by Montaine on May 12th, 2012, 10:55 am
It is a common point of contention between a me and my friend as to whether the Twilight series is justifiable. We're both literature students used to studying Shakespeare, Austen and the like, so something so objectively poorly written as Meyer's work doesn't exactly compare. But my view of literature, of art I suppose, is that the most important aspect of it is the personal enjoyment of the audience, of the viewer, of the reader, whereas to him and most literature students it is the message of the work, the symbolism and the discussion it brings forth. As such, a work like Twilight that brings joy to many, many people but is not written well at all cannot be seen as a good book by the standards of a literary scholar, but to me its existence is warranted by the happiness it brings to people. People with little literary taste, I grant you, and I can say that, I've earned my literary snobbishness through intense study (and or sleep).
And I don't really cry, which I suppose isn't too great a surprise. I think I cried twice in the last decade? I might reserve crying for a whole topic actually, there's a sweet story that goes with it that made my friends go 'awww'.
Also, I'm loving that a post on video games instigated a discussion about art. You guys are the best.