Meyer explains in her foreword to the anniversary edition of the novel that she decided to go with the gender bending to underscore her position that Bella isn’t a “damsel in distress” as certain critics have charged.
Maybe I'm off but gender swapping after the fact doesn't seem like it really addresses those claims.
I've always been of the opinion that making fun of Twilight on the Internet is inherently lazy because of how easy it is and how much we aren't the target demographic for those books. This? This is hilarious. Selling what is essentially official gender-bent fan-fiction is way too ludicrous for me to get angry about.
Considering how gross the writing in Twilight is - and I'm not just talking about the fact that it's a stylistically poor, shoddily disguised self-insert - I just cannot wait to see how the borderline rapey, emotionally abusive shit ol' Eddie pulls on Bella reads like when it's female-on-male. Also, I wish she did it for all the books, because I wanna know what she would do with the birth scene in the last one. Last time I've read it, it sounded like it was written as if it was supposed to discourage women from ever getting pregnant, but not really in a social commentary, deconstructive kinda way.
But on the whole - this is fucking hilarious. Now we need E.L. James to write a gender-bent version of 50 Shades of Grey, just so we have a fan fiction remix of a book that is already a remixed version of a Twilight fan fiction and oh my God I've gone cross-eyed and the world is eating itself why stop
hey man if the teens like it all the power to them, I know I had a hard time finding relatable books at a young age.
I saw most of the Twilight films in cinema (bad dates + an academic interest in shit film and TV). The vast majority of the audience were 40-50 year old women, so I'm not so sure about this being for the tween demographic, especially since Bella's descriptions in the book make her look like Stephanie Meyer herself.
When you said she swapped the genders and made a new book out of it...I had thought "oh she must have wrote a new book similar to Twilight except this time the genders/roles are different" and not "she literally re-wrote Twilight with the the genders swapped."
I ain't even mad, but I do think it's preeeeetty funny. That said, if it gets more people to pick up a book once in a while, regardless of what you think about that book, then hey, go for it.
I think, like, 99% of people completely dismiss these things without giving a single genuine moment to it. All I've seen of any of that material is the last movie, and I thought it was totally entertaining.
I read the books when I was younger, and they are..ok at best. I never did understand the whole craze over them. They are just 'ok' books for teenagers. The first movie was where I drew the line on the whole thing for me. I went with my mom, and frankly.......oh it was bad. I remember getting the 'go to heck' look from people in the movie because I would laugh at scenes that weren't suppose to be laughed at. But it was SO BAD!!!! I couldn't stop laughing! I heard the later movies got a bit better when they got a new director...but I'll pass.
As for the book being redone with gender swapping...I mean I guess that is ok? I honestly don't see any harm in it. I can't help but feel its just a way to say 'PLEASE LET TWILIGHT BE COOL AGAIN!!!' from Meyer. But who knows, maybe she honestly wanted to prove a point. I am by no means a writer. For me personally, the only things I care about coming out soon is the new chibi robo and the hopeful ending to five nights at freddy's with that upcoming dlc. I wanna know what the heck it all means! =P What was up with the box!!!
@ghostiet: Trust me, there is a huge teen demographic following for these movies. I worked at a theater when all those movies were coming out, and opening friday night 95% of the sold out shows were in fact teenage girls, sometimes dragging their boyfriends along. We got some older women once in a while but that was during the weekday matinee hours or Sunday nights.
But on the whole - this is fucking hilarious. Now we need E.L. James to write a gender-bent version of 50 Shades of Grey, just so we have a fan fiction remix of a book that is already a remixed version of a Twilight fan fiction and oh my God I've gone cross-eyed and the world is eating itself why stop
She kinda did this already. Not swapping genders though, but she wrote a book called "Grey" which is just the first book from the guys perspective. I bet she is writing two more...
The only reason I know is because I work in a bookstore. I tried to read Twilight once, as a "know your enemy" type situation, but the writing was horrible. No surprise that 50 Shades of Grey is equally badly written. And this "new" book? Fuck, I just hope no-one translates it to Norwegian. I really want as little Meyer in my store as possible.
Sounds like a real enterprising move there. Not much real work to be done and plenty of money to be made. Also, probably means that Stephenie Meyer has spent the past few years staring at a desk going "uh, what can I write now?"
I am lucky enough to have never seen any of these movies or read any of these books. Hell, at this point, I'd probably go "eh, it's not quite that bad", though I have no intention of finding out if it really is that bad.
Wouldn't this franchise die faster if the people who hate it so much never again brought it up just to go "guys, look at this pile of shit! It's so bad, isn't it?"
@jaqen_hghar: I haven't read either Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey, but my sister, who is an avid reader and has a degree in English, assures me that 50 Shades of Grey makes Twilight look like the Citizen Kane of books.
But on the whole - this is fucking hilarious. Now we need E.L. James to write a gender-bent version of 50 Shades of Grey, just so we have a fan fiction remix of a book that is already a remixed version of a Twilight fan fiction and oh my God I've gone cross-eyed and the world is eating itself why stop
She kinda did this already. Not swapping genders though, but she wrote a book called "Grey" which is just the first book from the guys perspective. I bet she is writing two more...
Yes, and if I recall Meyer was writing Midnight Sun (which is twilight but from Edwards perspective) back in 2008. A draft of that was leaked online and she put it on indefinite hold.
Wait.... didn't a copy of Grey get stolen before release.... eerie...
@internetjames: Hah! Wow, did not know that. If the books weren't so awful, this would be really funny!
@secondpersonshooter: I'd say that sounds about right. Both series have atrocious writing, but 50 Shades seemed miles worse. But then again, Twilight is worse when it comes to questionable things to teach young girls. You know, the whole "you are not worth anything without a man, if a man dumps you, suicide is an accepted way to get him back, stalking is fine as long as there is love involved etc." thing.
Finally, Stephanie Meyer has revolutionized the world of young adult fiction by taking the bold step of writing a book not just about how a girl must choose which of two hunky guys she wants to date, but by writing a book about a boy having to choose which of two (hunky?) girls he wants to date.
She's a bad writer that some amount of people like. Whatever. She's attempting to be clever here. So what?
Also, I suspect you never liked books if you would give up books because of the things Stephanie Meyer puts out. You know there are more authors than just Stephanie Meyer, right? You should probably read them. They don't get paid enough because people won't read anything anymore unless it's trash.
I don't really see anything wrong with this. She's basically advertising it as a bonus and admitted it was “fun, but also really fast and easy". I'm not a fan of Twilight, but I'd totally buy a gendered-swapped Harry Potter or whatever if I ever wanted to re-read it.
I don't really see anything wrong with this. She's basically advertising it as a bonus and admitted it was “fun, but also really fast and easy". I'm not a fan of Twilight, but I'd totally buy a gendered-swapped Harry Potter or whatever if I ever wanted to re-read it.
Also, I suspect you never liked books if you would give up books because of the things Stephanie Meyer puts out. You know there are more authors than just Stephanie Meyer, right? You should probably read them. They don't get paid enough because people won't read anything anymore unless it's trash.
I'll go out on a limb here and posit that he was joking.
If I could write a book where I just gender swapped some characters from a previous book I wrote and I could get paid to do it, I would absolutely do it. There's obviously a demand here that needs to be supplied.
Hm, just how lazy is this book? If the extent of her tweaks is flipping every pronoun, finding and replacing all pertinent names, and some adjusting of romance scene fondling to have pertinent parts caressed... that'd be freaking hilarious, especially at $15 a pop or something. :-D Hahahaha.
Heck, we should do that with games. Bayonetta 2: Reloaded, with a male witch. Same game, but now with a dude character and his bro warlock BoBoBo. See how many people buy it... oh, and we need Nolan North to be either the main character or BOTH characters. Hm... and we need Troy Baker in there somewhere, too. Have to do this right!
One shouldn't take Twilight very seriously. One shouldn't take a gender flipped Twilight very seriously either. It has been something like 10 years anyway so the realization you may not like it be appropriate.
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