/lit/ - Literature

>>1286377

Yes.

It's not even literature. It's more like a chat log of her keyboard assisted masturbation.

is it bad i'd rather be seen reading anime books in public than that crap

The "at least it makes kids read" argument is bullshit. Kids are reading all the time, even if only on Facebook and tumble 'er or whatever is popular next month. Those have a lot of shit on them, sure, but the Twilight series is poorly written and has awful values. The fact that kids are reading something bound into book form doesn't make it any better than reading some blog post on why Inception is the best movie of all time.

>>1286377
I started writing a novel for pretty much exactly the reasons depicted on this image.

>>1286400
Hi Twilight, Greg Heffley from "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" would like to have a word with you.

>"at least it makes kids read again"

just keep setting the bar lower... and lower... and lower...

>>1286377
This gives me hope.

It *doesn't* make kids (or teenagers, or immature adults) read again. Either they already did read, or they finish Twilight, and: a) read it again ad infinitum, or b), put it down, and never read anything.

I don't know. I've never read it.

I almost think that about eragon though.

Fuck's sake, I hate eragon so much.

>>1286593
Why? I never read it myself. I'm just curious.

>>1286596
because they are horrible books

horrible, horrible, horrible

but there was so much hype about them when they first came out, and they became so popular

the hype all centers around the author, Christopher Paolini. He supposedly wrote the first book when he was 15, but he didn't. He said himself that he wrote it when he was 18 and finished it when he was 19. He "imagined" the books when he was 15.

And his parents own a publishing company. They publish his books. That is the only reason they were ever published.

The books are his daydreams. The main character is the most blatant, most insufferable Mary Sue to have ever existed.

>>1286604
Oh but the real reason the books are so hateful is because they are a rip off of much better works of fiction.

The entire plot of eragon is taken directly from star wars. Seriously, everything fits. Just read the reviews for the Eragon movie, every one of them mentions that.

And the world is taken from Tolkien. Paolini even had the crass to take several place names and the like from Tolkien's writing and add them to his own, sometimes changing a letter or two to make it "original."

Also, the entire Eragon magic system is lifted straight from the Earthsea books. Straight from it. Like, word for word.

Magic works in Eragon-land EXACTLY like it does in Le Guin's fantasy world.

And from what I've read, Paolini has "borrowed" from many other fantasy works which I've not read so I don't recognize.

>>1286610

I haven't read Earthsea, but just to be clear magic in Earthsea works by speaking the "true name" of something in some ancient language and harnessing some kind of life essential energy from either yourself or the living things that surround you?

I'm not the other anon, but I have read the first two Eragon books. I thought they were decent but I was young then. Couldn't stomach the third.

>>1286626
yup

ancient language, true names, magic works just by making sentences

and people have true names too, and if you know someone's true name you have massive power over that person

all of which Paolini took

the "taking energy" part is his own little contribution though. which makes sense because it's stupid

>>1286377
It is far too despicable for that. They might as well be reading the back of a cereal box over and over again; they are technically reading, but it does nothing for them. Stephenie Meyer is an opportunistic motherfucker preying on the easily-led hearts of young women. You have to admire how easily she has gotten away with this though.

Kids should be reading Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques, Alice In Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit etc when they're young, not fanfic tween romance bullshit with zero substance.

No, the book isn't that superior to any other format. A shitty book is just that, a shitty book. I'd rather be seen playing a video game or reading a comic than that shit.

if it made money, /lit/'s gonna hate

>>1286651
He made some nice money with his works. Can't say that I speak for all of /lit/ but I love Tolstoy.

>>1286634

The whole thing about names giving power over objects is striped straight from actual ancient concepts of magic. The Hebrew were especially fond of names giving power, which is why God only gave his name as Yahweh instead of his true name. This is also the reason the witches in fairy tales, and perhaps most famously in one of Shakespeare's plays name the ingredients of their potions: so as to empower them with magic.

>>1286692

In fact it's rumored that some gypsies still practice giving their children secret 'true' names over this ancient superstition.

>>1286634
The taking energy part is nothing unusual, and I doubt anyone can claim ownership, but my little sister said he lifted that from the Belgariad.

>>1286692
>>1286694
I didn't say Le Guin invented the concept

but Paolini took it exactly as she described it in her books

and even if by some cosmic coincidence he had never read Earthsea, he's still "borrowed" quite a bit from other fantasy works

>>1286699

I wouldn't say that not reading Earthsea, but using the same concept that Earthsea itself borrowed from an ancient and well documented belief could really be described as a cosmic coincidence.

I'm not defending Paolini though. His crimes are great and many. I just don't feel this is one of them.

I found the list of words Paolini stole from Tolkien.

here they are

*Arya - Arwen, Arda
*Ardwen - Arwen
*Isenstar - Isengard
*Mithrim - Mithrim or mithril
*Eragon - Aragorn/dragon
*Angrenost - Angrenost, the Sindarin name for Isengard
*Morgothal - Morgoth
*Elessari - Elessar
*Furnost - Fornost
*Hadarac Desert - Harad Desert
*Melian - Melian
*Vanilor - Valinor
*Eridor - Eriador
*Imiladris - Imladris
*Undin - Fundin/Udun
*Gil'ead - Gil'Galad
*Hrothgar - Hrothgar

also Paolini's "original language" is almost entirely "borrowed" from old Norse

hell, just look at this list of modern Icelandic words and words from his "original language"

Blaka--Blaka

Draumr--Draumur

Gata--Gata

Heill--Heill

Hugin--Huginn

Reisa--Reisa

Stenr--Steinn (plural steinar)

Vanta--Vanta

Hvass--Hvass

Vindr--Vindur

Sitja--Sitja

Kona--Kona

Vöndr--Vöndur

Skölir--Skjöldur

Anglát--Andlát

there's a specific reason why he stole from Norse too. It's because Tolkien was a Philologist who specialized in it

and he has to do everything EXACTLY like Tolkien did

Kids never stopped reading. Before Twilight there was Harry Potter and before Harry Potter there was a whole slew of other books.

People aren't reading any more or less now than they ever have.

>>1286833
Kids never stopped reading. Before Twilight there was >Harry Potter and before Harry Potter there was a whole slew of other books.
yes
>People aren't reading any more or less now than they ever have.
i hope you only mean since the 60s, because television has had a big effect on people's reading habits

>>1286840
And the radio, printing press, industrial paper manufacture, distribution routes...

The middle and ruling classes continue to read, in general as ever, and increase their cultural capital. But there has been a decline in these groups in the young up until unhappy upper middle class turning upper class Harry Potter came on the scene, to right this wrong. Lower classes have had access to books for maybe a century, but not at the same level. Libraries have helped this, but I've personally noticed a massive change in the kind of books public libraries stock over the past 5 years.
tl;dr Fuck Harry Potter, he's a cunt.

Yes. Kids should not be exposed to such sloppy storytelling and awful prose. It has to be bad for their development :(

I say! The youth of today are ill served by the tripe written by this Dickens fellow! Bland women! Forced moral messages! Every story is about a penniless orphan who gets a makeshift happy ending!
Children these days, eating up such rubbish. Bah!

>>1286981
If you're gonna steal shit from my speeches at least attribute it to me.

Okay, how many of you really gave the series a chance? How many of you have really read the books or at least the first one?

I have read the first book and I really don't know what you all fuss about. I know, I know, it's no great literature, for sure, it doesn't have great storytelling or characterdevolopement. You are right. Most characters are Mary-Sues,Yes.
But the point is, most other books don't have these things either.
So why are you whining about it daily? Normally I don't give a shit, it's like that since /lit/ was founded and it was that way before /lit/ was founded, but all this time I think "Why can't these people just swallow it down and live on?"

>>1286981
Dickens was a mediocre sentimental hack, but still better than Meyer. He's basically acceptable, even his sentences do go on forever.

"But I couldn't answer. As I had just that once before, I smelled his cool breath in my face. Sweet, delicious, the scent made my mouth water. It was unlike anything else. Instinctively, unthinkingly, I leaned closer, inhaling."
Twilight, p. 263

>>1287416
You know, that somehow sounds similar to another book I have read. I think most of you know it, it's called Wuthering Heights.

>>1287416
jesus

seriously?

this is a potential flagship candidate for the teengirl fanfic level

I can't believe it

>>1286950
I detect sarcasm. It's not about the way in which the books are written, it's about the subject matter. Imagine the types of life lessons young girls learn about relationships from these books.
It's totally a good idea to kill yourself if your boyfriends leaves, am I right?

That's stupid logic.

Does that mean good movies and television shows are bad because they just make kids 'sit in front of the TV?" Are chocolate bars okay because 'at least young girls aren't starving themselves'?

Fuck that logic. Our young women deserve our very best, not some half assed crap hiding underneath a veneer of 'hey u guise i maek kids reed, am i gud nao?'

If it has made at least one person out there discover greater works of fiction then surely its not all that bad. Dracula I'm hopefully looking in your direction.

bump

>>1287427
Wuthering Heights did not make me wince and throw the book away from me. I don't remember too much of it, but I did not find the prose to be so awkward and clunky as to be actually disgusted by it. Course I was in my teens when I read it... is it really that bad???

>>1286484
This.

Those books take the word "reluctant" out of "reluctant readers" to every kid out there more than Meyer's masturbatory saga ever did.

>>1287567
No.