LOL. I like your style. But one word of advice. Seroquel. @swhibs123, and honestly, no, I'm not entertained much. I watch (and enjoy) perhaps two TV shows per week. But then, I can remember as far back as when Jay Leno was funny. For example, we seem to get too carried away in pigeonholing or defining our literature. I mean, Moby Dick had a young man in the story. Does that make it YA? Would the inclusion of Queequeg, even as a token, make the novel a brash statement on America's empirical manifest destiny? Does Ahab infer the book is to champion the handicapped? What of Moby Dick himself? An homage to Jacques Cousteau? Or is it just a fine book? Isn't good literature universal? Other than the NCIS episode starring Charles Durning, the last original thing I saw was the first Shrek cartoon. And you know that there's something seriously wrong with story-telling when you start to agree with Darth Vader.
You mentioned Gladiator and so I threw you the "Are you not entertained?" line. I was failing at being witty! One needs to know where to put it in a library/book store, otherwise our search for something we're looking for would be awfully tedious. Kind of like looking for something you might like in a 99 cent DVD bin at Walmart.
No, no, I got the reference--in fact it's one of my favorite lines in the movie. I like the "Unleash hell" line, and I cracked up over the "vexed" comment of Commodus. But if Maximus was a writer today, I'd have to tell him, no, I'm not being entertained.
I hope you'd have your sword handy . . . I don't think Maximus would take kindly to criticism or snark!
It is well documented through interviews, biographies and articles, that after she was signed by Little, 12 publishers rejected her manuscript before somebody picked it up. It is true that it took about a year for her agent to go through 12 publishers, but that testifies to his zeal. Also, she suffered domestic abuse in her first marriage, had a very difficult divorce, and had to get a restraining order against her ex. She then suffered with clinical depression, and was on benefits for 2 years, which I wouldn't call brief, during which she wrote first HP book. I agree she was never destitute, she says as much herself, but she definitely struggled with rejections and lots of personal and economic problems.
I don't pay much attention to people who trash Harry Potter. Best selling book series ever written but yeah it stinks.... I wouldn't have picked any of them up if not for my daughters but I'd be lying if I said I haven't enjoyed the books. I have no idea why anybody would compare Harry Potter to Twilight, I suppose the mainstream popularity makes people think they are similar in some way. They're not even the same genre for starters. Twilight is going to be terrible for almost anybody who is not part of the young woman demographic it was written for. The Harry Potter series is a fantasy story that while appropriate for young people is still something almost anybody can enjoy as evidenced by its ridiculous sales.
I'd say Twilight has enjoyed ridiculous sales too, and is geared for a pretty wide audience target (i.e. girls 12-years-old and older). I don't know exact numbers but it has sold well over 100 million copies, and some ridiculous figure for "franchise sales" which would include movies and such, again, not sure exactly how much, but in the billions. Still not as grand as Harry Potter, which has sold 400 million copies and the author's cut of the franchise sales has been billions, but clearly Twilight struck a chord.
It's difficult to imagine that JKR would have been working so long on HP if she had been doing it full time throughout. Still, doesn't it seem like the world itself is compiled of fleeting ideas, thought of randomly, rather than a set plan? I wonder if she'd have thought of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in a smaller time frame. Regarding the Twilight-haters, I really enjoyed Harry Potter (and grew up with the books) but the books didn't interest me. After my ex shared some of the story, though, I got the impression it really is just aimed at girls 12+ (one of the films didn't change my mind either). To hate it seems an overreaction though, even if people are exaggerating. Lemex was bang on it about "tribalism in literature", and it seems applicable with these books/franchises. It's great that we can get so lost in a good story, but to take it to snobbery (and reversed) and attack that which seems simple (or hard to understand, or whatever reason) ... I don't know whether to laugh or not!
As for Harry Potter and Twilight--or anything else we don't like--I'm not sure I get the hate, myself. I don't like half of the Japanese motorcycles made, but I don't go around setting them on fire. I just avoid them. When it comes to the human experience, I dislike 95% of the stuff in the world. And I mean people, clothing, food, beverages and ideologies. But before you get on me about it, that applies to you folks, as well. I'm not even sure most of the members here are have life figured out. It's called "free will." I look at books like these series the same way as I look upon "feminine cinema." Sure, I smirk, and I don't hide it, but if you want to waste your time and money on it that's a personal call. I think the real danger is when readers cannot differentiate between fiction and reality. When you sit home with a Ouija Board and cast spells or wonder about drinking blood then you have a problem. And that goes for people who seriously hate a fictional character in a badly written book. Spolier alert. Bella doesn't really exist. She's a character in books and horrible movies.
That's always what got me, too. How do people not know that? I remember listening to JKR talk about one of the book signings she went to about half way through her series, and how a woman waited in line just to spit on her - and did! And then as that woman was getting carted off by security she started spouted off about how Harry Potter was devil work because it dealt with magic. I mean, those people simply lack any trace of rational thought. Twilight got the same thing. So did Pullman's The Golden Compass.
Heck, you have no idea how much trouble I get into here just pointing out the line between our stories and our lives. I don't know if you remember the bit, but William Shatner appeared on SNL in a skit about him attending a sci-fi convention. In frustration he confronts the crowd with, "Have any of you ever kissed a girl?" My view is quite simple. "Life" is the existence we live. Our stories are the creative renditions of the life lessons we have found. This is the reason I get so agitated about endless reams of drek on 'super soldiers' and a slavish bent on making our reality a video game. If you haven't been in a fight since grade school, you don't need to hammer out a dime-novel straight from a Halo level. Instead, you need to come with me and take a volunteer shift at a vets' hospital and watch a guy falling apart from PTSD. And seriously, I do think far too many people believe Bella is really out there, living among us mortals, going to the local PTA and breeding pure bloods...
