Twilight

I also read the first three Twilight books this week. They were engaging some of the time (I like Alice) but I found them rather frustrating. Stephanie Meyers has a good story in there, but she can't seem to find it. (Not that I won't read the fourth book too when I get the chance...) Anyway, I've been thinking about the books in relation to three quotes.

The first is C.S. Lewis's, which I shall have to paraphrase because our internet is still down and I am working away from home and I don't have my copy of Of Other Worlds with me. Lewis said that there are certain ideas that can only be explored with fantasy. But many writers unfortunately jump onto the fantasy bandwagon, missing the point of fantasy and writing "fantasy" stories that could just as well--or better--be written without the fantasy element. Lewis laid down a general rule, that if the fantastic element isn't integral to your story--drop it.

Stephanie Meyers seems to me to have this problem. She has the makings of a great fantasy story in the love affair between a mortal and a vampire (I'm hearing echoes of Tuck Everlasting and the Lay of Luthien), but she instead fills her story with irrelevant action and teen angst.

I'll leave the other two quotes without commentary.

"Love, having become a god, becomes a demon." (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves)

"Q: Maybe writing is some kind of Resurrection Stone.
"A: Yes, of course, but I think you realize that once you’re writing to make a dream come true. If it’s just like that then, for me, writing loses its worth. Describing your fantasy is not the same as creating a world." (J.K. Rowling, interview with Spanish magazine El Pais)