Harris' first Sookie novel, "Dead Until Dark" was written three years before Meyer's "Twilight" and the similarities are staggering, which as an avid reader and writer, I find disturbing but not surprising. Happens all the time, right? Now I will readily admit that most vampire novels are steeped in the same folklore, much like how most chick-lit novels house a heroine who is a writer or magazine editor or something of that sort...it gets old. All these vampire writers do is rip each other off, but what makes them different from any other genre?
Meyer successfully wrote one of the most real and romantic lead male characters in the history of fiction. Now many may want to debate this and might want to say Edward does not compare with Darcy or Heathcliff or Rochester, but I believe you would be hard pressed to go against the throngs of women world-wide who are admittedly in love with this fictional character. Isn't the goal of the writer to create relatable characters? On the flip side, however, Meyer's Bella is one of the most pathetic heroines ever written. I have always taken issue with Meyer for creating an 17-year-old female character who would be willing to literally throw her life away for a guy...or even worse, in order to fulfill her carnal desires with said guy. Maybe it's the feminist in me, but if Meyer's goal was to promote abstinence until marraige, she completely missed the mark. Sure millions of impressionable girls! Go ahead and get married at 19 & have a baby immediately! That would be a GREAT idea!
Charlaine Harris' novels are smart, funny, intensely romantic, sexy, frightening at times and she has an incredible grasp for how to write a southern Louisiana spitfire with a knack for getting into trouble. Her mysteries are always a surprise and are quite clever. She incorporates vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, faeries, demons and more...all who walk among us. They are worth a read and even nine books in, I am hooked and have successfully hooked many of my friends.
Harris writes male characters with ease and captures longing and pride like some of the best romance writers I have ever read. She's also a hero in the fanboy world, which speaks volumes - she has a male audience! Of course, you can attribute that to True Blood as well, which graphically, is a spectacular representation of the characters and their Bon Temps, LA home. Of course, Hollywood loves to change things and True Blood is no exception.
Now Meyer wrapped her Twilight Saga in four novels. Then when the first film was in production she decided to go back and rewrite Twilight from Edward's perspective (Twilight was written from Bella's perspective) in a novel entitled "Midnight Sun." She wrote the first 11 chapters and gave three copies of the first draft away. One to her sister, one to Robert Pattinson (actor) and the final to an unnamed source. Someone leaked the novel on the Internet. Meyer proceeded to throw a childlike fit on her fans and chastize them for even reading it on the Internet when it leaked. As punishment to her fans, Meyer decided not to finish the novel. She said she was so disgusted that someone had done this to her that she just couldn't write it anymore. She then released it herself on her website for the period of about a week so that her fans could read it legitimately. I personally was not one who read this draft. Mainly because I was so disgusted at Meyer's treatment of her fan base that "she is dead to me" now. This woman made a mint from her fans and then she abandoned them. Nothing but a tease, kind of like some of her teenaged characters.
This poses a question: As a writer, at what point do you feel you have a responsibility to your fan base? You have written a series. People love it. Your fans now have a vested interest. You start out writing for yourself. At what point do you write for them? Meyer "sold out" to her fans, which, let's face it, is the ultimate goal, right? But then she abandoned them. What if J.K. Rowling would have done the same thing? I think that if you choose to write a novel or a series of novels and you choose to do it in the public eye, then you owe it to your fans to follow through with promises you make to them. We have all heard of reclusive writers who put out incredible works of fiction and then never utter a word in the public about them. They just want you to read it. If you like it, great, if you don't they don't really care. Or, perhaps public scrutiny is what they fear.
To write anything is an intensely personal thing. To share your deepest imagination with the world is an incredibly courageous thing. Whether you are writing about historical romance figures or vampires, if you reach an audience, rather than your books collecting dust or ending up in the $1 bargain bin, then I think you've won!
It's easy to criticize what you have not read. I challenge you to read it and then decide.
Cheers!
2 comments:
Great thoughts! I'll have to pick up Harris's books. I've enjoyed the True Blood TV series---to a point. Two things about it really bother me: the absolutely horrible worse-than-Scarlett-O'Hara fake Southern accents (I'm from Louisiana---I know what folks there are supposed to sound like); and Sookie as portrayed by Anna Paquin---she's moody and petulant and ridiculous, and I just don't understand what someone like Bill Compton would see in her. Maybe if I read the books, I'll get it.
As far as responsibility to the reader, I always think of it in relation to what Stephen King said on the topic in On Writing: "...write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right---as right as you can, anyway---it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it."
It always bothers me to see authors throw a diva fit---J.K. Rowling did this when some fans announced they were working on a lexicon of the world she created; she took them to court. (http://kayedacus.com/2008/01/11/fun-friday-jk-rowling-are-you-kidding-me/)I could understand suing someone because they've stolen your idea or characters or words. But to sue your fans because they love the world you've created so much that they want to celebrate it? May I never get so big-headed!
As a published author, though I have to enjoy my books when I write them---they have to be "for me" in that process---I'm always very aware that I'm writing for the people who've already purchased and read and enjoyed the books that are already out. I have a responsibility to them. Does that mean I'll write books I don't think are viable or a good idea just because my readers ask for them? No. But it means I'll work that much harder to give them a book they'll like even more.
I just stumbled onto your blog from Kaye's and I just wanted to say "Bravo!!!" I couldn't agree with you more about Meyer's childlike tantrum over the leak of Midnight Sun.
I personally did read it on her web page, and thought it to be better then Twilight through Bella's eyes. I understand the romance genre is told through the heroine's eyes, but in the case of Midnight Sun vs Twilight. I believe Midnight Sun would have been a much better novel.
I've often wondered if her tantrum was more towards her fears of failure (of comparison) then anything else. I couldn't possible stop writing a novel once I start. You have to wonder... how could she? How could she not be so excited by her work that she could walk away?
Her tantrum effective lost me as a novel reader. I have no interest in reading anything she puts out. Ever.
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