Upon meditating on the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I closed my eyes to sleep. However, before repeating over Isaiah 54:11 thus lulling myself to sleep as is custom, I instead opted to listen. You see, I have read the account of St. John's Revelation many times and have never managed to imagine Heaven. The best I can muster is a street of pure gold and after that everything is overwhelmed in a golden light. Its origin is never from the sky, but from the centre of the City. Tonight, however, Our Blessed Lord was kind enough to send His Spirit to inspire my imagination with something that my feeble mind could indeed comprehend.
A white ankle-length summer dress flowed in the warm, gentle breeze. Bare, fair-skinned feet walked along the pure white sandy beach which was speckled here and there with smooth grey and black stones of many sizes. Gentle waves lapped against the shore. The sky seems to be overcast; covered end to end in fluffy clouds dappled with grey, orange and pink colours. It is as bright as the noonday despite there being no sun. The black cliffs of Moher shoot out over the girl with orange-red hair. It is as if everything is in HD, for all the colours are truly brilliant! There is no sound except for the calm sea gently kissing the seashore.
There are steps up the side of the cliff and she takes them with perfect ease- almost seeming to dance. On top is a sea of brilliant green grass as far as the eye can see, and it feels as feathers underfoot. She comes upon the ruins of an old grey stoned celtic-styled Church and goes towards Him. As she walks inside, the grass gives way to marble and she is astonished to discover that the interior is brand new with pure white marble. Drawn towards the front she eyes the Eucharist encased in pure gold and outlined in a background of pure white light which seems to have no beginning and no end.
Enchanted, she walks towards the altar and out steps Jesus Christ from in front of the Eucharist. She stops, speechless, for it is as if He had always been standing there and some how she had not seen Him. He smiles with a most intimate and loving expression, and offers her His hand. She continues walking towards Him and places her hand in His. They face the altar and look deeply into each others eyes as the pure white light -that is, Love- consumes Them.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Dear Stephenie Meyer: A Study of the Twilight Saga
I recently completed the Twilight Saga via audiobook and it only took about two weeks. Obviously the following are some of my thoughts.
Twilight
This book was actually quite tedious. As it was your first book, it is also the most poorly written in the Saga which is a shame because it really did have so much potential. It felt like you didn't really think it all the way through and were discovering the characters for yourself which would explain why a lot of the dialogue was so pointless. You didn't really know the characters very well and so I ended up not knowing the characters very well. This would also explain the inconsistencies in character developement as well. One point I would like to bring to your attention is that in the book it seems that the discussion between Bella and Edward about him being a vampire never really happened much. It was just sort of accepted that he was a vampire. I would have liked a more predicable discovery of this fact as well as some denial by Edward since that would have been more believeable. Overall Twilight did not need to be as loog as it was and i think about 5 or 6 chapters would have sufficed to estabilish the relationship and vampire deal. The book really didn't go anywhere.
New Moon
New Moon saw only slight improvement upon your writing ability. Thankfully though, the Epilogue was actually quite decent as well as the part when Edward discovers that Bella is dead. Both of these portions were well written and captivating and show that you can be a good writer when you want to be. Again though, there were inconsistencies with character developement as you still didn't fully get to know these characters and so neither did I. It was a bit frusterating because Jacob would say and do things that were out of character and his motivation wasn't entirely clear all the time. Did you intend to make Edward out to be a psychopath? How he treats and relates to Bella is not healthy at all and while I understand he's a vampire it still was unnecessary. I feel like you neglected your target audience, young teenaged girls, by painting the main love interest as a psychopath and then modeling a unhealthy relationship for them. I'm also dissapointed that you made Bella out to be an idiot and she became a very aggravating character to listen all the time because of it. I also liked the discussion between Carlisle and Bella when she cut her arm and feel that, that is how you should have handled the relationships of the characters as it was the only realy point when the dialogue did not feel forced and had a natural flow.
Personally, I think there's a lot of unneccesary filler in both Twilight and New Moon that should be removed and then both should become one book instead of two.
Eclipse
It was very interesting how you randomly and completely changed Edward entire personality some chapters into the book. I appreciate that you made him a far more reasonable and mentally stable love interest but it was in no way at all provoked. It would have made more sense for Bella and Edward to have had a major fight over Jacob and then for Edward to see the error of his ways instead of coming home from a hunting trip completely changed. I think you were off on the characterization of Jacob as you made him more of a spoiled brat than a "downtown boy." A lot of his motivation was unclear. Bella was still an idiot and she still got under my skin a lot because of it. Overall though this was a pretty decent book. With a few exceptions it had a good enough flow to it and there were only a few points of pointless dialogue and narrative. Unlike the previous books it had a nice buildup to the climax and the climax actually delivered. Good on you!
Breaking Dawn
First of all, I would like to thank you for how you handled the sex. I was worried that there'd be a whole sordid chapter long description but you handled it the best by leaving the details out. I do think Edward was in shock for a bit longer than necessary. I disagree with how Bella was depicted for keeping the child as it made her appear to be out of her freaking mind. I would have liked to see her logic explained and defended well because then I probably would have been more inclined to cheer for her rather than wishing that the thing and others would just kill her and get it over with. I welcomed the respite of seeing things from Jacob's perspective and he was much less of a spoiled brat because of it. While I figured it out before Bella, it would have been nice if it was more obvious that Jacob had imprinted. After Bella was turned, the book was fantastic. Bella became highly intelligent and could work things out with ease for once and I thoroughly enjoyed her character. I do think Jacob's character could have been improved some though as still one or two of his motivations were still unclear. The only thing that really bothered me was how Renessme randomly started speaking Spanish. What gives?! Also, the part where Bella makes arrangements seemed rather unnecessary and it didn't really fit with the rest of the story.
I would recommend that you do atleast one more book exclusively on the life of Bella and Edward as vampires as after she was turned it actually became a delightful story. You wouldn't necessarily have to address the Volturi although that would make a hell of a conclussion to the 5th book, but just illustrate simple adventures and stuff. You could call it "Morning Dew" or "Sunset" or something.
I also recommend you go back and rewrite Twilight and New Moon and make them into one book.
Twilight
This book was actually quite tedious. As it was your first book, it is also the most poorly written in the Saga which is a shame because it really did have so much potential. It felt like you didn't really think it all the way through and were discovering the characters for yourself which would explain why a lot of the dialogue was so pointless. You didn't really know the characters very well and so I ended up not knowing the characters very well. This would also explain the inconsistencies in character developement as well. One point I would like to bring to your attention is that in the book it seems that the discussion between Bella and Edward about him being a vampire never really happened much. It was just sort of accepted that he was a vampire. I would have liked a more predicable discovery of this fact as well as some denial by Edward since that would have been more believeable. Overall Twilight did not need to be as loog as it was and i think about 5 or 6 chapters would have sufficed to estabilish the relationship and vampire deal. The book really didn't go anywhere.
New Moon
New Moon saw only slight improvement upon your writing ability. Thankfully though, the Epilogue was actually quite decent as well as the part when Edward discovers that Bella is dead. Both of these portions were well written and captivating and show that you can be a good writer when you want to be. Again though, there were inconsistencies with character developement as you still didn't fully get to know these characters and so neither did I. It was a bit frusterating because Jacob would say and do things that were out of character and his motivation wasn't entirely clear all the time. Did you intend to make Edward out to be a psychopath? How he treats and relates to Bella is not healthy at all and while I understand he's a vampire it still was unnecessary. I feel like you neglected your target audience, young teenaged girls, by painting the main love interest as a psychopath and then modeling a unhealthy relationship for them. I'm also dissapointed that you made Bella out to be an idiot and she became a very aggravating character to listen all the time because of it. I also liked the discussion between Carlisle and Bella when she cut her arm and feel that, that is how you should have handled the relationships of the characters as it was the only realy point when the dialogue did not feel forced and had a natural flow.
Personally, I think there's a lot of unneccesary filler in both Twilight and New Moon that should be removed and then both should become one book instead of two.
Eclipse
It was very interesting how you randomly and completely changed Edward entire personality some chapters into the book. I appreciate that you made him a far more reasonable and mentally stable love interest but it was in no way at all provoked. It would have made more sense for Bella and Edward to have had a major fight over Jacob and then for Edward to see the error of his ways instead of coming home from a hunting trip completely changed. I think you were off on the characterization of Jacob as you made him more of a spoiled brat than a "downtown boy." A lot of his motivation was unclear. Bella was still an idiot and she still got under my skin a lot because of it. Overall though this was a pretty decent book. With a few exceptions it had a good enough flow to it and there were only a few points of pointless dialogue and narrative. Unlike the previous books it had a nice buildup to the climax and the climax actually delivered. Good on you!
Breaking Dawn
First of all, I would like to thank you for how you handled the sex. I was worried that there'd be a whole sordid chapter long description but you handled it the best by leaving the details out. I do think Edward was in shock for a bit longer than necessary. I disagree with how Bella was depicted for keeping the child as it made her appear to be out of her freaking mind. I would have liked to see her logic explained and defended well because then I probably would have been more inclined to cheer for her rather than wishing that the thing and others would just kill her and get it over with. I welcomed the respite of seeing things from Jacob's perspective and he was much less of a spoiled brat because of it. While I figured it out before Bella, it would have been nice if it was more obvious that Jacob had imprinted. After Bella was turned, the book was fantastic. Bella became highly intelligent and could work things out with ease for once and I thoroughly enjoyed her character. I do think Jacob's character could have been improved some though as still one or two of his motivations were still unclear. The only thing that really bothered me was how Renessme randomly started speaking Spanish. What gives?! Also, the part where Bella makes arrangements seemed rather unnecessary and it didn't really fit with the rest of the story.
I would recommend that you do atleast one more book exclusively on the life of Bella and Edward as vampires as after she was turned it actually became a delightful story. You wouldn't necessarily have to address the Volturi although that would make a hell of a conclussion to the 5th book, but just illustrate simple adventures and stuff. You could call it "Morning Dew" or "Sunset" or something.
I also recommend you go back and rewrite Twilight and New Moon and make them into one book.
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