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More Thoughts on The Awakening
Feb. 9th, 2009 03:41 pmLast night I finished re-reading The Awakening, AKA Volume 1 of The Vampire Diaries. Here's a brief run down of the second half of the book:
1) Stefan swoops in and saves Elena from being raped by Tyler Smallwood, after which the two start dating. (Twilight? Anyone? Twilight?)
2) Stefan only allows the two of them to spend time together in public because he's afraid he might not be able to control himself if they are alone together and he doesn't want to accidentally hurt or kill Elena. (Twilight? Anyone? Beuller?)
3) Elena writes in her diary about what a sweet and wonderful guy Stefan is and says he makes her want to be a better person, to be "worthy of him."
4) Elena does show great compassion when Stefan finally comes clean, admits he's a roughly 400 year old vampire, and tells her the story of how he was turned.
5) Of course, as all the hormones are flying, murder and mayhem have descended on Fell's Church and people are starting to think Stefan is behind the chaos. And, of course, Elena continues to make stupid decisions, and put herself in dangerous situations that other people must save her from.
6) Though, Elena does use her aggressive side for good at the end of the book when Stefan is kidnapped and she runs off to save him. This actually IS a good decision since she's the only person who can best his captor. Plus, I appreciate the fact that the damsel in distress now has to save the hero. I like it when actions traditionally associated with specific gender roles get turned on their head.
Commentary:
While the feminist in me wants to ask Elena why she only felt the need to change her behavior once she had a boy to change for, and wants to take Lisa to task for making the "power of love" tame Elena's shrew, the realist in me is willing to let it slide because I know sometimes it takes a specific person and a specific relationship to spark change in another.
This time around I'm finding myself more interested in the rivalry between Stefan and his brother Damon, even though both characters are stock, Stefan being the good, kind, and dutiful son, and Damon being the ne'er do well. The complexity of that relationship is far more compelling than the romance between Elena and Stefan which held my attention the first time around.
Similarly, when I read it the first time I found Stefan way more intereting than Damon, even though Damon was more popular among the readership. He was the Spike to Stefan's Angel. (And, just for the recond, I've always found Angel more compelling than Spike.) This time around I found Damon more interesting. He is a far more complex character, his actions and motivations more mysterious and nuanced. It seems like Lisa put more thought into him.
Here's something I can't believe I didn't pick up on in 1991: In the world of The Vampire Diaries the sharing of blood, particularly between characters who are romantically linked, is a BLATANT metaphor for sex. I don't know how this flew over my head the first time. I mean, it's not like I wasn't having sexual fantasies about Christian Slater and Jonathan Brandis back then! I was familiar with sexual imagery...or, at least I thought I was. Bitch Magazine may be saying Stephanie Meyer has invented a new sub-genre of YA lit. christianed abstinence porn, but they're wrong. L.J. Smith had it down to an art back in 1991.
To my great relief the storytelling stands up. Lisa knows how to write. Sure, the prose include more cliches than might be exceptable in your run of the mill piece of literary fiction, but this is YA fiction from the early 90's, so it's allowable.
Tonight, I start volume 2: The Struggle
1) Stefan swoops in and saves Elena from being raped by Tyler Smallwood, after which the two start dating. (Twilight? Anyone? Twilight?)
2) Stefan only allows the two of them to spend time together in public because he's afraid he might not be able to control himself if they are alone together and he doesn't want to accidentally hurt or kill Elena. (Twilight? Anyone? Beuller?)
3) Elena writes in her diary about what a sweet and wonderful guy Stefan is and says he makes her want to be a better person, to be "worthy of him."
4) Elena does show great compassion when Stefan finally comes clean, admits he's a roughly 400 year old vampire, and tells her the story of how he was turned.
5) Of course, as all the hormones are flying, murder and mayhem have descended on Fell's Church and people are starting to think Stefan is behind the chaos. And, of course, Elena continues to make stupid decisions, and put herself in dangerous situations that other people must save her from.
6) Though, Elena does use her aggressive side for good at the end of the book when Stefan is kidnapped and she runs off to save him. This actually IS a good decision since she's the only person who can best his captor. Plus, I appreciate the fact that the damsel in distress now has to save the hero. I like it when actions traditionally associated with specific gender roles get turned on their head.
Commentary:
While the feminist in me wants to ask Elena why she only felt the need to change her behavior once she had a boy to change for, and wants to take Lisa to task for making the "power of love" tame Elena's shrew, the realist in me is willing to let it slide because I know sometimes it takes a specific person and a specific relationship to spark change in another.
This time around I'm finding myself more interested in the rivalry between Stefan and his brother Damon, even though both characters are stock, Stefan being the good, kind, and dutiful son, and Damon being the ne'er do well. The complexity of that relationship is far more compelling than the romance between Elena and Stefan which held my attention the first time around.
Similarly, when I read it the first time I found Stefan way more intereting than Damon, even though Damon was more popular among the readership. He was the Spike to Stefan's Angel. (And, just for the recond, I've always found Angel more compelling than Spike.) This time around I found Damon more interesting. He is a far more complex character, his actions and motivations more mysterious and nuanced. It seems like Lisa put more thought into him.
Here's something I can't believe I didn't pick up on in 1991: In the world of The Vampire Diaries the sharing of blood, particularly between characters who are romantically linked, is a BLATANT metaphor for sex. I don't know how this flew over my head the first time. I mean, it's not like I wasn't having sexual fantasies about Christian Slater and Jonathan Brandis back then! I was familiar with sexual imagery...or, at least I thought I was. Bitch Magazine may be saying Stephanie Meyer has invented a new sub-genre of YA lit. christianed abstinence porn, but they're wrong. L.J. Smith had it down to an art back in 1991.
To my great relief the storytelling stands up. Lisa knows how to write. Sure, the prose include more cliches than might be exceptable in your run of the mill piece of literary fiction, but this is YA fiction from the early 90's, so it's allowable.
Tonight, I start volume 2: The Struggle
