Tuesday, September 29, 2009

It's the Romance and Suspense, stupid!

A multi-disciplinary group of Alexandria Campus faculty* met on Fri 25 September to consider the Teen/ Young Adult phenomenon Twilight. We concluded the combination of romance, suspense, and short sentences plus vampires account for the popularity of an otherwise somewhat unintersting book. And some of us liked the film better.

From Vampires to Nazis...


The Book Club next takes up Bernhard Schlink's The Reader (also a major motion picture!). The Book Club's next meeting will be at 2pm on campus on Thursday 12 November.

* we're not all English profs! Teaching disciplines represented included history, mathematics, biology, economics, physical education, and political science. Plus librarians.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Twilight is a like a vampire...

...it sucks.

So why is the Book Club reading this trashy teen novel? Because teen-agers (and college-aged young adults, and a good many normal adults) are also reading it. What is the appeal of this abstinence-parable (or rape fantasy depending on where you're standing) and why has it sold over 20 million copies? And how did it become a blockbuster movie -- of which which even Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says "The love story has teeth."

(even if some of us thought less love story and more bad vamps would be an improvement):





Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com went on to pronounce "If you care about pop culture at all, you owe it to yourself to see Twilight." The Alexandria Campus Book Club, dutifully caring about pop-culture, will discuss Twilight on Friday 25 September. Contact Sylvia Rortvedt for more info.