So I just read on another website that at signings the author is often presented with babies named after her characters and told that their conception was due to her books serving as foreplay. Seeing as how these books are about the romance between a teenage girl and century old vampire stuck in the body of a teenage guy, I think the Twilight hype has officially crossed over from irritating and puzzling into flat out icky and creepy.

With that said, this was a fantastic, insightful article that offered some very convincing and logical reasons for the series' popularity.

I work in a bookstore, so I'm surrounded by the hype on an almost daily basis and I absolutely loathe these books. I mean I love vampires--Buffy is my favorite show ever--but I cannot stand these books on several levels. On one hand, I can see that the writing is just plain bad: cheesy, dull, stilted, with cardboard characters and no storyline to speak of. Also, they seem way too anti-feminist and conservative to fit my sociopolitical tastes.

Even moreso, however, I have an almost visceral emotional reaction against them. Edward is arrogant and condescending to Bella. He belittles her constantly and speaks to her as though she were a two year old child that he has to take care of. (Even worse, she freaking lets him.) He in fact often picks her up, throws her over his shoulders, and carries her around--all the while ignoring the fact that she doesn't always want him to do that. He carries her down the stairs in her own home--and yes she protests--and sets her in her kitchen chair as though she were a baby he has to feed. I guess that's supposed to be hot--Edward as the ultimate alpha male--but it makes my skin crawl. And all these grown women think this is the ideal romantic fantasy?

But I guess, as Laura Miller points out, we cannot always escape our darker, obsessive impulses. The Twilight hysteria is proof of that.

"I think a fairer comparison for Meyer is to the like of Stephen King, who might not win any literary awards, but is just as phenomenal a writer and a pop sensation."

Actually Stephen King has won literary awards-several, in fact. His most distinguished is probably the lifetime achievement medal from the National Book Awards. I'm not the world's biggest King fan (although, sidenote, I'm extremely impressed by his son Joe Hill's work, esp. the stories in Twentieth Century Ghosts) but I can appreciate his honest attempts to explore human nature, his boundless imagination, and his deep understanding of what scares us. King's gritty and depressing novels are in a completely different ballpark from Meyer's vapid wish fulfillment fantasies.

I saw this a couple of nights ago on our local news segment. I was pleased and surprised to see it on Salon.

My response when I first heard of it was to roll my eyes and say "for the love of God, let the little girl do what she wants with her hair." I understand that kids have to follow the rules, but franly these kinds of dress codes are utterly stupid. They reek of conservatism and enforcement of conformity. Not only that, but it's like telling the kids, if you try to be different, we're not going to deal with you. What kind of lesson is that teaching the kids? When they get out in the world, no matter where they go and what they do, they're going to have to deal with people who are different and look it. At my job, I wait on conservative little old ladies, gothy/punky kids with piercings and tattos and heck even vampire fangs, hippie types with long dreadlocks and bandannas, flamboyant gay men wearing makeup, butch lesbian women wearing masculine clothes, military men, blue collar types, and etc... Basically, that's just the world and it's no big deal. Why are we pretending like it is? Why are we telling kids that it is a big deal?

What a couple of spoiled little twits. If the holier than thou "bride" and "groom" are that damn picky about the terminology on a freakin' legal contract, then I can only imagine what they were like when they were planning the wedding. I pity the wedding planner and everyone else that had to put up with them.

I adore Kate Atkinson's writing, and I thought this book was brilliant. Thanks for the great review!

Laura Miller's book reviews and literature features have always been my favorite aspect of Salon. Keep up the good work.

I rarely comment on Salon anymore, but seriously WTF? What the hell is up with Broadsheet and all the stupid sex topics? And why have so many of the recent posts focused on people not having sex or not wanting sex as if it's some horrific problem or mind-blowing sociological issue? Who the hell cares?

Two weeks without sex? Oh God, the apocalypse is coming. This isn't "Children of Men" people. We're doing okay on the reproducing ourselves thing. If people aren't really having that much sex anymore, or not desiring it, then I'm neglecting to see a problem. I've not had sex in six months or so, and I'm in my twenties! Most of the time, I don't really care. When I do care, it's mainly because articles like this make me wonder if I'm supposed to be an abnormal freak because I'm not going out and getting some every other night. Hell, I don't even like sex for the most part. I like intimacy, I like bonding, but sex is horribly painful at its worst and boring and awkward at its best.

But enough with the 'go out and get some girl!' articles. Am I reading Salon or fucking online Cosmo?