Gasp! In defense of Stephanie Meyer

[lysystrata]

There are many inherent flaws in S Meyer's writing, poor plotting (or maybe just sort of a sick plot, anyways), paper thin characterization and many, many technical errors (I can't count the number of times she used the words 'that the' in conjunction with one another. This is one of my pet peeves, if you see those two words together 99.9% of the time 'that' does not need to be there.) which plagued her text.
Having said this, there at least three reason nearly everyone here and a lot of other people owe Stephanie Meyer a rather large debt. To wit; Between her work and J.K. Rowling's an entire generation (or two) of young people began reading for pleasure. The enormity of this accomplishment cannot be overstated as the internet and game consoles were well on their way towards rendering people my age illiterate.
Meyer created the Rosalie character (Then wasted her I might add) whom should be one of the more compelling characters in recent popular fiction.
Finally she imbued the Alice/Bella relationship with something very special, probably completely unintentionally on her part. So many readers have taken note of this a cottage industry of fan fiction has arisen to satisfy the demand for stories addressing the relationship. This site itself is a good example.
I just thought I'd point that out.

~Sara~

P.S. I thought of this later and tacked it on here. I've always felt like out of all the characters Meyer created Seth was actually the one she did the best job on herself. he got so little attention it's a minor point, but I thought one worth making.

[azb]

I think Seth is based on her brother, Seth.

[megster1992]

Seth is awesome, for a minor character, anyway. I don't care if he was based on her brother, he was a damn good smiley-faced idiot.

[Enjorous]

The more I learn about the publishing industry the more I want to punch people related to, but not, Meyer in the throat.

I'd like to know what agent, after reading her manuscript thought it was well written enough to take her on as a client.

I'd like to know what editor in his or her right mind didn't think it needed to be revised or sent off to a copy editor.

[azb]

I would just congratulate the publishing company on a job well done. They got a multi-million dollar book series, and didn't have to pay for an editor. That's savvy business.

[lysystrata]

we are wandering from the point, no matter what you think of of the relative merits of the series, it did perform some valuable services.

~Sara~

[Enjorous]

I'm leery to credit any one series with making kids read for pleasure. And I'm looking for the number but I believe that YA accounts for roughly 1/4 of the publishing market share, and is second only to the romance.

So while a lot of people read these books, enough to make them viral, they're not the only things that younger people are reading.

[Deleted]

Gots to bust out the cold, hard facts. Way to be, Enj

[azb]

Not the only things. But I was in an all-girl highschool, and without a doubt Twilight was the one book most people had in common. It's gotten a huge number of teenage readers to, well, become readers. So while it's fair not to credit any one series, that's the most significant one of the last few years. Just as Harry Potter was before that.

[Enjorous]

Again, just because it was the largest common denominator doesn't mean it was the only thing that had gotten them to read. But as I often read lesser known, yet awesome, series I don't get to talk about them because no one else had read them. I talk about the books everyone has read, so we can discuss rather than me lecture people on them.

It's gotten people to read, no argument from me. But I'm almost willing to bet that it alienated the male demographic and it's still influencing the YA market sommat fierce.

Still looking for numbers by the by

[azb]

Uh, I think we've covered that it's not the only thing. Multiple times. But thanks for clearing that up for me, really.

I would hesitate to say that it alienated the male demographic. Alienated from Twilight itself, sure, but not from reading in general. It's not been an eradication of anything barring supernatural/romantic themes, rather a ...swamping growth.

[Enjorous]

When I say it alienated the male demographic, I don't mean Twilight itself, I mean Twilight plus how it's shifted the YA market. Seems that every other YA book out there right now is vampire romance, and speaking as a guy, I don't wanna read that. Vampires have over saturated the market and it'll take sometime to drain it and skim them off the top.

[Deleted]

But not just the reading material. The supernatural theme has come to dominate TV as well. Supernatural, Fringe, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, the new show with the ghost, vampire, and werewolf. And many of those are prime time stuff.

[megster1992]

Want a good YA book that isn't about vampire romances, Enj? Try a certain series by Suzanne Collins. You won't be disappointed.

Yes there is a triangle in there but there's enough action and blood and gore to keep guys interested.

[azb]

I get that, I suppose. But over saturation is different to a replacement. YA has become a larger market, rather than solely a changed one. Though, next question, why would you read Twilight, if you don't want to read vampire romance? haha.