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[CCBC-Net] Twilight, better reads, and sex
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From: Shpatron at aol.com <Shpatron>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:53:24 EDT
Perry's comment is so illuminating. Many thanks.
I was thinking that vampirism offers a kind of perfect metaphor for adolescence, or aspects of it. You can be physically beautiful and supernaturally powerful, while at the same time you are a kind of monster. You are outside of "normal" society. You are obsessed, and you experience overwhelming physical hungers. And were-creatures, with their changing bodies, also express these qualities. I see why it's satisfying and kind of validating for teenagers to read novels featuring these beings that they think are so like them.
Susan Patron
In a message dated 7/15/2009 10:57:53 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, perry_nodelman at shaw.ca writes:
But I suspect that Twilight does exactly what Harlequin Romances have been doing for decades, and what happened in romances like Jane Eyre long before that. The deliciously weak and apparently powerless female appears about to be overcome by the enthrallingly strong and apparently all-powerful and dangerous sexuality of the male--but instead, wonderfully, he must submit to her, defer to his growing love for her, have his love for her triumph over and control and contain the violence of his passion. The result is that "the forced obedience" is his as much as it's hers. She conquers him as much as he conquers her, and so it's less about giving into the danger of desire than about having the secret power of leeching it of its danger. It's a wish-fulfilment fantasy for girls, then--to make the dangerously powerful and potentially violent male submit to her power. The sad thing is how many girls seem to buy into the ideas about the violence and danger of male sexuality enough to find this particular wish-fulfilment satisfying. Unless too many boys are still being socialized to actually be like that?
Perry, a day too soon
_____________ Perry Nodelman Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
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**************Can love help you live longer? Find out now.
(http://personals.aol.com/articles/2009/02/18/longer-lives-through-relationships/?ncid=emlweu slove00000001)
Received on Wed 15 Jul 2009 01:53:24 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:53:24 EDT
Perry's comment is so illuminating. Many thanks.
I was thinking that vampirism offers a kind of perfect metaphor for adolescence, or aspects of it. You can be physically beautiful and supernaturally powerful, while at the same time you are a kind of monster. You are outside of "normal" society. You are obsessed, and you experience overwhelming physical hungers. And were-creatures, with their changing bodies, also express these qualities. I see why it's satisfying and kind of validating for teenagers to read novels featuring these beings that they think are so like them.
Susan Patron
In a message dated 7/15/2009 10:57:53 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, perry_nodelman at shaw.ca writes:
But I suspect that Twilight does exactly what Harlequin Romances have been doing for decades, and what happened in romances like Jane Eyre long before that. The deliciously weak and apparently powerless female appears about to be overcome by the enthrallingly strong and apparently all-powerful and dangerous sexuality of the male--but instead, wonderfully, he must submit to her, defer to his growing love for her, have his love for her triumph over and control and contain the violence of his passion. The result is that "the forced obedience" is his as much as it's hers. She conquers him as much as he conquers her, and so it's less about giving into the danger of desire than about having the secret power of leeching it of its danger. It's a wish-fulfilment fantasy for girls, then--to make the dangerously powerful and potentially violent male submit to her power. The sad thing is how many girls seem to buy into the ideas about the violence and danger of male sexuality enough to find this particular wish-fulfilment satisfying. Unless too many boys are still being socialized to actually be like that?
Perry, a day too soon
_____________ Perry Nodelman Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
_______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
**************Can love help you live longer? Find out now.
(http://personals.aol.com/articles/2009/02/18/longer-lives-through-relationships/?ncid=emlweu slove00000001)
Received on Wed 15 Jul 2009 01:53:24 PM CDT
