twilight - this was a stupid movie. a waste of time. it's pathetic that I feel the need to watch it in order to be aware of culture. because twilight, my friends, is NOT culture. or shouldn't be. that's the sad problem. anyway, it was not well done, and now I can see all of the reasons I will never read those books, aside from just stubbornness. now I can say I won't read them on principle, not the stubborn kind of "principle" but the I don't agree with the values these books glorify and I think they're harmful to people in the long run kind of principle.
mona lisa smile - I remember when this came out and I didn't ever see it, but I definitely had a different idea of what it was going to be about than feminism. I thought it was a very good movie. I liked julia roberts. I hated kirsten dunst. and that's what they were going for, so they did a good job. it really made me think about things. I had to ponder for about an hour after I watched it. and it's made me re-realize why I feel so strongly about feminism. it made me wonder about my grammie and what kind of 'ideal' she was fulfilling, how she was affected by those kinds of expectations, and my mom. I don't know. it bothered me. and a movie is good if it makes me think.
As a meager defense of twilight (emphasis on meager, as I'm not a huge defender of twilight), you don't really know what the books do or don't glorify. Passing judgment on the whole series based on the first movie is kind of like passing judgment on Star Wars based on Episode 1. The story continues and the characters change.
ReplyDeleteBy all means, don't read them, for they are tripe. But, you really have no principled stand here based on the values glorified.
Besides, you made the same argument to me months ago on twitter.
Now, Meyer's other book, The Host, is much less tripe-y and I'd even go so far as to say it was good (well up to the first ending at least--if you ever read it (ha!) stop when you reach the first ending as marked by two or three blank pages).
Just admit it--you're an anti-twilight snob. It's ok, we're all snobs about something. :)
ReplyDeleteI admit it. I am an anti-twilight snob. (among other things) I have no shame in this :)
ReplyDeleteI kind of feel like women have no right to disparage men for having physical ideals for women when women have such ridiculous emotional ideals for men. whatever, it's all counterproductive.
I felt the same way about Mona Lisa Smile. Way different than I expected. Provocative, and also cool.
ReplyDeleteLet's hang out soon, friend.
I haven't seen Mona Lisa Smile, so I don't know what you mean about wondering about Grammie and your mom. Enlighten me!
ReplyDelete