More Thoughts on The Awakening
Feb. 9th, 2009 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlLast 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
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 08:18 am (UTC)gasp!
but angel is all broody! and spike is hotter!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 04:40 am (UTC)I always felt that Spike taking up with the good guys seemed forced and unatural.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-08 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 12:23 am (UTC)To me Spike was evil and should have stayed that way. The only reason the writers made him fall in love with Buffy was because Riley left, and they needed to give Buffy a new love interest. They reached for the closest guy on hand.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 09:27 am (UTC)ah! BUT he got OBSESSED with her, as he had been with other woman before. and eventually fell in love.
"Riley"
ugh, Riley.
"The only reason the writers made him fall in love with Buffy was because Riley left, and they needed to give Buffy a new love interest."
no, I think they'd been building to this for awhile, it seemed organic.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 05:31 pm (UTC)it seemed organic
To each his own. It still feels forced to me.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 10:00 am (UTC)Yes. Yes you are.
"he was a home-spun, corn-fed, Mid-westerner who could provide her with a certain degree of normalcy"
AH! but she was never going to HAVE normalcy. She's an ex-cheerleader vampire slayer whose best friend is a witch. Normalcy was never going back into THAT life!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 03:11 pm (UTC)To me, that exchange encapsulates the primary conflict in Buffy's life, one Buffy grapples with time and time again throughout the duration of the series. Buffy IS just a teenage girl, and she wants all of the same things other teenage girls want: a social life, a boyfriend, to participate in extracurricular activities, to get along with her mom. But she can't do ANY of those things because she is the Slayer. Even so, that doesn't stop her from wanting them, and doesn't stop her from trying (and continually failing) to have them. Knowing she can't be normal doesn't stop her from trying out for the cheerleading squad in the second episode of the series. Likewise, it doesn't stop her from trying to have a normal romance with a normal guy.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 10:24 am (UTC)Classic!
was she hot in that outfit or WHAT?
1st Amy appearance, also!
"it doesn't stop her from trying to have a normal romance with a normal guy. "
yes.. but the spark isn't there (Riley) or the guy gets a fetish for being in danger (some guy she dated once whose name I can't remember).
"movie"
the movie was ok.. but it was never the HUGE PILE OF AWESOME the series turned out to be.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 03:37 am (UTC)Yes, the movie was no where near as good as the series, but that was the fault of the actors and the director. The script was actually quite good, and I find a lot in the movie to enhance the material in the series.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 10:06 am (UTC)You've read it? I haven't.
"but that was the fault of the actors and the director"
supposedly Donald Sutherland interfered with ti a bit, which is unfortunate, as I otherwise quite like him!
"and I find a lot in the movie to enhance the material in the series."
Pee Wee Herman was HILARIOUS.