This time the fans seem to agree with me. Here's a sampling of what they had to say:
still more on twilight
The more I learn about Smeyers, the more I hate her. I knew she was a childish idiot, after her tantrum over Breaking Dawn reviews and the Midnight Sun leak, but geez...so glad I've never bought her shitty, shitty books.
She wasn't as precious about the bad vampires, the nomads;
Weeping, creeping Jesus!
I suppose we should just be grateful that Lautner's grandmother wasn't a Cherokee princess.
It seems a slap in the face for Lautner/producers to claim "see, he's aboriginal too." It's like the many people who find out they are 1/32 aboriginal on a distant relative's side and try to claim the "benefits" of being aboriginal without a deeper understanding of history/culture/oppression.
For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.
Below: "My great-great-grandmother wasn't a Cherokee princess. She was a Potawatomi/Ottawa princess!"
As an adult reader of Twilight (I have teens who introduced me to the series) I never expected all this. But clearly you and the person who wrote this response are correct. I read the series initially as something to pass time.The writing was subpar at times. The plots had holes and at times the characters were infurating but somehow one did get lost in this world - or sucked in actually. I did not consider the many stereotyping incidences of natives in the story when reading it initially.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the more I read now of your blog and comments of others the more I realize and not sure what to do with it and feel a little sickened to be honest.
I really did enjoy the story and now feel somewhat ashamed by that. I had come to connect w/the characters and was excited for the movie as well...
But I don't like the way SMeyers behaves (the aforementioned tantrum about the leak of Midnight Son, the supporting of a non-Native actor in the main native role, and the stealing and changing of native legends and then not clarifying that she had changed them let alone gotten permission to use them).
Also what others fail to mention aside from the stereotyping of native women Meyers actually comes across as antifeminist as well. The things that bothered me with Twililght was Bella's charcter was always dependent on a man - whether it be her father, or ping-ponging between Edward and Jacob. She married young and has baby vampires. Her other option was to marry Jacob. Her third option was college, which she really wanted no part of. Independence seemed like it was not on the table. Wow good role model for young girls of all cultures? I am not against marriage at all, but she was only 17 or 18 years old in the story. T
Then, if Jacob was potrayed as a pedophile wolf then Edward was a major stalker and quite creepy. He was very controlling and condescending. He snuck into her room and watched her sleep at night (can we say stalker). He had another vampire "babysit" her and actually referred to it as "babysit Bella" when he was gone.
So many things are wrong here - you don't realize until you have read it and unEarth them one by one.
Sorry for the lengthy comment.
Sincerely,
Distrubed Twilghter.