This is quite possibly (and depressingly) a defining feature of todays youth.
On the one hand, you have the Harry Potter Generation. Hi! That's me. And my beau. And most of my friends.
On the other hand, you have the Twilight Generation. Mostly younger than us HP fans, I see it mostly in this years high school Sophomores. They seemed hit hardest, but I'm not going to lie, there's a huge swath of older people who like twilight, in their 20's or 30's.
But more than age, there's a defining feature that draws a line in the sand that most HP/Twilight fans won't cross.
HARRY POTTER FANS
_____________________
TWILIGHT FANS
See? Line. In the proverbial sand. The HP fans may have read Twilight, but probably think it's dumb. If not, they fall into the other catagory: Twilight fans who like Harry Potter.
The line in the sand is sort of a one-way line.
Twilight fans are allowed to like other things, because they're notorious for ignoring quality and being suckered in by anything sparkly (VAMPIRES HAVE FANGS STEPHANIE MEYERS!) and if they're of the right age they probably remember when Harry Potter was all the rage and sparkly and new.
Harry Potter fans have dignity.
They know that Twilight could have been written by a twelve year old, that it's a self-serving story for Meyers because she gets to toss out all of her ideals (marriage before sex, anti-abortion even in the face of death) and she got to write a story where a girl who's entirely plain (and bitchy and dumb) and could easily be HER gets to hook up with a supposed sex god.
Also known as bitchy dumb boring looking inexplicably popular necrophiliac girl gets banged by ancient undead pedophile with a blood fetish.
Doesn't look so snazzy now, does it?
In HP, you come across things like "equal rights" and an argument against the validity of slave labor, racism and a million other things cleverly disguised as a book that (well, the first one anyways) was geared at children.
Harry Potter may not be the best written story in the world, but it improved over time and JKR is a fabulous story teller.
Twilight was shitty from book one through the most recent novella and anything that's going to come, and SMeyers is a shitty story teller.
And thus the debate rages on.
Are we the Twilight Generation or the Potter Generation? Shall we be remembered for sweeping cinematic set in Scotland or boys in glitter and lipstick in a dreary town in Washington that no one had ever heard of? Shall we be remembered for lessons about tolerance or about keeping a baby even if it might kill you?
I've lectured my fair share of brainless preteen girls about the fact that the relationship between Bella and Edward - he's overpowering, she goes back to him even after he's emotionally/verbally abusive, he takes her away from her friends and family, bans her from seeing people, treats her like we're in the dark ages and GETS AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE HES A SPARKLEPYER - is really, really unhealthy.
I don't care if you want to marry him. He's a) fictional and b) a total asshole.
And then there's Bella! She's vapid, for one. Almost killer herself several times over a boy who treats her like shit. Unintelligent. Really fucking bitchy - if she walked into any real high school, she wouldn't be swarmed and suddenly popular. You treat people like that and you have no friends. She's manipulative. She's everything I hate about teenagers.
Don't model your social life after her. Both she and Edward show obvious signs of sociopath tendencies. THATS NOT GOOD.
I forget that not everyone has the entire Harry Potter series committed to memory.
Let me wrap it up for you:
Boys parents are killed, ends up with bitchy family, finds out he's a wizard, goes to boarding school, meets fabulous friends, finds out about having an arch nemesis, has a more local nemesis, has many adventures, becomes the star of the local sport of choice, has more adventures, stands up for all sorts of things, has his trust betrayed by an old bearded man, looses his godfather and a handful of other people who were important to him, comes to terms with death, defeats arch nemesis, proves he's a good person, good triumphs over evil, world is saved, boy marries girl and has kids and lives happily ever after.
Compare that to the plot of the Twilight saga:
Girl leaves mother to live with father so her mother can live happily ever after even though she's going to suffer, is bitchy and mean to everyone and yet they still fawn all over her, meets boy who obviously doesn't like her, becomes obsessed, decides its true love, almost dies, boy leaves to protect her, leads on other boy (younger), toys with a handful of boys emotions, nearly kills herself, boy nearly kills himself, rescues him, plans to live happily ever after, gets married just so she can have sex, has loads of violent sex on her honeymoon, has kid even though it nearly killed her, gets turned into a vampire, fights war, lives happily ever after without a care about the fate of the world.
I'll pause so you can take bleach to your brain and forget that Twilight ever existed. I'm sorry if anyone thinks I'm dumb. Just wait for a rant on the idiocies of Lady Gaga. Then you'll all hate me - I got kicked off of Buzznet for saying I thought her music had no artistic merit and cheapened female sexuality, among other things, so it won't be the first time.
But for now, think for a moment about if you'd rather be remembered for Twilight or Harry Potter.
I'm going to re-read all of HP in time for the new movie, so I think you know where I stand.
XO
FREAK
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