"Twilight" series banned in Aussie primary schools

[Aella]

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

Up until this day, I never even knew the plot of Twilight. Does anyone care to hear that the story was stolen? Guess not.

What story? There are Harlequin books with more plot.

[Nightdragon]

Originally Posted by Aella

What story? There are Harlequin books with more plot.

Agree 100%

[C_is_for_Cookie]

Originally Posted by Nightdragon

I can see how that would be fun to read for entertainment purposes. Once I heard about the sparkling vampires though, I just couldnt do it.

They lost me on sparkling vampires, vampires that sparkle in the sunlight is just wrong. I'll stick with Buffy.

[Nightdragon]

Originally Posted by C_is_for_Cookie

They lost me on sparkling vampires, vampires that sparkle in the sunlight is just wrong. I'll stick with Buffy.

I hear that! Vampires do not sparkle. Period.

[buttmunch]

Originally Posted by Sassiness

Please note, these are SOME primary schools and going on the names, it sounds like it's private schools. Private schools can ban whatever the fuck they want, it's sort of the deal with private education : come to our way of thinking pls.

Twilight hasn't been banned by the state education departments and until it does we don't need to fret too much about state censorship and all that stuff.

Personally, I agree - I think Twilight is too racy for the average primary school kid. Perhaps junior high school (which is when I was reading Dracula and Anne Rice) but certainly not kids under 12 (which is primary school!)

It's not age appropriate - and that's something PARENTS should be monitoring. One of my pet peeves is that modern parents don't ever seem to utter those words: it is not age appropriate. No, you cannot take your 5 year old brother to see the latest Harry Potter film it is not age appropriate. No, you're 15, you cannot watch True Blood - it is not age appropriate.

How fucking difficult is it to actually parent?! Too many people make the assumption that anything supernatural or fantasy based is "for kids" - totally misleading and a dangerous assumption to make when dealing with young children. I had a seriously disturbing conversation with my sister once: I'd given her the heads up that while I loved the 4th Harry Potter film, it was probably not suitable for her HP obsessed kids, as at the time the HP obsessed nephew was only 8. I told her "Look, a main character dies at the end, by this point in the books it's not really a story for little kids anymore - let them grow up a bit before you show them this film. As the character Harry grows up, so do the stories and it's not age appropriate for my nephews at this point"

Her response? "Oh - are there books?"

Me: face>palm (I dunno where she'd been during HP hysteria, but she genuinely didn't know there were books. I got the brains in this family, unfortunately!)

About 6 months later, I was talking to her again and she came out with this piece of genius: "Oh, that last HP film was too scary for the kids!"
"Yes, well I did tell you that!"
"Oh. I forgot"
"Well, you could always read the books, find out what happens and decide if it's age appropriate for the kids"
"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed that it was a film about magic and stuff, so it'd be fine for the kids."

FOR FUCK'S SAKE! I gave her a HUGE heads up and she still wanted to rely on "It's magic so it's got to be good for kids!" formula. And my sister isn't alone - so many parents just can't be bothered to actually think about this kind of stuff.

Ahem. Off soapbox now. Adult fantasy/supernatural fan out!

I agree that kids need to be told when things aren't age appropriate but for me that's more about violence than about vampire sex. As someone said, there is all sorts of stuff on telly every day, mid-day, that is far more racy than a bloody book could be. I also don't have a problem with kids knowing about sex, but that's just me.
Then again, I grew up at a time when Go Ask Alice was considered racy. Go figure.

[Rondette]

heh, I'm on the second book now. What a pile of horse-shit. The only thing I find disturbing about it is how empty Bella is. She's such a Mary-Sue for these Twi-hards (or whatever the fuck they're called)

Mary Sue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today "Mary Sue" carries a connotation of wish-fulfillment and is commonly associated with self-insertion (the writing of oneself into a fictional story). True self-insertion is a literal and generally undisguised representation of the author; most characters described as "Mary Sues" are not, though they are often called "proxies"[7] for the author. The negative connotation comes from this "wish-fulfillment" implication: the "Mary Sue" is judged a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting. Such proxy characters, critics claim, exist only because authors wish to see themselves as the "special" character in question.

[Flak]

I wouldn't ban my daughters from reading the books...hell, I read them out of curiosity...but I would be disappointed if they didn't recognize them for the poorly written, stupid books they are.

My eldest is in the upper primary school range, and has no interest in anything of the sort...on the other hand I was the kid in 4th grade checking out the two Stephen King books our school library had. lol

[buttmunch]

At that age I was busy looking for the naughty bits in Sydney Sheldon books.

[Tiny Pixie]

Originally Posted by Sassiness

Drink everytime Edward "dazzles" Bella or is described as intense, shimmering, sparkling, body of marble....

No one can drink that much
I'v always wanted to send Miss Meyer a good dictionnary for synonyms, I'm so fucking sick of vampires who giggle all the time, who dazzle etc ...

Originally Posted by Aella

What story? There are Harlequin books with more plot.

I would have said they were Harlequin books with less sex :p

Originally Posted by C_is_for_Cookie

They lost me on sparkling vampires, vampires that sparkle in the sunlight is just wrong. I'll stick with Buffy.

Buffy is what this story is lacking actually.
(I've juste bought a T-shirt on which is written "and then Bffy staked Edward, the end" and that would have been so much better !)

Originally Posted by Rondette

heh, I'm on the second book now. What a pile of horse-shit. The only thing I find disturbing about it is how empty Bella is. She's such a Mary-Sue for these Twi-hards (or whatever the fuck they're called)

Mary Sue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Very interesting, I didn't know there was a name for those characters