Primal With A Side Of FABULOUS page 348

[drssgchic]

My problem with characters like that is 1) I fall out of the story when I want to smack her for being a moron and 2) How can I like HIM if he's dumb enough to fall for HER? (Although in Jacob's case I'm blaming it on puppy love and a lapse in judgement. He's still adorable) I could handle the first book because there were things about Bella that I could identify with as latches to hold me into her while I was reading. In book two, I quit because I couldn't shoe-horn myself into her pathetic little mind to try and understand her. Just couldn't.

With 50 Shades of Grey- I also graduated from college as a virgin- but I was not also a moron. More things than "he's so hot" or "she's so hot" happened in my head. I was reading the trainwreak fine for a while then I came across the gem "I don't like it when he hits me (she'd been spanked), but if that's the only way I can have him . . ." OMG NO! In this book it's "foreplay" but in so many other situations that exact sentance is said when it's flat out abuse.

[drssgchic]

Mmmmm, Alcide. Not to spill the beans early, but my sister is working on a story working the werewolf angle . . . Sexy French trappers . . .

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I want to try just to see if I CAN. You know, because I need another unfinished story in my collection. On the other hand, if I finish it, and I make millions. Well. That's what they make nom de plumes for

[Gay Panda]

My problem with characters like that is 1) I fall out of the story when I want to smack her for being a moron and 2) How can I like HIM if he's dumb enough to fall for HER? (Although in Jacob's case I'm blaming it on puppy love and a lapse in judgement. He's still adorable) I could handle the first book because there were things about Bella that I could identify with as latches to hold me into her while I was reading. In book two, I quit because I couldn't shoe-horn myself into her pathetic little mind to try and understand her. Just couldn't.

With 50 Shades of Grey- I also graduated from college as a virgin- but I was not also a moron. More things than "he's so hot" or "she's so hot" happened in my head. I was reading the trainwreak fine for a while then I came across the gem "I don't like it when he hits me (she'd been spanked), but if that's the only way I can have him . . ." OMG NO!

That's all I have to say about THAT.

As to the rest, maybe the difference is how you read and how you think. Shake It was NOT a critical thinker. She was a wonderful person, but she did not judge books that way. So while I was wanting to throttle Bella for being such a nebbish, Shake It was thinking Edward is SO HOT. I was focused on the book itself; she was focused on the fantasy.

[cori93437]

I beg to differ... if she dislikes it (Hit/spank), and is only tolerating it from a bargaining standpoint (for the relationship/sex/or from a monetary/fear of greater reprisal standpoint... it's abuse.
Yep. I mean... if couples want to play spanky. GREAT. Heck, I like spanky. But you don't hit someone who does not find it pleasurable simply because you do... with the threat to withhold from that person if they do not comply. ABUSE.

[Finnegans Wake]

It wasn't Bella, not one bit. She was just the vacuum that Shake It could step inside.

That makes sense, or as much sense as I can discern from having watched a few minutes of one of the Twilight flicks. It's also a great template for writing this kind of flimsy trash.

I imagine Twilight as sort of being a much more extended and exasperating version of this:

Prince 'Erbert (in a dress and wig): Oh, woe is me, me life is dreadfully boring, and I'm the reason it's so boring.

Edward the Vamp: Hi, I have fangs.

Jake the Dawg: Me too!

Ed: But I can stare dreamily into your eyes for hours!

Jackal: And I can run around without a shirt on!

Erbert: Ohhh, you're bofe so scrumptious, what's a girl to do?

Ed: Pick me! We're going to have a big vampires versus the pooches showdown and we're loaded with arsenic doggie treats.

Jackal: No, pick me! I stand for all that is right and just and good in the world, and even my dogfarts will kill a vampire.

Erbert: All roight venn... Ed it is! NO! Wait, Jackal! No, Ed, Ed, I really mean it viss time...

x Nauseam.

[justyouraveragecavemen]

Yep. I mean... if couples want to play spanky. GREAT. Heck, I like spanky.

Wait, I was reading your post and got to this part and everything else turned into wing dings.

[Gay Panda]

Yes, Finnegans Wake has successfully summed up the series!!!

I'm trying to think of what the draw was to teenagers, and then I remember being fifteen and without a date, thinking no one would ever like me that way because I had braces and thick glasses and watched Star Trek, and didn't like any of the cool music at the time. I couldn't flirt or even banter; I wasn't one of the Pretty People who graced our halls; I was freaked out that no college would accept me because I wasn't smart or talented enough.

I was a very black-and-white thinker, and because I wasn't Number One (or two or three), I figured I must be Zero. Bella is a literary zero, and I felt like a zero even if I actually wasn't. So I might not have been too critical of the books when I was fifteen, because I might have felt like I'd found a compatriot in nebbishness. Those are the emotions I would have brought to Twilight, and it would have told me that even a zero can have a sexy vampire and werewolf dueling in lust for my hand.

Fortunately, I was much older by the time I ran into Twilight, and wasn't bringing personal issues to it.

[Gay Panda]

Actually, that is not the whole truth. I did bring a personal issue to Twilight. I read it mournfully, thinking this can get published and I can't?

[drssgchic]

I beg to differ... if she dislikes it (Hit/spank), and is only tolerating it from a bargaining standpoint (for the relationship/sex/or from a monetary/fear of greater reprisal standpoint... it's abuse.
Yep. I mean... if couples want to play spanky. GREAT. Heck, I like spanky. But you don't hit someone who does not find it pleasurable simply because you do... with the threat to withhold from that person if they do not comply. ABUSE.

That's why "foreplay" was in quotes. I have another book where she was not happy with "playing spanky" initially, but somehow it worked in that one (and she eventually figured out she liked it). That's what disturbs me the most about these two. It's glorifying abusive relationships. Even if you take the physical part out of 50 Shades it's still mental and emotional abuse.

Oh, and his "Laters, baby" just bugs the hell out of me. But that's aesthetics and consistency in your characters.

[cori93437]

Wait, I was reading your post and got to this part and everything else turned into wing dings.

Aww... *thoughtful pause* for Booter.