Read it to criticize it, otherwise it's not ethical
Letter
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Opinion
In the last issue of The Pacific Index, Tyler Atwood criticized the Boxer Book Club for reading Stephanie Meyer's vampire series "Twilight."
Two points in this criticism really annoyed me.
The first was that since the series was written for 14-year-old girls, older generations could not take something away from the book.
I am 20 years old and love the series.
I found myself wondering about many subjects, such as religion, feminism and historical context, all of which are studied today in literary classes.
Why is Bella portrayed as excessively weak? How does the difference in Edward's original time era and Bella's modern perspectives affect their idea of romance and love?
The second was that Mr. Atwood received his information from Wikipedia and had not read the books himself.
I might accept his criticism more had he taken the time to really read the series.
How many critics write reviews on a story they have never read from cover to cover or a play they have never seen?
It just is not ethical.
The argument in Mr. Atwood's article was that the series contained no literary value and therefore is not an adequate choice for the book club. I disagree.
Whereas I think literary value differs from individual to individual, whether or not "Twilight" has literary value does not make the series an inadequate choice.
The series is taking our country by storm, from young 14-year-old girls to middle age women, and some men.
Why not read it? Should not we want to understand what makes a book series on vampires so popular?
The books should be read for no other reason than to try and understand more about the audience that does enjoy them.
If we took more time to understand each other we might not make so many invalidated judgments.
I applaud the book club for choosing this series.
And it would also be good for creative writing majors to make an effort to see what their audiences, some of which they might one day be writing for, enjoy about books they read.
--Tabitha Rogers, current sophomore studying theater and journalism.
Two points in this criticism really annoyed me.
The first was that since the series was written for 14-year-old girls, older generations could not take something away from the book.
I am 20 years old and love the series.
I found myself wondering about many subjects, such as religion, feminism and historical context, all of which are studied today in literary classes.
Why is Bella portrayed as excessively weak? How does the difference in Edward's original time era and Bella's modern perspectives affect their idea of romance and love?
The second was that Mr. Atwood received his information from Wikipedia and had not read the books himself.
I might accept his criticism more had he taken the time to really read the series.
How many critics write reviews on a story they have never read from cover to cover or a play they have never seen?
It just is not ethical.
The argument in Mr. Atwood's article was that the series contained no literary value and therefore is not an adequate choice for the book club. I disagree.
Whereas I think literary value differs from individual to individual, whether or not "Twilight" has literary value does not make the series an inadequate choice.
The series is taking our country by storm, from young 14-year-old girls to middle age women, and some men.
Why not read it? Should not we want to understand what makes a book series on vampires so popular?
The books should be read for no other reason than to try and understand more about the audience that does enjoy them.
If we took more time to understand each other we might not make so many invalidated judgments.
I applaud the book club for choosing this series.
And it would also be good for creative writing majors to make an effort to see what their audiences, some of which they might one day be writing for, enjoy about books they read.
--Tabitha Rogers, current sophomore studying theater and journalism.
Be the first to comment on this story