I know this is totally played out, but can I just talk about this for a minute?
The conservative demonization of Barack Obama for even daring to spend one second in the same zip code as Bill Ayers has been making me angry for some time now, but the fact that it's still being brought up now, after the election, is just another story entirely. Because, here's the thing: separate from any endorsement of violence as a political tactic, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the ideology of the Weather Underground that is making all this finger-pointing especially egregious. Apart from the fact that Ayers and his former cohort have not bombed anything in decades, they branched off from SDS and decided to utilize violence because they didn't feel that their voices were being heard otherwise. If they had had the political power that comes from, say, being the president (or being "friends" with the president), then they wouldn't have bombed anything because they would have had non-violent avenues open to them to enable the end of the Vietnam War.
Just wanted to put that out there. There is a thoroughly excellent documentary that delves into the issues at hand even further, if you're curious. If we're going to drag up stuff from the Nixon Administration, then let's use some critical thinking, please.
You know how there's, like, a specific time of the semester that is designated as "Midterm"? And then sometimes your own personal Midterm is not at the same time as Official Midterm, and it seems like you and only you are swamped with work? Monday was like that for me. I'm only now starting to feel non-zombie-like after a serious nap this evening.
When I was flagging over the weekend, I listened a lot to the Girl Talk album "Feed the Animals." It's like pure energy in music form. As someone who listens to a lot of music, but not in a musician/technician sense, I'm in awe of the ability to pick and pair hooks in mashups like this. The corresponding mash-up fan videos that go with the songs visually display the complexity of each track.
My favorite from "Feed the Animals," "In Step" - I love the juxtaposition of "Push It" and "Lithium"
And "Overtime" from "Night Ripper" - the use of Fleetwood Mac is kind of mind blowing.
“Numbers are easy to change.Moving is harder.They’ll have to drag me out of this place on a plank.Before I move, I’m going to put up a fence and get shepherds.And then I’ll have a button and get to say ‘Release the hounds!’” (Entertainment Weekly, 7/18/08, p.26)
Because: Duh. Obviously, I had to end with the woman who created said universe, bringing together the fictional and real women I've obsessively chronicled over the past two-and-a-half weeks.
True story: When I first read Twilight, I liked it but I didn't love it. I was sufficiently intrigued by the chapter of New Moon included at the end of the book to go ahead and order it and Eclipse (a genius decision on the part of Little, Brown if ever there was one - I mean, common sense tells you that the second chapter of New Moon isn't going to begin "And then Bella was eaten. The End." but the whole setup is still unbelievably dramatically enticing), but it hadn't really tipped over into full-tilt obsession. Interest shifted into fascination and then addiction when I first visited Stephenie Meyer's website, a veritable treasure trove of fan fuel.
It's fairly astonishing, what Meyer has accomplished in five years' time. Over three months after the release of Breaking Dawn, all four books in the saga are still in Amazon's top ten. Entertainment Weekly are kind of her bitches now. The out-of-control swirl of hype around the film is ultimately rooted in her work.
Meyer's seen a lot of criticism, both of herself and of her work, as the saga has become more and more popular. Some people seem to see her as a goody-two-shoes moralizer, a reading that I personally just don't get. Some academic more well-versed in LDS theology and traditions than I can take on that land mine, but I think that any woman who refers to Cinderella as an "abused shut-in" is doing at least a bit more critical thinking about gender tropes than people are giving her credit for. A sardonic sense of humor comes through in statements like the one shared in the above quote, in which she addresses the sometimes-overzealous fans of the series. The literary references in the saga show a genuine love of reading and thinking about books - what other novel popular with teenagers references The Merchant of Venice? Her FAQsoneachbook show her to be extremely thoughtful, and responses in which she directly addresses the arguments that the books are anti-feminist are well-reasoned and thought-provoking. In interviews, she has adamantly rejected the idea that her stories should be taken as prescriptive of anyone's behavior, and whenever I've seen her asked about a moral to the saga, she's declined to give even a relatively innocuous one. Maybe it's in the eye of the beholder, but I see capability and intelligence in Meyer and her work.
Finally, by far the most badass act by Stephenie Meyer has been her decision to suspend work on Midnight Sun. I won't lie, I was seriously disappointed when she made that decision - the first chapter of the book, posted for a long time on her website, was what really drew me in on that first visit mentioned above, and I was probably more excited about Midnight Sun than Breaking Dawn.The fan backlash following Meyer's suspension of the book shows the degree to which her decision was, in my opinion, admirable. In the face of a rabid fandom, what must be serious publishing revenues and ever-increasing hype, it was brave to choose herself and her work. She asserted her agency over the world she created, an unpopular act to be sure, but, in my eyes, seriously badass. I look forward to seeing what comes from her next, Twilight universe or otherwise.
She eyed me speculatively.‘How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto?’” (New Moon, 439)*
When I first encountered the accusations that Twilight was anti-feminist, one of the major reasons that I was shocked was that they all seemed to exclude Alice.Outside of the Big Three of Bella, Edward and Jacob, Alice is arguably the next most important character in the saga. I mean:
Starting out, the clip gets a basically excited reaction from the audience (I mean, how psyched must the Volvo marketing people be? What other mega-hyped teen romance is going to have their male lead driving a Volvo?) but they collectively lose their shit when Alice shows up. Because she is awesome. (Can I digress for a minute and talk about how much I love this clip? It's both legit-awesome and cheesy-awesome, which is all I want in Twilight the movie. The Cullens seem note-perfect, especially Nikki Reed's bitchface as Rosalie and the expression of "Oh My God, you guys, CHILL OUT" that Robert Pattinson wears throughout the kitchen scene. Then the tree-climbing, and the piano, and it's so, so cheesy and I love it.)
Alice’s prescience makes her a vital part of the Cullen family, and she plays a significant role in the final conflicts of each book.In Twilight and Eclipse, her contributions are mainly strategic, enabling them to find Bella at the ballet studio and prepare for the coming newborn army, respectively.In New Moon, she and Bella work together to intervene in Edward's suicide attempt and save him from his own melodramatic impulses.Additionally, when Edward can’t bring himself to confirm Bella’s future as a vampire to Aro, Alice is the one who steps up to rescue the situation.Breaking Dawn shows the second situation where Bella and Alice act in tandem, this time saving everyone’s asses from the wrath of the Volturi.First, Bella holds everyone off with the awesome power of her mind, then Alice bounces in all “Surprise Witness for the Defense!” In my opinion, it’s a pretty awesome display of girl power.(I think also that it speaks volumes to the male-female dynamic in the series that the Volturi are one of the most straightforwardly patriarchal groups.There are women in the guard, but the central family is dominated by the men.The wives are non-entities, and the only one of them who ever wielded any power was killed.)
It's maybe less badass than interesting, but in my opinion Alice's detachment from a human past, and resultant fascination with the trappings of humanity make her one of the most complex characters in the series. She's essentially the counterpoint to Rosalie, who is driven by the fact that she deeply misses being human. (Another digression: If I were the kind of person who is compelled to write fanfic, mine would be like a sitcom spinoff where the young women of the Cullen coven go off on their own and open up some sort of roadside shop: "Alice and Rosalie's Fortune Telling and Car Repair.") I love the moment in Eclipse when Alice expresses her excitement over having a sleepover – she seems to recognize that kidnapping Bella on Edward’s behalf is kind of a dick move, but she also is genuinely excited over having a real sleepover, like something that she always wanted but never got to have.
Within Alice's story, one of the things that I find most interesting about the Cullens is the agency that the women derived from their transition from human to vampire.As young women in early twentieth-century America, all three were held down by their circumstances.Esme was stuck in a loveless marriage to an abusive husband, Rosalie was brutalized and left for dead by her fiancé, and Alice was institutionalized by her family.The empowerment and freedom derived from becoming a vampire work to support Stephenie Meyer’s contention that Bella’s needing to be saved is a result of her being a human rather than her being female. Basically, what it just sums up to is there being more women in the series beyond Bella, each representing a different point of view, history and experience.
*Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
“‘I saved Royce for last.I hoped that he would hear of his friends’ deaths and understand, know what was coming for him.I hoped the fear would make the end worse for him.I think it worked.He was hiding inside a windowless room behind a door as thick as a ban vault’s, guarded outside by armed me, when I caught up with him.Oops – seven murders,’ she corrected herself.‘I forgot about his guards.They only took a second.’” (Eclipse, 163)*
The above quote comes from what is probably my favorite chapter in the entire series. Eclipse is perhaps the most character-driven of the books, with a lot of different people putting their cards on the table and leveling with one another. While I enjoy Jasper's account of his past and Edward and Jacob's Big Emo Talk about Their Feelings in the tent, Rosalie's explanation of why she's been so unpleasant to Bella shows her to be one of the most interesting characters in the saga. In Twilight and New Moon she's sort of in the background, clearly disapproving but not explaining why. Her story as told when she breaks her silence in Eclipse is thus deeply affecting, and takes on a deeper significance in Breaking Dawn as it helps Bella to know that Rosalie is exactly crazy enough to help her keep her improbable monster baby. Rosalie, in her own way, provides a counter-narrative to the Great and Epic Love of Edward and Bella by refusing to completely buy into it. She thinks that choosing to become a vampire is a terrible decision, and has a well-reasoned explanation for why that is. Like Leah, Rosalie is not particularly interested in tailoring her opinion to make it more palatable to those around her. Also, if anything in this saga is badass, it is most definitely Rosalie's tale of violent revenge against the men who did her wrong as a human.
I also love that Rosalie's own love story (in a universe comprised of soul-mate pairings) involves her as the savior, as does Alice's. Alice rescues Jasper emotionally, taking him away from a life of people-eating-derived clinical depression. Rosalie saves Emmett physically, intervening in a bear attack that nearly kills him as a human. Basically, Edward's not the only hero in his family. I just love Rosalie and her unrepentantly unpleasant, auto-fixing self.
*Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
Yet another of the smart, creative women involved in bringing Twilight to the screen. Every interview I've seen with her shows that she is savvy, thoughtful, and has a carefully balanced understanding of the level of crazy she's dealing with in attempting to please fans of the books. Also, she's involved in Dexter, which I now love due to some Netflixing/work-shirking, as a writer and producer.
“‘Sam told me to beg. He told me to literally get down on my knees if I have to.He wants you home, Lee-lee, where you belong.’
I saw Leah flinch when Jared used Sam’s old nickname for her.And then, when he added those last three words, her hackles rose and she was yowling a long stream of snarls through her teeth.I didn’t have to be in her head to hear the cussing-out she was giving him, and neither did he.You could almost hear the exact words she was using.” (Breaking Dawn, 262-263)*
One of the pleasant surprises of Breaking Dawn was the emergence of Leah as a character.Statements and events in New Moon and Eclipse tell the reader that Leah is having a rough time of it, simultaneous to Bella’s various dramas but in the background.Her boyfriend first becomes distant, then suddenly dumps her for her cousin.Her father suffers a fatal heart attack.Then she becomes a wolf.The turmoil derived from being the only girl tied to a patriarchal tradition strikes a poignant tone when Leah’s voice becomes present in Breaking Dawn.The “brotherhood” that we see uniting the pack in New Moon isn’t doing anything for Leah.She knows that some members of the pack wish she would go away, but she is determined to not be ignored.Leah’s commitment to her own thoughts and feelings make her a striking character.I suspect that this is an unpopular opinion, but I love the unseen moment in Breaking Dawn when Leah goes into the Cullen’s house to yell at Bella.It’s who she is – she marches into a house full of her sworn enemies to throw down with a pregnant girl.It’s not terribly classy, but it is ballsy, and the fact that she doesn’t care about who doesn’t want to hear her opinion makes her a favorite of mine. Just as if Edward were real, I wouldn't want to date him, if Leah were real, I would want to hang out with her. She's got some quality snarky asides. I like to imagine that even if Sam had ended up with Leah instead of Emily, she would have told the members of the pack to make their own damn muffins.Stephenie Meyer has said that if she was going to continue within the Twilight universe, Leah is a potential narrator.I, for one, would love to hear more of her voice.
*Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
“‘Yes,’ he assured me.‘I’ll be very quick.You won’t feel a thing, I promise.Oh, I’ll lie to Victoria about that later, naturally, just to placate her.But if you knew what she had planned for you, Bella…’ He shook his head with a slow movement, almost as if in disgust.‘I swear you’d be thanking me for this.’” (New Moon, 241)*
The Twilight trailers have been pushing James as the big bad villain of the story, but fans know that the threat he poses is totally dwarfed by that of his mate.James is around for a few chapters and then he's dead – Victoria stalks Bella for half the saga.She is frighteningly impressive in her quest for vengeance, though little-seen, ramping up from eating unsuspecting campers in the woods around Forks to her last stand, when she utilizes an army of bloodthirsty newborn vampires as a diversionary tactic. It almost seems sometimes that she's just letting the Cullens and the wolves know that she's still around, right outside of their reaches, just to keep the anxiety level high. Though she’s ultimately thwarted in her attempts to kill Bella, as mindreading trumps strategy in her fight with Edward, she gets pretty damn close.One of the things I’m excited about for the movie is that the increased focus on the nomads means that Victoria should be more present as a character - as Bella notes, the fight at the end of Eclipse is the first time that we hear Victoria speak.Rachelle LeFevre did an awesome job on Swingtown as Melinda the assertive lady stockbroker/homewrecker, and I have high hopes for her turn as the villainess who terrorizes Forks in New Moon and Eclipse.
*Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
I was watching this week's episode of Chuck, where they used the original version of this song, and I realized when I started unthinkingly singing along that I've officially seen Boogie Nights enough times to have learned it.
I cannot help but laugh at the terrible, terrible singing and John C. Reilly bopping along manically in the background. This is even related to the current theme, since the music on Chuck is supervised by Alexandra Patsavas, who is also the music supervisor for Twilight. Here, she talks about the music for Chuck:
Now, initially I was unsure if the obsession would extend to the soundtrack, I was waiting to see the tracklist. But when I heard that Patsavas was in charge, I knew it was an automatic pre-order. Her work on shows like The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy have resulted, for me, in untold numbers of "What is that song? I must find out what it is, who sings it and how I can own it RIGHT NOW" moments. Taking on the Twilight soundtrack is no small feat, due to StephenieMeyer'sbookplaylists, but the track listing shows a balance between new or different songs and some from Meyer's favorites. Patsavas truly has a way with pairing music and other media - I'm looking forward to getting the soundtrack next week and hearing it in the film.
The dramatic cast of characters introduced in the final book of Breaking Dawn* are so numerous that a chart is included at the end of the book sorting them out into their respective covens. However, the three women I've cited here (in addition to previous Badass Lady Kate) are standouts even in their relatively brief appearances. Each acts as a leader/spokesperson for her majority- or entirely-female coven, providing a contrast to Volturi and the Cullens. Their powerful roles also specifically play into what I see as a theme of sisterly love and trust that runs through Breaking Dawn - Bella has to place serious trust in both of her new sisters, asking Rosalie to shepherd her through her dangerous pregnancy then following Alice's cryptic instructions after her disappearance, the Volturi deliberately manipulate the sisterly bonds of the Denali coven to try to incite a fight, and the story of the Amazonian hybrids that Alice brings in to avert violence centers around sisterly love. It all fits into what I read as a world of strong women who love and defend those about whom they care.
*I couldn't find an all-encompassing quote, so I just left it without one.
“Jane smiled, and the girl shrieked again.I held my breath until the sound of her agony stopped.
‘She’ll tell you anything you want to know,’ Edward said through his teeth.‘You don’t have to do that.’
Jane looked up, sudden humor in her usually dead eyes.‘Oh, I know,’ she said to Edward, grinning at him before she turned back to the young vampire, Bree.” (Eclipse, 574)*
Jane, a sadist in a little girl’s body, is the attack dog of the Volturi.Her initial entrance is one of the most striking of the saga, striking fear into the hearts of physically massive male vampires with her mere appearance.Jane is a distinctive character in the series as the most prominent female member of the Volturi guard, and as the possessor of an offensive (rather than defensive or passive) power that she utilizes unapologetically. The other female members of the guard who appear (Heidi, Renata, Chelsea) are interesting, but ultimately they exist more as concepts than characters, making Jane a standout. (Incidentally, this is true of most of the male members of the guard, too. Stephenie Meyer could write a great website extra from the POV of inside the Volturi guard.) New Moon is my least favorite of the four books (I find it depressing), but one of the reasons that I hope that Twilight does well enough to enable the filming of the other books is to see Jane embodied.It could be a great role for a child actress with just the right combination of precociousness and creepiness.Jane may be pure evil, to a degree that few other characters are in the saga, but she is also absolutely badass.
*Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
“I’ve had meetings where there were literally, like, 12 angry men in a room and me.And even when everyone shot me down, I somehow dug in one more time.You don’t want to be a badass and you don’t want to go in there so hard-core, but if you don’t fight for it you won’t get it and it won’t be on the screen.” (Elle, November 2008, p.351)
I like to read a lot of entertainment-focused sites because I’m a media junkie.On more hipster-y sites like The A.V. Club, postings about Twilight frequently turn into a piling-on of dismissive smack talk.While, as a fan who would devote myself to writing this crazy-ass treatise, I obviously disagree with this judgment, I also think that there is a fundamental aspect of the film that people outside the fandom ignore.That aspect is director Catherine Hardwicke.She does not make disposable cotton-candy films.Though all of her films thus far have focused on young people, she is not a teen-movie maker in the vein of John Hughes.While I like Hughes’ teen opuses as much as the next person, they ultimately are focused on similar kinds of kids in essentially the same suburban environment.Hardwicke’s films – Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story and now Twilight – take place in different environments and eras, drawing from different source materials.The first three, which I watched this summer, all strike at a universality in the experience of youth and finding one’s way to adulthood. Her work on Lords of Dogtown is particularly confidence-inspiring: like Twilight, Lords of Dogtown invited comparisons with a popular source material, in that case the critically acclaimed documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Actors seem to genuinely love her, as do her creative collaborators. The trailers thus far have looked beautiful - I can’t wait to see what she’s done with Twilight.
“‘Maybe,’ Kate said, her face suddenly serious.‘Maybe it only works on the weak or the young.I’m not sure.You look strong, though.Perhaps you could withstand my gift.’She stretched her hand out to him, palm up – a clear invitation.Her lips twitched, and I was pretty sure her grave expression was an attempt to hustle him.
Garrett grinned at the challenge.Very confidently, he touched her palm with his index finger.
And then, with a loud gasp, his knees buckled and he keeled over backward.His head hit a piece of granite with a sharp cracking noise.” (Breaking Dawn, 624-625)*
There was a time last year when I was among a group of friends discussing what superpowers we would like to have, and I literally could not think of one.I ran through the standard Heroes types – flying, mind-reading, etc., but I just couldn’t find one that I really, truly wanted. (I eventually settled on "a heightened sense of grace." I'm not sure that I identify much with Bella as a character, but the clumsiness is one thing that I know from personal experience. In the past few years, I've walked full speed into a fire hydrant, gotten a heel stuck in the crack between sidewalk slabs, and fallen part-way down an escalator.) However, after reading Breaking Dawn, I know what power I want.I want Kate’s power. Among the not-insubstantial cast of new characters introduced in that book, Kate stands out as a woman who knows her own power, and isn't afraid to use it. I mean, for real, being a human taser would just be so righteous.
*Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
“They were putting together an army, and going about it more carefully than was usual.It was Maria’s idea.She wanted a superior army, so she sought out specific humans who had potential.Then she gave us much more attention, more training than anyone else had bothered with.She taught us to fight, and she taught us to be invisible to the humans.” (Eclipse, 295-296)*
In Stephenie Meyer’s mythology, life as a southern vampire is kill or be killed.In Jasper’s account of his early years warring in the south in Eclipse, he introduces his vampire creator, Maria.She’s not a major character – she only really exists as Jasper describes her, but I included her because I think that she’s an example of the way that women function in the wider vampire world of the Twilight universe – that is, no differently from men.As recounted in the quote, Maria took the initiative to improve the way that the super-violent wars for the blood supply were fought.And, even more badass, she’s mentioned as a possible contact for the fight at the end of Eclipse, which means that nearly 150 years after “recruiting” Jasper, she’s still down south doing her thing.
*Like a good academic: Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
