Reviews for Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, and the Vampire Franchise, Vol. 14

The average rating for Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, and the Vampire Franchise, Vol. 14 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-15 00:00:00 Chelsea Mauck Very interesting mix of essays. I particularly liked those by Natalie Wilson, Carrie Anne Platt, Kathryn Kane and Danielle Dick McGeough.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-21 00:00:00 Calvin Animashaun First academic book I've ever read for fun! Character growth! A really interesting collection of articles investigating the books, the franchise, and the fans. Some essays struck deeper than others (the one about Forks the real-world town and the fanfictions for New Moon in particular were great), but overall it was a decent level of quality and insight. It's especially interesting reading this almost ten years after publication, before so many things had happened (like the "Robsten" romance -- I'd love to read an academic follow-up on that). Here are some of my favorite quotes/insights from the book: ○ "Bella's longing to become a vampire is ultimately connected with her longing to be like the gods, which is her 'true place in the world.'" Really this whole vampire thing as a form of Mormonic ascension was quite fascinating; I've never heard of that before. ○ "By describing bloodlust in the same terms as sexual attraction, Meyer likens the desire for someone's body to the desire for their death." ○ "[about the meadow scene in the first book] He barely touches her, but there's more sex in that one paragraph than in all the snogging in Harry Potter." and "The erotics of abstinence acknowledge desire as an active part of abstinence rather than in opposition to abstinence." Basically The Twilight saga makes abstinence and *not* having sex sexy. ○ "If there is a space for the undead in the books, it is not the loving home of the Cullen family, but Bella's father's house. [...] The house functions as a crypt; Charlie is the undead. [...] In the discourse of Twilight, one is made undead by queer challenges to the family and not by vampire venom." This whole paragraph, which is too long to transcribe in full, is just brilliant, but it mentions the lack of change in his life after Renee leaving; I'd never thought about Charlie that way. The chapter made no mention of whether the author thinks Charlie has awoken from his undeathness by the end of the fourth book, which I would hope he has. ○ "Within the series a longing for the imaginary past is always present. [...] [Bella] yearns for [the early 1900's] simplicity, its clarity, and its order. This regressive return to an imaginary nostalgic moment of traditional family is offered as a possible solution to the problems presented by the queer world that Bella, a girl of the new millenium, is forced to inhabit: divorce, alternative family formations, and sex outside of marriage." ○ I find it hilarious that out of 2000+ respondents of a survey who were asked which of 7 romantic relationships in the series they would want for themselves, only three adults and zero teens picked Mike-Jessica. Less funny is that Angela-Ben did not fare that much better. The authors attribute this to both relationships being human-human (which, honestly, same, in a supernatural book), but that's also something to think about. ○ "Mothers of teenage females often describe that they feel an unfamiliar antagonistic young woman has taken the place of their previously amiable daughter." ○ "[on all-human AUs] [...] they seem to be of a different order of fiction altogether from the sort of stories that fan fiction scholarship has identified. To avoid such an expansion of what fan fiction has traditionally been understood to be [...]" This was wild for me to read as a relatively regular reader of fanfic, since that is almost exclusively what I view fanfic to be. Now I kinda want to read the historiography of fanfic scholarship and ethnography of 21st century fic. Is that a thing that exists? ○ Similarly: "[if] fan fiction production is increasingly the province of a younger demographic, it is also increasingly the work of people who may not identify *as fans* in the way that the subjects of [previous early-90s] ethnographies did." It's never occurred to me before that the profile of what type of person engages with fanfiction may have changed from its beginnings. I want to know more! ○ I might have to look deeper into this "archontic literature" that Derecho calls fanfiction, wherein it "is considered to be part of the overall archive of a given source text [and] we can be less anxious about issues of intellectual property and relative quality" and"one is really reading two texts at once. The prior text is available and remains in the mind even as one reads the new version." "An archive that both extends and enlarges the original source." It's an interesting thought. ○ Speaking of fanfic, "[it] is not only evidence of what communities of fans produce. It is also a reading of a source text." ○ I love that one of the scholars referenced in the fanfic chapter (186) is named Rebecca Black, both because the singer hadn't emerged yet in 2010 and because there is actually a minor character in the books with that exact name. ○ "[on escapist narrative fantasies around unattainable celebrities] Edward saves every-girl Bella Swan from a boring life of domestic chores, distant relationships, and unsatisfying schoolwork." ○ "[Teen idols] often project a feminine form of masculinity that is sexually non-threatening and thus accessible to young girls." ○ "Edward's simultaneous passion for Bella and his determined protection of Bella's body and virtue result in a romantic hero who is both intensely sexually charged *and* chaste." ○"What, then, is the place of Twilight's particular fantasy within the lives of post-feminist era youth? If a girl has lived only in a world changed by the women's liberation movement, what does a tale of forbidden romance, male-imposed abstinence, and mortal sacrifice mean to her?" Now, most articles did contain a factual error or two -- some minor (like Edward's hair isn't gold and Jessica's last name isn't Sheffield; no one in this series is named Sheffield) and some more central to the authors' main argument (like implying that Bella's central conflict of the first part of Breaking Dawn is whether she should have the baby, when really her choice is made instantly and the rest is the consequences of upholding that choice and trying to get others to uphold it too). Most errors were somewhere in between -- not completely central to the argument but enough that their presence irked me. For example, Bella's status among her friends is not dependent on her relationship with Edward as a status symbol -- in fact, the complete opposite; they like her (mostly misguidedly) from the moment she shows up in Forks, but while they acknowledge the Cullens' beauty and wealth as impressive, they are intimidated and even freaked out by it and by extension her relationship with Edward. In fact, after New Moon, it's stated that the only time Bella really spends with school friends outside of special occasions is when it's sunny and the vampires aren't in school at all. Jessica is jealous of Bella and crushing on Edward, yes, absolutely; but she's the only one among the friends to feel that way. (Angela's happy, Mike hates him, the others are spiteful/jealous but not impressed.) Also, and this came up a few times (as it usually does), but at no point does Bella "blame herself [for the bruises after her first time having sex] like a rape victim might". She's insecure about her performance, for lack of a better word, and she accepts the possibility of slight injury as par with the course when sleeping with vampires, but it's Edward who blames himself; she doesn't even feel them until they're pointed out, and even after that there is no pain (only some stiffness, which seems more like it would have to do with the act itself, not to mention the long travels before, than the bruises). Even regular people get bruises during enthusiastic sex, and that's not a sign of abuse. Now, whether she is making a wise decision continuing to aggressively pursue potentially dangerous sex is a different question, but she clearly had a good time and feels no qualms about having engaged in the act whatsoever. Other things: it was implied that Bella couldn't move during the vampire transformation due to the nature of the transformation itself -- this is false, as at first she was unable to move due to the morphine injected (which she had consented to before) and then *chose* not to move. One chapter likens Edward to a metaphorical celebrity in Forks, but I'm not sure that argument holds up, as, again, he is acknowledged as impressive and respectable but not particularly show-stopping or well-liked on a personal level. There's also a chapter about the free labor teens provide for the publisher online by engaging in quizzes and forums and such. While living in the age of data mining makes this troublesome (and the TOS implying they could profit off users' individual creations is predatory), the article doesn't quite succeed in explaining why teens engaging in behavior they would be engaging in anyway that somehow helps the publisher give the teens more of what they want is a bad thing. Another author states that "Edward has undergone over one-hundred years of virginity because he was not willing to have sex." They then add, "until he could engage in it properly," but the general implication is that he wanted to have sex for a hundred years (he's only 108, so that's only about 90 that he'd be eligible for it) and resisted with superhuman willpower like with blood-drinking out of... commitment to abstinence? Which is just false, because he did not expect to ever be with anyone, so he wasn't *waiting*, he was just... not having it, perpetually. I don't know, I'm really fascinated by this widespread reluctance to believe that Edward genuinely just wasn't interested in having a romantic and/or sexual relationship with anyone. Some people are naturally like that, and also remember, he can hear what everyone's thinking, which would complicate any potential romance (except the one with Bella). And finally, one of the authors makes a big splash about the conglomeration of book publishers though never explicitly stating why this impacted the publishing industry in a negative way, and then goes on to say: "Because conglomerated publishers prize transmedia products for their earning potential, editors interested in publishing books of high literary merit that appeal to a select readership are pressured to seek potential mass-market works, in which a good sales angle outweighs literary quality." Which is just... Yes, money-grabbing isn't the best thing usually, but also that's how most businesses work? I'm not quite sure what the point here was. That the conglomeration suddenly put literary editors in commercial workplaces? That commercial fiction is bad? That franchises are of worse quality than standalone bestsellers? That due to the conglomeration the average quality of commercial fiction went down? I have no idea. This part of the article just seemed like someone frustrated with the publishing industry taking an excuse to vent in a book about a series the author clearly views as the "not quality" category. Wow, this was long. I guess Twilight is just one of those things that captivates my attention, whether positively or negatively. I find it fascinating how much attention has been paid to the books due to their popularity and how different the feedback is compared to books I find both worse and better in quality.