Twilight the ongoing discussion.....

Twilight opened a topic that I couldn't cover in just one post so I shall continue -

 

I got a pre-emptive notice regarding this book from my older sister-in-law. I thought it was too funny not to share:

 

"I read this book because (13 year-old) had been told it was such a GOOD book. She read it and really liked it. So then I read it and the rest of the ones in the series. As a mother I had a couple of "issues" with this book. It is very romantic and they talk a lot about being SO in love. I had to explain to her that men do not talk like that. Second of all, he should NOT be spending the night with her - even if nothing happened. Third of all, just because he is trapped in a 17 year old body, he is still 80+ years old. Why would he be so attracted to her? I enjoyed the book, but as a mature 40+ year old, I can see it for what it is - a fun, good read. I worry about all the young teen girls who read this and think this is what and how love is. I hope they have someone to help bring them down to earth. It would be nice if love were really that great and men expressed them selves so freely, and you could always feel that pitter-pat in your heart, but from my years of experience it's just not like that. Sorry to dash your hopes - maybe it's like that for you. Enjoy the book and the others that follow. It was a quick fun read, though."

 

She really is amusing, that sister-in-law of mine. She is so motherly sometimes that I just have to laugh -

 

I have a lot of retorts to that comment, but they're really not valid because I'm not reading the book as a mother seeing what my kids are reading, I'm just reading it for me and I'm sure if my daughter were reading this I'd think somewhere along the same lines.

 

I found that these books speak to that teenage heart hiding deep within my tainted by the real world exterior and I get great enjoyment out of going back to that part of me that I miss a great deal.

I relate to the main character in the story "Bella" she is an awkward teenager who doesn't always see herself as others see her and has a hard time seeing why "Edward" the drop dead gorgeous vampire would want anything to do with her. True, the boy I loved in high school wasn't a drop dead gorgeous vampire, but he was beautiful to me and took my silly teenage heart for granted and walked all over it, but that's enough about him for now.

 

So here I go on my views and a few things I would like to address:

 

~*~*~

 

“It is very romantic and they talk a lot about being SO in love. I had to explain to her that men do not talk like that.”

 

About this book being very romantic and all the talk about being SO in love - well - It's been a long time since she was a teenager and teenage life in the mid-80's was a different world from teenage life in the late 90's and the 2000's (if I'm wrong my older siblings can correct me.)

 As a young teen girl that is "what and how love is". Saying "that's not love" is one thing, but to a teenager that is IT. I have volumes of poetry and stories that I have written on this exact topic. Go to any teenager and they probably have the same.

As a teenager I believe that we feel/felt things more deeply and experienced more in those few short lived years of our life the I think we ever will again. I loved more deeply/lustfully/openly/truly/vibrantly in my 3 years of high school then I have any day since then, and before anyone gets all offended I will clarify that REAL love, ETERNAL love and the SECURITY of love shared with a spouse or family or friends is completely different, but no less true or electric.

No, in real life men don't talk like that, but sometimes the men in our heads do. Who hasn't had a conversation with a man in their head and every word that came out of his mouth was sweet and romantic and full of feeling and truth? I'm sure most women have. Just because the men we are with on a daily basis don't talk like that it doesn't mean we don't want them to. :)

 

“Second of all, he should NOT be spending the night with her - even if nothing happened.”

 

The ways of LDS youth are not always the ways of the world, and just because the book was written by a former BYU student doesn't mean that the pages need to be dripping with gospel doctrine and perfect morals. That's Jack Weyland's job. She was writing a book for large publication where in a lot of places and to a lot of people this morality is the norm.

When I was 17 I spent the night with a boy - nothing happened, we shared a twin-sized bed at a sleep over where one of the only reasons I went was because it was his sister, at his house. Was it right? probably not. Did anything happen? he kissed me. Did my parents know? they do now. Do I feel guilty about it? no. Am I the only LDS girl who has ever done this? Absolutely not. Does that make a difference? no. Does this make me a bad person? No. Face it. Teenagers do things because we can and because we want to, not because our parents tell us to.

 

“Third of all, just because he is trapped in a 17 year old body, he is still 80+ years old. Why would he be so attracted to her?”

 

Yes, he's a vampire. Yes, he's 80 + years older then her, but is it more appropriate for that said vampire to date a 17 year old or should he bee looking to the older women in the 40 + still looking like a 17 year old? Just because he'll live forever doesn't make him any less needy then the rest of us and perhaps his body and his feelings are stuck in that perpetual 17 year old state. (why am I defending a fictional character?!)

 

It would be nice if love were really that great and men expressed themselves so freely, and you could always feel that pitter-pat in your heart, but from my years of experience it's just not like that.

 

Eventually we all grow up. Even though this book give the illusion of "what love is" and that teenage girls will believe it ... Eventually we all grow up. What is the harm in believing that maybe somewhere this kind of love is possible and that the person you choose to spend eternity with will love you deeply and electrically and unconditionally? Shouldn't that be how life is? That's how I love my soul mate, it's not always perfect, but it is deep and true and I hope it stays that way.