81 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven, flawed but worth a read, October 7, 2009
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)
As a fan of 'Twilight' and of Blackwell's 'Pop Culture and Philosophy' series, I decided to give this volume a try. My review of the book: not as good as the others. While not actively bad nor mediocre, 'Twilight and philosophy' is much more uneven than other books in the series. Some of the essays are perceptive, in depth discussions, others are rambling, incoherent polemics. One of the things that I like about volumes in the Blackwell series is that the authors clearly love the pop culture subject that they are discussing, but I see no such enthusiasm here. Some of the authors appear to be fans, but a couple of the authors can barely keep their contempt for both their subject matter and their readers in check. The undercurrent through these essays is pretty clear: Twilight is stupid; people who read it are stupid; this is why they are stupid, and this is what we need to do to reprogram them so that they become less stupid. They are entitled to their opinions, but why should I pony up $18 to be told I'm stupid? I can get that from a message board for free.
Some of the gems in the collection:
'The Tao of Jacob': talks about Jacob Black and the way of the werewolf from the Taoist perspective. Fascinating, lovingly crafted, and contains some beautiful prose. The philosophical implications are studied in depth, the author clearly knows the books and the essay is plain fun to read
'Carlisle: more compassionate than a speeding bullet': I did not approach this one with high hopes. I thought the title was silly and had no idea what the author was aiming for. The Terjesens surprised me; this is actually a good character study on Carlisle, the way of life that Carlisle represents and what this means (both in the series and to the reader)
'Undead Patriarchy and the possibility of love': studies the relationship between Edward and Bella in depth and raises questions about the nature of love, the nature of feminism and the meaning of 'equal relationships'. Considers both sides of the issues, but manages to make its case without being shrill.
The bombs:
'Edward Cullen and Bella Swan: byronic and feminist heroes...or not': The short answer is no, Bella sucks (no pun intended), Edward sucks more (pun intended) and 'Jane Eyre' is a better book so you're dumb for reading 'Twilight' instead of 'Jane Eyre'. That's Abigail Myers' contribution in a nutshell, and I wish that I could say that her essay is more in depth than that, but it's not. Remember how I said that some of the authors clearly don't like their subject? This would be one of them.
'Bella Swan and Sarah Palin': The hypothesis of this essay is already pretty strange: women like Bella Swan and they like Sarah Palin and here are the reasons why. Sounds like it belongs on a post with a 'mood of the day' emoticon. Unfortunately, unlike the Terjensens, Naomi Zack never transcends her silly title. Her work is rambling and unfocused, lurching from one point to another, throwing out 50 cent words and other philosophers along the way as if she's hoping that if she sounds smart enough, readers will fail to notice what a shallow piece she's written. She talks a great deal more about Sarah Palin than she does about Bella Swan, never really manages to tie Palin to 'Twilight' beyond the idea that Bella, like Palin is an anti-feminist wish fulfillment model, and caps off the hot mess with a truly bizarre polemic against religious parents and consumerist society, advocating for other "intellectual feminists" to maintain "doctrinal purity" by reprogramming the poor 'Twilight'/Palin brainwashed sheep. I'd be worried about the elitist (self-confessed, no less), bigoted tone of this piece, except few readers are likely to slog through more than 3 paragraphs and will therefore miss her freaky manifesto at the end. I wish that I'd been so lucky.
The rest of the essays are good or average. Worth a look, but I'd buy it on sale or check it out from a library.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
can't get enough of the twilight series? you might like this read., January 26, 2010
This review is from: Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)
Although I'm probably a little older than the typical Twilight fan demographic, I found this compilation of essays interesting and helpful for thinking about the characters and especially for exploring other vampire/werewolf lore, literature, and philosophy that fell through the cracks in college. Essays in this book give you concise background on writers (like the Brontes, Lord Byron)in a easy and conversational style. I actually found the footnotes good for tracking down other books, biographies, and videos which I have checked out at the library or (of course!)ordered on amazon.com. Literature and philosophy courses in college would probably be more engaging if professors lectured like the contributors to this book write.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Insights Except for the Vegetarian Essays, November 15, 2009
This review is from: Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) (Paperback)
This thought-provoking book of philosophical essays indeed cast new light upon my favorite YA series. Aside from what I consider digressive essays on vegetarianism, each essay's thesis is worth thoughtful consideration, whether one agrees or not with the argument. The essays are rather graphic regarding abusive relationships. The intended audience is teens & adults. Consider pre-reading this book before handing it to a young or an immature teen.
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