Yesterday, with a group of friends, the topic of "Twilight" came up. I for one think Stephanie Meyer is a genius who sliced into a market with the precision of a world class surgeon and sold millions of books to prove it. But easily 90% of my friends in that group thought it was the worst book ever written, that it harmed youth and was actually "BAD" for people to read. Perhaps the most laughable argument, that was made in all seriousness was, and I quote, "it was only that successful because it was a Mormon conspiracy." The latter, I'm afraid, shows a level of ignorance which later turned into an embarrassing display of bigotry that I won't bother repeating.
But it got me thinking, why is it that there is such vitriol over these books. I'm a guy. I am not a Mormon. I read the books and while I didn't love them, I didn't hate them either. I'd say I was on the edge of like and indifferent to them. I've certainly read worse. It is truly bizarre that people not only 'didn't like' the books, but they truly hate them. I mean, hate hate. It doesn't make any sense to me. There are books that I really didn't enjoy, but they don't elicit that kind of hatred.
Do you think it's just people following a trend to dislike this book, or do you think it's just some strange social phenomenon?
But it got me thinking, why is it that there is such vitriol over these books. I'm a guy. I am not a Mormon. I read the books and while I didn't love them, I didn't hate them either. I'd say I was on the edge of like and indifferent to them. I've certainly read worse. It is truly bizarre that people not only 'didn't like' the books, but they truly hate them. I mean, hate hate. It doesn't make any sense to me. There are books that I really didn't enjoy, but they don't elicit that kind of hatred.
Do you think it's just people following a trend to dislike this book, or do you think it's just some strange social phenomenon?