Here is some good news. Spotlight: An Up-Close Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Novels is off to the publisher and should be available for purchase at Amazon.com in a few weeks. I’ll post information here, of course, when that happens and what you can do to pre-order the book if you want an autographed copy before Christmas.
Something I cut out of Spotlight was my defensive explanation of why I thought the two avenues of interpretation I took — iconological and, for lack of a better word, psychological — were better than other more conventional approaches. I left this out because I thought a positive explanation was sufficient justification for the four layered “deep mining” and dream interpretation I give Mrs. Meyer’s novels.
But I thought I’d discuss here the three accepted approaches to reading books critically, what I call ‘The Three Literary Pigs,’ that are prevalent in the academy and in public reviews today. Understanding how professional book readers analyze and categorize a work of fiction is helpful in understanding why Twilight gets such dismissive and flippant treatment from critics as a rule despite stratospheric sales and reader following. Sadly, these consensus driven approaches tell us nothing about the meaning, artistry, and power of the Twilight books, specifically, and all reading, really, in general. Read the rest of this entry »
Recent Comments