opinions to whatever was popularly believed. That phase helped develop my individuality but it also deprived me of a lot of fun and friendship that I could've had.
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rollergirl76
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Mediocre literature sells because it appeals to the masses. Books like Twilight are usually not well-written, easy to read, and most people will be able to understand them. I just had a girlfriend recommend the Twilight series to me. She seems to enjoy it, so good for her. I have no desire in reading them because I like to read books that are thought-provoking and well-written. Also, if I want to read a vampire book, I'll just pick up Anne Rice.
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Alexis
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
Sorry, don't like weak women protagonists. If you wanna read a fun read about vampires shoot for the Sookie Stackhouse books instead.
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rocknrollunicorn
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
The only thing I can think of where I fit in here is that I have a vow to never watch Titanic. I've been told by many that I'm not missing much.

Otherwise, I likes what I likes. Sometimes I have a tiny tinge of embarrassment when I tell people I like...let's say, Harry Potter or Tori Amos. Then I'm like, screw you. If you judge me, you are the one who is still in high school. I've moved on.
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RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee)
11/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: There are exactly two redeeming qualities to Titanic: set dressing and costumes. The rest of that mess can go hang.
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The Queen of No
11/18/08

@rocknrollunicorn: I am so sad that I also feel embarrassed to admit my Tori love, but people just don't get it. She's one artist I could never just be like "hey, listen to her, you'd like her."
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hatepaperdoll
11/18/08

In reply to I Was A Teenage Trend-Hater: Despising Twilight Is Big For Fall
When I was 15, I thought that if anyone else had ever heard of it, it was already over, and also conformist. Needless to say, this outlook limited my horizons.

The fact that I listened to "I Want It That Way" on the way to work this morning is a testament to how much I've lightened up since then.
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