As I told you in my first post, I consider myself kind of a book worm. I love books and I think they are infinitely more interesting than movies (not to say they don't have their own flair). Basically because I think books have a way to get under your skin. When you read a book you are destined to spend more time with it than watching a movie for 2 hours and also you have this incredible liberty of constructing your own little world, characters, places etc. I've been a passionate reader since I was a little girl but I can't say that I have ever encountered such a phenomenon when it comes to trilogies and series of books. Now, I know that they have always existed but never in this kind of fashion in the mainstream. Come to think of it...
 |
| Image from http://mareseosullivan.wordpress.com |
I'm quite sure it all began with Harry Potter. We can all agree that the series is written by an amazing author, J.K. Rowling. She is or should definitely be an inspiration to every wannabe writer. She has the "it" factor that you need to write an amazing story. Just to think of all the details and work that was put into creating this fantasy world. Still to this day, I'm sure every single person that read the books wanted to be a wizard at Hogwarts. I can tell you right now that I would do anything to get a letter from Dumbledore. Sigh. Anyway, I was happy that I could spend time with Harry and his friends for 7 books and I understood that it was necessary for the story that there would be more books than one. It was a journey that couldn't be told in simple 500 pages. As Harry grew, we grew with him. As he suffered losses so did we. As he fell in love, we fell in love beside him. Everything had a purpose. And the success of the series along with the extremely popular movies had consequences of its own.
And that brings me to the point that I'm trying to make today. For the last two or three years, whenever I looked on a Best Sellers list there seemed to be trilogies and series all over the place. The Hunger Games Trilogy. The Divergent Trilogy. The Twilight Saga. Fifty Shades of Grey. The Crossfire Trilogy. Let me just tell you that I read them all (I warned you that I read a lot) and this is my honest opinion. For the most part, what I took away from them was .... not very much. Unfortunately. With every series I wanted it to matter, to make me want more but mostly I just wanted to be through with them. By the end I couldn't stop wondering why on earth they couldn't just publish one single book and leave the authors with some dignity. Here is the catch though. All of them have the same recipe. Its to keep you lusting for more. And the way to do that is sexual tension. What other thing would work for so many girls and women? We just want them to finally do it so we can all move on with our lives. Its a powerful tool and it should be used wisely. But in these cases I'm not so sure. Aaaaa, I just wonder, do we really have to sacrifice substance for money? You know, apart from Hunger Games and maybe Divergent, I feel that the publishers shouldn't have approved the kind of literature that was written. I mean, come on. You could easily fit all three books from Fifty Shades into one and get kind of a decent book out of it. After finishing the books you feel exhausted because it's just. So. Looong.
 |
| Image from http://2.bp.blogspot.com |
Now, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be series or trilogies, I just fu**ing want them to be a certain quality. As a reader you want the characters and their stories to stay with you, you want to feel as if you have lived something important through them and unfortunately in these last examples it just doesn't happen. The Twilight Saga - do I want to become a vampire and live happily ever after with Edward? Ammm, NO. Fifty Shades of Grey - do I want to have sex 3-5 times a day and live happily ever after with a psychotic, controlling but unbelievably good-looking rich dude? Hmmm, maybe, I mean. NO. Definitely NO. The Crossfire Trilogy - won't ever go there, NO. The Divergent Trilogy - the writing is better and the stories have more imagination but it doesn't resonate as it should. The Hunger Games - on the plus side we have the action factor, the story is intriguing, the characters are not as one-dimensional as they are in other series. The downside though - still it doesn't stick.
So as I keep telling you, as readers and consumers we should be getting more for our money. The problem is that publishing houses know that these are the stories that will make them more income. Look at Twilight for example. Not just one insanely successful book but 4. Can you imagine the money behind it all? They push the books, advertise them heavily and the result is profit that makes everyone in the industry happy. Small books hardly ever get the attention they deserve. And what do we get? Four books that at the end of the day teach us that the only thing girls have to do is find a husband. Period. What we really need are stories to make us stronger, to believe in ourselves, to learn something new. We especially need stories where women don't only wait to meet a handsome young man and then live happily ever after. This is the 21st century for god's sake. It just makes me mad that little girls growing up will want to be Bella or Anastasia or I don't even remember the others names but you get the picture. They should want to become strong, independent women, who know what they want and won't settle for less than they are worth. We are teaching them the wrong lessons. In America, Twilight is obligatory reading in some schools. We should check with that generation in a couple of years. I wonder where they will be? All married I presume. Or just depressed that they never got to meet their Edward. Just 100 years ago women could finally vote. And I feel like we are just going backwards instead of forwards.
Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society that is driven by the need and desire for MONEY. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. We all have to have goals and if money is yours, why not? Go ahead. But when it comes to our education can we not sacrifice quality on the way? Can we start writing and subsequently advertising and promoting stories that will change peoples lives for the better? Think about it.
Like I said in the title, since when is one book not enough? Sometimes it's better not to push it. Less is more.
Goodbye world. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment