Two Questions...

[leahbobet]

...both spawned by the never-ending parade of posts about how terrible Twilight is.*

1) So two major YA series hit big in the last ten years: Twilight and Harry Potter. In the early part of each series, you saw what can be charitably called low production values in terms of craft, plots that revolved around blatant wish-fulfillment, and wholesale rips of the tropes of already established subgenres. Potter is the poster child for mainstream acceptance. Twilight is excoriated regularly in newspapers, the internets, and local bookstores in reenactments of the Five Minutes' Hate.

What's the difference? What causes that?

I have my own theory, but I want to hear yours.


2) Where do people get the idea that exposing a child to a worldview or idea at all means the child will automatically agree with, adopt, and adhere to that worldview or idea?

Really, peoples. You met kids?


*Haven't read it, not gonna, no opinion on the matter.

Comments

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

(And a lot -- maybe the majority -- of non-Mormon Christians in the U.S. don't consider Mormons to be Christians at all, given the different scriptures, etc.)

Sorry, I have to pause to tangentially giggle a little. You believe in a dude named Jesus and that he was divine? DING! Christian! We follow the one-drop rule around here!

Okay. Sorry. Done now. *g*

2.) a lot of Twilight fans are more Edward-fans than fans of the series as a world. I'd say it's more comparable to the reactions of adolescent girls to Elvis, or to boy-bands, than to the more heterogeneous passions of Harry Potter fans.

While I agree that there's a lot of boy-band thing going on here, I suspect that's not something eldritch and weird, but merely a side-effect of who the target market is. As you said, same effect as with musicians. Just this time, it's for a character.

Also, I would believe you more about Potter fans if I did not know the utter horror of its fanfic community, sprawled across the internet like a giant pornographic beast, holding flamewars because someone dared dis their OTP. :p

[redplum.livejournal.com]

Okay. Sorry. Done now. *g*

I'm an atheist living in a city of sin, so no need to apologize in my direction.

I suspect that's not something eldritch and weird, but merely a side-effect of who the target market is.

Yeah, I completely agree. I do think it startles a lot of adults, though. We've come to expect it with musicians, but perhaps not so much with books.

Also, I would believe you more about Potter fans if I did not know the utter horror of its fanfic community, sprawled across the internet like a giant pornographic beast, holding flamewars because someone dared dis their OTP. :p

Actually, I think that sort of strengthens the point I was trying to make. Imagine that 99 out of every 100 adolescent Potter fans, on the internet and off, were obsessed with the same character. I think more adult readers and critics might be more disturbed by HP fandom if that were the case. (I also suspect that online fans represent only a small fraction of the larger HP fandom, though I have no data to back that up.)

I should qualify by saying that nothing I've written here about critical responses quite matches up to my own view of the series.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Imagine that 99 out of every 100 adolescent Potter fans, on the internet and off, were obsessed with the same character.

99 of out 100 Due South fans are obsessed with the same character.

And the rest are obsessed with the dog. *g*

[shiroiko.livejournal.com]

The LDS church believed in Jesus (and both Old and New testament) but has additional books of teachings as well and well as additional prophets. Wiki's brief synopsis of the differences is "Perhaps the most distinct difference between the LDS Church and other faiths is the belief that its founder Joseph Smith, Jr. was a prophet who received a visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ ... and was directed to translate what became known as the Book of Mormon, a volume of scripture..."

So it's like Christianity plus a bunch of other stuff... a LOT of other stuff... and that other stuff is all things generally though of as heresy by other Christian sects. Actually, several sects consider the LDS church a cult rather than a church.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd noticed in the news coverage of the Texas polygamy thing that most people who self-identify as Christian seem to turn up their nose at Mormons. I must admit I find it a little funny that the cry of heretics ee! is still alive and well in modern times.