Blogger: Rachel Kent
I’ll admit it. I picked up the 10th anniversary edition of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and I’ve slowly been working my way through the story. I’m not reading the original version, however. Stephenie Meyer rewrote Twilight and has included both versions in the 10th anniversary edition. The revised book, Life and Death, is the story of Twilight with almost all of the characters’ genders switched. So Edward Cullen is Edythe Cullen and Bella Swan is Beau Swan, etc.
Stephenie wrote this version after her agent asked her if there was anything she could do–in a short period of time–to make the 10th anniversary edition special. Her agent was looking for some sort of “happy anniversary” letter, but Stephenie thought this was too boring. She discussed her dilemma with some friends and decided, because Bella received quite a bit of criticism for being a typical damsel in distress and was also criticized because she was too consumed with her love, that Stephenie would prove that even if Bella was a boy and Edward a girl that the story would be the same. Stephenie says in the reader letter that “Gender and species aside, Twilight has always been a story about the magic and obsession and frenzy of first love.”
She also took this opportunity to change parts of the book that had bothered her for ten years. She said that opportunity was “glorious.”
I picked up this book because the idea of revising a book in such a way was intriguing to me. I wanted to see how it turned out. I must admit that I’m not convinced that the story reads the same. Edythe is an all right character and I think she gets away with being odd because she is a vampire, but Beau is not a typical teenaged boy. I’m having a hard time adjusting to his maleness and the character seems forced. I never loved the original Twilight, but Bella was relatable because I had been a teenage girl once upon a time. The core readership for this book is teenage girls, so I think the audience is a little bit lost in translation with the gender switch. I do think the book would have worked this way if it was told from Edythe Cullen’s (the vampire’s) perspective, but that would have taken too much work for the short period of time that Stephenie had to do this revision.
I’m glad I picked it up, just because it is an odd concept, but it has taken me more than 3 months to finish. It’s not a gripping story (in my humble opinion). Have you read this version? What are your thoughts?
If your book has a 10th anniversary edition someday, what might you include as bonus content for your readers?
Would your characters hold up under the same gender switch that Stephenie tried in her book?
Do you have things in your published works that you wish you could change now?
I had no idea that Stephanie Meyer did a rewrite-how did I miss that?
I don’t think anything could persuade me to get the book. When the first books came out I was a Christian school librarian. Parents repeatedly asked me if they should let their daughters read the series, so I read it to have an answer.
Of course there were the vampire “red flags” and I was quite troubled that Bella made so many bad decisions based on infatuation, but beyond that, it was just so badly written.
For those whp didn’t read the series, it goes like this:
“Bella, you are so wonderful I don’t deserve you.”
“No, Edward, I don’t deserve you! You are so wonder-”
“No, stop, Bella, it’ me who does’t deserve y-”
No, stop Edward, it is you who is the wonderful one. You who lied to me, put me in danger every day, tore me from my family, ruined my life now and for eternity! You are the wonderful one!”
Take that dialog and sprinkle in brooding looks and angst.
The only likable character was a werewolf. Sorry.
LOL!
Exactly. And you only hit the highlights.
I read this book because I had a teenage daughter reading them and I was so nauseated it made it easy to dismiss. My daughter, who had grown up listening to me counseling women on a hotline, soon saw through the bizarre relationship and easily moved on.
I can’t imagine the damage to young girls from that generation, however. A terrible example of sick relationships and non-existent reasoning skills. Yikes, don’t get me started.
I do agree about the werewolf.
Here’s the damage:
A handsome boy likes me, therefore I am worthy.
Instead of:
I am worthy of having a boy like me.
Big difference.
Werewolves also need loOWOOOOOOOOOOve!
Was that a howl in there?
Naw, Michelle, that’s just brooding teenage angst.
Hahahahaha!! This is awesome!
It’s all about the biceps. Werewolf biceps. Ha ha! I could not resist. 🙂
🙂
Funny story, though, out of those books. We had a foreign exchange student from Brazil at the time and she adored the Twilight books. But she was nervous that first week in an American high school.
I commented as I cooked dinner one night, “Is this the reason you like garlic so much? Your only concept of an American high school is what you read and saw in the movie Twilight?”
She laughed.
“I have to ask, though, did you see any sparkling pale students at school today?”
We all could laugh and that was a good thing. 🙂
Our culture seems to be sending a message that men and women are interchangeable. But after reworking my WIP to include men readers as well as women, I’m not buying it.
The differences apply to neutered dogs as well.
* When two boys fight, there will be a lot of noise, and they’ll be playing five minutes later. When two girls fight, someone’s going to the vet.
Your wisdom applies to more than dogs, Andrew. Decades ago, Hubby and I were houseparents to a cottage of adolescent boys. Angry boys duked it out behind the barn, and it was over. Girls, we were told, would plot for months to get revenge. Clearly, we had the easier tribe.
Kipling summed it up in a quatrain –
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your God like a soldier!
Andrew and Shirlee, When I was in Jr High I had two friends who were sisters, a year apart in age. Sleepovers were a hoot. They always got into a fistfight before the night was out. I’d just leave the room and shut the door.
So true. I just read the stats about male dog fights vs. female dog fights. The girls produced way more vet visits and Dr. visits for their owners who tried to separate them.
Interesting post, Rachel. I wasn’t too impressed with the “Twilight” thing, so I will probably give the 10th anniversary edition a pass. I remember the 60s and 70s well enough, when werewolf-doppelgangers roamed college campuses, disguised as hippies. Except that hippies smelled worse.
* I was approached about the possibility of a new edition of BPH, and while I am considering it…there is so little I would change that it might be meaningless. I didn’t throw out any sub-lots, didn’t write out any characters, and there was no alternate ending…and a gender switch certainly wouldn’t work. There isn’t even much I’d rephrase. It’s not that I’m enamoured of my own work; but it does what it’s meant to do.
* I guess it’s chic (do people still say that, or do they now say ‘with it’?) to assume that gender is interchangeable. Makes for some good laughs. Men are men, women are women, and while they can be brave and craven and petty and glorious they are those things in ways that are both subtly and stunningly different.
I’m sure Stephenie received such strong criticism that she had to agree that SOME things needed to be changed. I can’t say that Life & Death was so obviously different that I noticed though. She might have wasted her time.
The question of switching genders is an interesting one, Rachelle. I don’t think it would work, in general, because the ways real men and women act and speak and think are distinctly different.
*In a way, I’ve done the experiment already. I’ve finished four manuscripts in a series where characters struggle to live out their love for Jesus when the desires of their hearts are pulling them in another direction. It was not my intention starting out, but I’ve alternated between female and male for the believer who plays a key role in the one they love coming to faith. For the stories to feel like real people wrestling with real dilemmas, it would be impossible to switch the gender of the characters.
*My daughter read Twilight when she was 11 after her English teacher loaned her the book. It was her first really long novel, so maybe it was good in making her want to read longer works. She grew into liking more skillful authors, like Nicolas Sparks. I only saw the movies with her. We both agreed that Bella should have married the werewolf and not just because he was a warm-blooded hunk. His was a much more noble character with his unselfish love for her.
Sorry for the misspelled name, Rachel. I do know that Rachelle and Rachel aren’t interchangeable, either.
That’s cute, Carol!! 🙂
If forced to choose, any clear-thinking woman would choose the unselfish werewolf over the vampire.who let the girl destroy herself so he could be happy. Biceps are nice, but that isn’t the werewolf’s most attractive attribute..
Carol, does that mean I can lay off the curls? What muscle groups SHOULD I be working on?????
Brilliant brain and bulging biceps – that’s what romantic leads are made of. Add in a foundation of faith and you have the ultimate winner.
“Carol, how about two out of three?” he asked, surreptitiously counting on his fingers.
As long as someone picks the right two, that works.
Carol, like Dude! what a relief.
* I’m gonna go pump iron and listen to Billy Graham. I’m GOOD!!!!!
Andrew, you are so smart … it’s ridiculous! 🙂
It gets confusing around here with Rachelle, Rachel and Michelle. 🙂
I think the movies are so funny! I actually watch them when I need something to make me laugh because the acting is SO bad.
I hadn’t heard of this, I’m so intrigued! I think if I tried a gender switch in my story I would have similar issues to what you described for Twilight – it could be done, but would feel a little awkward unless I changed the POV character and modified a few events. I give her credit for giving it a shot though! I recently ended up cutting most of the first 3 chapters of my manuscript, so if I were to add something special for a 10th edition I would probably use some of that content to create a short story prequel. Thanks for the fun post!
A prequel is a fun idea!
In terms of creative work revisited, it might be interesting to consider George Roy Hill and “Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid”.
* He said that he had two characters (and the chemistry between Redford and Newman) that could go on forever, and wasn’t it a shame they had to be killed…but their inescapable doom was what animated the story and the relationship. It was a perfect circle; their beginning was their end.
I saw this movie for the first time recently! I watched it with my little sister when she was visiting over the summer.
Is it also a book?
Nope, just a movie. But one of the best, by far.
So now Beau is a stalker?
I never read any of the books, because once I’d gotten the low down, I thought the premise was stupid. I mean the premise of “bland girl meets hot guy, does whatever he asks because he loves her and she’s as thick as a plank and does anyone notice she’s got serious co-dependency issues?”.
If mine had a 10th anniversary? I’d probably include the “growing up” years of the two brothers. There was a lot of good stuff in that. As a mom of 3 boys, I know the value of hands on learning, wrestling anytime and anywhere, getting dirty and basically any form of competition.
And nope, my characters live in a time and culture where gender definition was fairly concrete.
Gender identification may have been concrete, but you can STILL make them WEREWOLVES!
Nooooo. Not werewolves. They’d be skinwalkers.
I live and write by a few simple rules that make up my Life Paradigm – feel free to throw stones…
* Men are men, women are women, and neither really wants to be the other. Those who think they do need a pshrink, or they need to go watch “The Danish Girl” until they’re comatose.
* Marriage is between one man and one woman, and legislation does not outweigh language and custom.
* There is real evil; it’s not all relative. Leopold and Loeb were not misunderstood, and they should have fried, pour l’encouragement les autres.
* It takes forty-three muscles to frown, seventeen to smile, but only three to properly pull a trigger, and most human problems can be solved by the latter expedient. Explosives help.
* It’s worth doing the right thing even if no one is watching.
* Call me narrow-minded, but there it is. It has been said that getting me to change an opinion is a bit like getting a mule into a Volkswagen.
I’ve been waiting all day to comment. I was scared to death of vampires as a kid. My sister got to watch all the scary, scary vampire movies … at night … and there I was, sitting right beside her. I had my own room, and I’d retreat to my room afterwards, all by myself, in the dark … pull the covers up over my head, barely able to breathe … so sure a vampire would get me. It’s a wonder I didn’t suffocate. I never wanted the vampire to bite the lady. So … when Twilight came out … no way would my girls watch that. Harry Potter either. Well … ha ha. They love Harry Potter and so do I. And then we watched the Twilight series just recently. Haven’t bought the books. I thought it was funny that the author had the girl wanting to be bitten … I want to suck your blood (You have to say it like the old vampires do). I liked to died over laughing on the first movie, where she walks into the classroom, the fan is blowing her scent toward him, and he’s trying to cover his nose so he doesn’t smell her. I thought they might be pretty scary, but they weren’t really. And I had no idea werewolves would come into the picture. That made me laugh. It was like the Incredible Hulk … where you wonder how they suddenly got their shorts back on. 🙂 I don’t know about the gender switch, but my girls wouldn’t mind reading them. I’m not sure I’ll let them read the books just yet … I’m old school, I guess … it takes me a while to warm up to things. But I did enjoy the movies. And I didn’t go to sleep afraid. 🙂 And just as I was going into middle school, one of my favorite movies was called Love At First Bite. Anyone remember that? 🙂
Didn’t anyone ever tell you that as long as your ears are covered, the monsters can’t get you? I figured out how to wrap mine in the sheet while leaving the rest of my face out. It must have worked since I’m still here. Of course, my ears do stick out a little.
Covered ears? HAHAHAHA!!! That is awesome!!!
Ha ha! That’s funny, Carol. Oh, goodness … I didn’t want to see. Or hear. I can see see the sheet fluffing up and down from my scared breath. 🙂
Yes, I vaguely remember that movie.
As a toddler…
Uh huh. You toddled right into high school! Ha ha!! 🙂
Oh, I think the movies are absolutely hilarious. I watch them when I’ve had a rough day and need to laugh.
My hubs had me convinced they were scary. Ha!
Thanks for flipping the light switch, Rachel. I picked up the 10th anniversary edition a while back, read a few paragraphs and thought, “Huh?” I totally missed the concept of it being a rewrite. Maybe I should have read the back cover, first.
*Oh well, it’s an interesting idea, but I struggled through the last two books in the series so I’m not in the market for a rewrite.
*I do think, however, I could accomplish a gender switch with the main characters in my current WIP. They’re both seventeen, facing real world teenage issues as well as a few problems that are not so worldly. A bit of tweaking could add a new spin to the story, but in my heart, it would never feel right.
The last two books were very hard to read and re-reading the early ones is difficult, too.
I read the original version, and while it certainly wasn’t my favorite book, it wasn’t the worst, by far. Always thought Bella was a bit wishy-washy. I’ll probably go pick up the book just for a read through, to see how she changed it up.
What I thought was interesting in your article, Rachel, was the relationship between the agent and author. The push Stephanie’s agent gave her, knowing she could do it in a short period of time. On the flip side, Stephanie didn’t dismiss the idea altogether, but tinkered and toyed with it until she came up with something she could give back to the agent. There’s a trust between the two, the push and pull, that was nice to learn.
Fascinating! I hadn’t heard about this, might have to pick up the ebook. I kind of liked Bella’s damsel in distress moments myself, but the gender switch is fascinating. Hmmm…would my characters work as the opposite gender? For my first ms., an unsold YA, I’d say yes. I loosely based the heroine on my hubby and the hero on myself. He is fun and relaxed and says everything will work out (fun qualities in a girl warrior I thought) and I am often concerned with details and safety (good qualities for the slave who must rescue her all the time). For the MG adventure I’ve been working on I’d say no. My 3 protagonists are 12-year-old boys. I have 3 boys, it has been such a long time since I was a 12-year-old girl…I think I’m better off writing teen girls and young boys. Besides, I see a group of boys as possibly being more likely to try and trap a giant prehistoric platypus with a falling horse trough. Maybe not, but that is my guess.
It would be interesting to see how the story works with a male lead character. I read Twilight years ago out of curiosity and had many of the same concerns that you mention. I basically wanted to shake the girl and tell her to get some self-respect.
In terms of re-writing, I feel like I’ve already “been there, done that.” With my first manuscript, I started writing it as a middle grade fiction with a first-person/past tense POV. Then I re-wrote it for the YA market, changing it to first-person/present tense. Eventually I re-wrote again, fashioning the story for adults and changing it to past tense/third-person POV. That’s the one that finally got published. I’ve always joked that if I wrote that novel again, the characters would end up as senior citizens. I also feel it was a learn-to-write assignment from God. “Here, write this book for three different age groups. When you’re done with that, I’ve got a few other stories for you to write.”
I’m probably in the minority here, but I enjoyed the Twilight world and the stories, books and movies (being far too old for any unhealthy “first love” influence to stick, ha). But I had no idea this new book existed. I’ve reserved it at the library in audio format. Thanks Rachel. It should be an interesting read.
I do agree that in Bella’s shoes I’d have chosen Jacob. I mean seriously.