Something has been bugging me for quite a while...WHY is Twilight so unbelievably popular despite the fact that it is, well, pretty much crap? I have a theory!
First theory link: I quickly associated Twilight with the SBTBE...what I call the Saved By the Bell Effect. We all watched that horrible, horrible show knowing full-well how horribly horrible it was yet we couldn't look away. Something made you watch.
Next theory link: What exactly is it about the writing that evokes the SBTBE? Could it be the constant use of trigger words...wistful...exquisite...that somehow reprogram the brain? Or the ultra-packaged teenagers (Rosalie=Kelly, Alice=Jessie, Edward=Zach, Jacob=...Screech?)? Which led to...
Final theory link: Aha! The simple-minded, obsessive, angsty, self-involved way Meyers writes (esp. Bella) makes an instant connection with the primal, teenage brain still lingering in even the oldest reader (mainly female, sorry to discriminate). This flips the teenage brain switch, flooding the mind with those hormonal, obsessive, angsty feelings/memories. The reader vulnerable to this literary drug becomes hooked, plowing through book after book only to crash when the supply is exhausted (no New Moon? boo-hoo).
So, whaddya think? Am I onto her or just totally out in left field (during a Cullen baseball game, of course)?
rant out. -B
First theory link: I quickly associated Twilight with the SBTBE...what I call the Saved By the Bell Effect. We all watched that horrible, horrible show knowing full-well how horribly horrible it was yet we couldn't look away. Something made you watch.
Next theory link: What exactly is it about the writing that evokes the SBTBE? Could it be the constant use of trigger words...wistful...exquisite...that somehow reprogram the brain? Or the ultra-packaged teenagers (Rosalie=Kelly, Alice=Jessie, Edward=Zach, Jacob=...Screech?)? Which led to...
Final theory link: Aha! The simple-minded, obsessive, angsty, self-involved way Meyers writes (esp. Bella) makes an instant connection with the primal, teenage brain still lingering in even the oldest reader (mainly female, sorry to discriminate). This flips the teenage brain switch, flooding the mind with those hormonal, obsessive, angsty feelings/memories. The reader vulnerable to this literary drug becomes hooked, plowing through book after book only to crash when the supply is exhausted (no New Moon? boo-hoo).
So, whaddya think? Am I onto her or just totally out in left field (during a Cullen baseball game, of course)?
rant out. -B
2 comments:
SBTBE is a genius theory. And I agree that it appeals to self-involved, angst-driven teens. I don't know if I would have liked the novels when I was a teen, but I know that most of my friends would have jumped on the Team Whoever bandwagon.
I go to bookstores about once a week, I almost always run into middle age women talking about the wonder that is Twilight and Stephenie Meyer. Now how do you explain THAT?!
Easy. It floods their brains with the nostalgic memory of their angsty, obsessive teen selves. Eh?
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