It's Poetry Friday!

Sticking with yesterday’s posts about the YA novel Twilight, I’m sharing a few stanzas of Mary Oliver’s poem, “Bats.” The first half of the poem is sensory, but factual. Oliver describes where and how bats fly, capture “moths, mosquitoes,” and their social nature. Then, a surprising turn in the fifth stanza. We know much about the science of bats, and yet: But in the night still comes the unexplained figure slipping in and out of bedrooms, in and out the soft throats of women. For science is only the golden boat on the dark river such fur on the cheeks, such teeth of blood, where women dream behind the kiss. What “dream behind the kiss” does Oliver suggest women have? Does whatever is “behind the kiss” motivate fictional teenager Bella Swan to stick with a gorgeous vampire when all the boys in her high school have the hots for her? Come back for a writing exercise on science vs. symbolism tomorrow…

The Poetry Friday Round-up is being hosted by Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day today. Head over there for some dreamy poetry.

A Conversation about "Twilight," Part Two

I'm talking about the YA fantasy novel Twilight with my writing buddy, Towson U. Professor of Psychology, Cyndee Kalodner.

Cyndee, once I recovered from that “can’t put the book down” feeling, I thought about Edward and Bella’s relationship.

As a feminist, I have serious problems with Twilight. Should we be teaching girls that – in sexual relationships – they are prey and men are predators?

Edward waivers somewhere between safe and dangerous; he’s a good bad-boy. But it bothered me that he’s always swooping Bella up, cradling her, watching her sleep, rescuing her. In a way, he’s making her a perpetual child. Bella can’t become a woman (literally or figuratively) as long as she’s with Edward. It’s implied that Edward realizes this, but Bella is clueless.

You have a ‘tween daughter who’s read the series. What do you think about the predator/prey issue?

CK: Never thought about it that way. I saw it as a sad situation in which a guy wants to be with a girl, but he can’t because he would have to make her a vampire in the process. I see him as beneficent and frustrated. I see her as your more typical teenager, in lust with him.

So, if I'm planning ahead to the day when my 9-year-old daughter will read Twilight, I should see it as pure entertainment. Hopefully, she won't model her romantic relationships on Bella and Edward.

Bella wants Edward to make her a vampire, but author Stephanie Meyer doesn’t have the character realize how separated she’s become from her parents and her own life. I think the real Bella would seriously weigh what it means to give up a normal life – especially having children. Isn’t this an unhealthy obsession, or am I just projecting myself onto the character?

CK: I think she sees the advantages to being a vampire – you don’t have to eat, sleep, or worry about the more mundane things that HS students have to deal with. He is all knowing, while she has to study and do schoolwork (even though she is portrayed as smart). Not sure she has focused on the disadvantages. Isn’t that how kids make bad decisions at that age anyway?

That's a good point.

I’m taking a break from the Twilight series, so reading the books doesn’t become my unhealthy obsession. Will you read the next book, New Moon?

CK: Already started it. If I want to talk to Elena (my 12-year-old daughter), I have to know what happens next. I expect to read them all.

Sounds good, as long as you promise not to tell me what happens.

Read this post for a poem related to Twilight's themes, Mary Oliver's "Bats."

A Conversation about "Twilight"

Impressed by the overwhelming success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, my critique group (led by Deborah Da Costa) decided to shift into book group mode this month. We are discussing the YA vampire series and what makes it such a hit with teens (and adults). I’ll miss the meeting, but I visited my writing buddy and fellow critique group-member Cyndee Kalodner and we talked about the book. Cyndee happens to be Professor of Psychology at Towson University, and a fabulous MG/YA author. Cyndee, I haven’t read a page-turner like this in a long time. I couldn’t put the book down. What about you? CK: Here is a story about that… I was reading the book on the couch in the living room, and Elena (my 12 year old daughter) asked, “Didn’t you say you were going to the gym… like 10 minutes ago?” Which was exactly what happened. I read and read and read…but I did go to the gym. In musing about why the book is so popular with ‘tween and teen girls, I thought back to my own early love-interests. Teenage boys vacillate. First, they flirt with a girl. The girl flirts back. But if she starts acting too interested, the boy becomes standoffish, even cruel. (I’m not naming names, people, but he was a sophomore and I was a freshman. If a guy played with your earring at a Halloween party, what would you think?) A girl with little romantic experience is left wondering, “What’s with that guy? I thought he liked me. He acted like he liked me. What did I do wrong?”

Stephanie Meyer offers girls a simple answer: He is a VAMPIRE. Really, he wants to like you. He’s totally attracted to you. He’s just worried that he’ll be so overwhelmed by his feelings for you that he’d do you harm. Sigh. I’m swept away by Edward’s shades of Mr. Rochester and Heathcliff. So, what do you think of my theory? CK: Here is what I think. Bella is new so she attracts attention from lots of the guys, but the one she wants is the one she can’t have. I can relate to that. It’s like Edward was too perfect and he wouldn’t be interested in her. The part where he moves away from her in science class is the beginning of knowing that there is something unusual about him (compared to how the other guys treat her). But isn’t that perpetuating an unhealthy fantasy? “That beautiful, unavailable guy really does want me. He’s just acting aloof because he’s undead.” CK: Which also reminds me of a story about a very attractive guy who was standoffish. He was a friend of a guy I dated. Turned out he was painfully shy (not a vampire) and he didn’t approach girls because he really couldn’t. People thought he was a snob. He wasn’t. That’s interesting. If he hadn’t been good looking, I bet people would have assumed he was shy. More of our conversation about Twilight later.