In Defense of Stephanie Meyer

Okay I'll admit it. I too am addicted to the Twilight books.

I'm not saying they are the most profound things ever written. But they are certainly very entertaining. As an aspiring novelist myself, I can't help but be excited by the level of success a simple Mormon mother has obtained.

And let's face it, Stephanie Meyer's writing reminds all of us girls what it's like to be 18 and passionately in love.

But Stephanie Meyer catches an awful lot of flack and criticism and I'd like to confront a few of the critiques I've heard-

1) Stephanie Meyer uses too many adjectives to make up for weak dialogue.
This seems a stretch to me. It's like they can't find a real solid reason to object to her story, so they threw this one out there. And my response is so what? While it's true that there is real value in writers who can tell a story using their verbs to describe more than adjectives, does it then follow that there is NO value in doing the opposite? Where has this prejudice against the noble adjective come from?

Okay I'm biased. I LOVE adjectives. I think they are fantastic wonderful lovely ways to describe the picture you're trying to paint. I am an adjective abuser in my own writing, so I am definitely biased the other way on this issue. But that's the joy of having a thesaurus-getting to use all those different words to say the same thing! I love it! I say bring on the adjectives! The more splendid descriptors a devoted author can provide, the more enchantingly I am entertained =)

As to her dialogue being weak, holy crap what are your standards? She's writing conversations mostly had by teenagers! It's not supposed to be the stuff of legend.

2) Stephanie Meyer writes her main character, Bella, as a weak woman who can't survive without a man

WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD.

This just makes me laugh. I can only assume they are drawing this conclusion from Book 2 where Bella falls apart at Edward's departure and only is able to pull herself back together with the love and devotion of Jacob Black. I don't think Stephanie Meyer is trying to say Bella can't survive without a man. I think a deeper message is being put across. In describing Bella's complete and total breakdown once Edward leaves, she is showing how Bella cannot survive without love.

Can any of us?

I assure you once you know a love like Bella and Edward's in your life, living without even a poor substitute for it is nearly impossible.

3) Bella is not very well developed as a woman/doesn't have a strong enough sense of herself/etc.

The hard core feminists are really over analyzing here. But they seem to have forgotten one thing-

Bella is a teenager!

How much are we supposed to expect out of a 17-18 year old girl? She's somehow already supposed to have a completely clear vision of herself and be fully developed in self confidence and self sufficiency?

I am 25 years old and I sure as heck haven't arrived at that point yet.
In fact, judged from the lens of a teenager, Bella is pretty daggone mature for her age in a lot of ways. Even when she is ripped up inside, she is always thinking about others and how her actions will affect them. She moves to Forks in the first place so her mother can have more freedom to enjoy her own life. Having barely survived a vicious attack from a vampire, her last conscious thought before she blacks out from the pain is for Alice, Edward's sister, to know the truth about where she came from. When her world falls apart and Edward leaves her, she still puts up an elaborate charade so her father will not have to share in her grief.

Pretty impressive for a teenage girl if you ask me. But don't expect the world from a girl who hasn't even had a chance to fully mature yet. She can only do so much.

Look the point is I like the Twilight books. They're fun, they're entertaining, and I can't put them down whenever I get to the end of each one.

If you're looking for more than that from a book, why are you wasting your time on a teenage romance novel?

Go read Catcher in the Rye and leave Bella and Stephanie Meyer the hell alone.