It appears that Stephen King is not too much of a Stephanie Meyer (“Twilight”) fan. He recently did an interview with USA Weekend, where he compared Meyer to J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author.
He said: “Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
wow! Those are fighting words. King may not be a fan of Meyer’s writing, but he does understand why her series “Twilight” is so popular among readers.
He further states, “People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.”
“A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if and how Meyer responds to King’s remark. This may get interesting to say the least.
About Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer (née Morgan, born December 24, 1973) is the American author of the bestselling young adult Twilight series, which revolves around the relationship between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen. The Twilight books have sold over 40 million copies worldwide, with translations into 37 different languages around the globe. A film adaptation of Twilight was released domestically on November 21, 2008. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.
Meyer was the biggest selling author of 2008, having sold over 22 million books in one year alone, with Twilight being the best selling book of the year.
Twilight
Meyer says that the idea for Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003. The dream was about a human girl, and a vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the transcript of what is now Chapter 13 of the book. Despite having very little writing experience, in a matter of three months she had transformed that vivid dream into a completed novel. After writing and editing the novel, she signed a three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company for $750,000. The book was released in 2005.
Twilight quickly gained recognition and won numerous honors, including:
- A New York Times Editor’s Choice
- A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
- An Amazon.com “Best Book of the Decade…So Far”
- A Teen People “Hot List” pick
- An American Library Association “Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults” and “Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers”
The novel reached #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list for young adult chapter books, and has been translated into 20 languages. However, critical reception has been mixed. Booklist wrote, “There are some flaws here — a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue — but this dark romance seeps into the soul.” Kirkus wrote: “[Twilight] is far from perfect: Edward’s portrayal as monstrous tragic hero is overly Byronic, and Bella’s appeal is based on magic rather than character. Nonetheless, the portrayal of dangerous lovers hits the spot; fans of dark romance will find it hard to resist.”
Fan following
Meyer has gained a following among young adult readers for her Twilight novels, which are set in the small town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Forks has thus received an unusual amount of attention, and celebrates “Stephenie Meyer Day” on September 13, the date of character Bella Swan’s birthday, in honor of the author.[22]
Fans express themselves in other ways: “[They] dress up like her characters. They write their own stories about them and post their tales on the Internet. When she appears at a bookstore, 3,000 people go to meet her. There are Twilight-themed rock bands.”
Leave a Reply