Will Twilight be Remembered?

Twilight will go down in history as a bestseller.

But will it actually be remembered? No, it won't. The bestsellers of their day rarely sit alongside the classics on the shelves of our bookstores. Have you ever heard of 'Ossian' by James McPherson? It was one of the most widely distributed works of literature of all time, and Napoleon carried a copy with him wherever he went... but where is it now?

There's little in Twilight to interest a literary scholar, and its they who ultimately determine which texts become classics. Twilight won't be remembered as a great work of literature - it doesn't have what it takes.

If you want to know more about what books WILL become future classics, check out this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtJ3J...

But go on, give us your opinion. I'm interested.

If you ask me, the following things about Twilight explain both its huge success and why its not good literature:

* Twilight is very straight-forward and two-dimensional and unchallenging, so it's easy to digest for people who don't normally read books - there's nothing subtle about it whatsoever;

* The characters are idealisations:

> Bella is the perfect girl/woman, a fantasy and a wish-fulfiller (a "Mary-Sue"): she is beautiful, she is intelligent, she is flawless (her only "flaw" is her clumsiness, but this is not her fault - it's uncontrollable - and casts her as a damsel in distress), but she also has insecurities which allow readers to relate to her, and so she is everything that Stephenie Meyer and her readers want to be;

> It's no secret that Edward is 'perfect', is unbelievably attractive, that he can't be improved upon, that he's an 'Adonis', that he's the perfect man;

* Twilight is chaste sex. It uses the vampire metaphor to talk about sex (vampires have always been an indirect device to talk about sex) and so it's not explicit or threatening and readers lap it up - especially teenagers;

* It reinforces traditional gender conceptions and stereotypes, making for an unchallenging, cliched, and easy read: Bella is a damsel in distress who needs to be saved, is far too interested in and fulfilled by the kitchen, and is only interested in finding the perfect man to settle down with (in fact, that's the whole and only point of the series); Edward is hopelessly devoted to Bella and would do anything for her, provides entirely masculine security, and often flashes a manly temper and aggressiveness which (conveniently) only emerges for Bella's benefit, never to her detriment;

* Twilight just hammers home (in it's unsubtle manner) the same theme over and over again: the temptation of the unattainable. Twilight is about the thing you want but you can't have, and that's so basic a theme that everyone can relate to it.

New Name- Most teen books don't make classics list because Young Adult fiction has only been around as a genre since the 1950s/60s. So they haven't been around long enough to really have that many classics. However, there are several books with a YA audience in mind that are now considered classic: Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Are You There God? It's Me, Margret, The Pigman, to name a few.

As to "will Twilight be remembered?" Yes, I think it will. But honestly, I don't think your statement about "only a few books from each decade will be remembered" is true. We don't remember as many books from centuries gone by because there just WEREN'T that many. I think a lot more books from this century will be remembered in the long run because there are a ton more books TO be remembered. True, some will fade in time, but many are genuinely good books (Harry Potter, as someone else said) that will be remembered as such.. on the other hand, some books (like Twilight), have enough of a following that you can bet that in 20-30 years when the current generation of twihards have kids that are the right age, they'll give them the book to read. And since humans don't evovle that quickly, a whole new batch of little Edward fan girls will be born.

I don't think it will be remembered as a "great literature", but we seem to have this strange idea that pop culture doesn't count as culture... which isn't so.

Hey

I wouldn't say Twilight would go into Literature History, actually, most young adult/teenage books don't, and it's not the most well written book in the world. I personally don't like them (the love triangle killed it for me there - that's what made Bella so whiny), but if you think about it, it's been out for a few years and craze isn't dying down, so I think it'll be a book that people will still read in a decade, the book is still hard to grab hold of from the library.

Sorry if I'm being diplomatic =P But I hope I made sense

I would say that Harry Potter will be remembered, definitely, lots of fans will have their children read it, I would say, but I've never read the books myself, way too much description (unnecessary) for my liking, I do like the plot though, as most people do.

x

Edit:

As I said, I don't like Twilight. But to be honest, it has actually become a very big thing, in terms of the idea of the story, it is a bestseller. You have lots of books following the same path, and as cliche as they may be, they sell! A lot of the people that have read will not forget it in a few decades, pass the book down to children or whatever, so it'll stick around

Yep, I agree, it won't be studied in schools for English - as said, the literature isn't the best thing about the book

By the way, nice question, different to others

Alright here are some movies to help you out: The Butterfly Effect 50 First Dates Napolean Dynamite Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Two Brothers The Village House of Flying Daggers Finding Neverland Big Fish Hotel Rwanda Super Size Me Broken Flowers About Schmidt The Constant Gardner Memoirs of a Geisha

It most certainly is not good enough to be one of the few. I do think it will be remembered for a while, maybe a decade tops, but only as a phenomenon of the human psyche. That is to say, I think we might read it, knowing it's no such thing as great literature, just to study the reasons for the fixation. For example, 'maybe they loved it so much because of the unconquerable love in the story, and because they like the thought of that sort of thing being possible,' or something like that. Twilight was a good enough read, and it has its merits, but it wouldn't pass for a century great. Or at least, I sincerely hope not.

Twilight is most definately only a hype of the moment. The books are good and the films are alright but they're not overly special to be honest. Compared to Harry Potter, which will probably go down in History and be remembered, they're pretty rubbish.

Victoria

Personally, having read them and found them ok (aside from Breaking Dawn) I don't think they will. The writing is not all that great, though they are fast paced books. All but a few of the characters are rather uninteresting, and the plot isn't all that memorable, though rather solid for the type of book it is. But in the long run, no, I don't think it's going to be all that memorable.

go down in history as classic books? well of course not! will it be remembered? yes for more reasons then you think. mainly people will remember it for being one of the most popular and most sold books in the world in history but remembered for being one of the best pieces of literature ever written no way because even though the story itself is good, the way it was written was just bloody awful!

Yes and No

As a piece of literature I certainly hope not

but i think it will be remembered by this generation for the hype it created but nothing more

It will be remembered, but as a fad.

In 50 years, I don't think Twilight will be studied by high school students or considered great by any means.