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I predict that THIS is how the internet will react: "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" | |
are you kidding me... | |
at least almost all the others have appeal to both sexes, this.... this... THIS IS MADNESS! | |
You know, as much as I revile that decision, they make a good point. We can finally figure out why people like this rubbish. | |
Now, calm down everyone. They never said that the book was good; they only said that it should be studied as a cultural phenomenon. I can't say I disagree with that. | |
It's already on the list of material for my Rhetoric in Pop Culture course. I am not looking forward to it. | |
I'm entirely against this. I understand it's a pop culture thing and I understand it's a phenomenom but it's not worthy of study, because there is NOTHING underneath it. You want to study a pop culture thing? Study the 2004 Battlestar Galactica. Study District 9 or Moon. Study Final Fantasy VII or Silent Hill 2. Fuck, you want vampires? Study Let the Right One In. Those are all things that have deeper meanings and, more importantly are well made. Shit is shit. Don't care how popular it is, nothing can unshit the shit. I don't care why people like this shit, STUDYING it will make them feel more justified in liking it. | |
Well if they're adding it to the curriculum, then it shall never be liked by children again surely? | |
SON OF A BITCH! Damn it! WHY? It doesn't have an impact on children it has an impact on moronic teenage girls and middle-aged women. Why the fuck would they do something so horrible? | |
I can understand the point of view, and I know those books are extremely popular among teenage girls (being one of the few who hasn't read them), but...seriously? This makes me even happier than before to be leaving high school. Edit: Also, why can't they put award-winning sci-fi books on the curriculum. "Lord of the Rings" has done a lot to shape modern fantasy. Iain M. Banks' novel "Consider Phlebas" contains allusions to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and numerous other literary works, as well as being a great (if a little dark) read. | |
THIS. IS. TWILIGHT! *Boot* Sorry, i couden't help myself... | |
Studying the impact of media on kids is an interesting field of study. I just wish they'd pick a better book than Twilight. Replace that with Artemis Fowl, or the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and we'll be golden. | |
Anybody who claims this is a bad idea knows nothing at all about culture studies. Twilight says a hell of a lot more about contemporary western cultures than anything Douglas Coupland's written in the past decade, even if it doesn't mean to. | |
As long as they're studying it as a form of cultural curiosity, and not stating that it has literary merit, I can't complain. You can say Twilight isn't good, but you can't say it isn't popular. | |
It's a study of "children's literature" that they would read it for. When we study the medieval times we also study the torture devices they used. That doesn't mean we like them or think they're great and inspirational. | |
So long as no one is forced to read the books. Such a fate would be worse than death.
You mean it isn't mind control? | |
Please tell me they're doing it ironically? I'm all for pop culture, but don't give students a book that with make them want to die. If anything give them "Nightlight - A Parody" by The Harvard Lampoon! "...And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, hetrogencously, gynecologically and disreputably with he had kissed me." I've read the first chapter or so, and man it makes me laugh harder than the book it was based on. And it's like... 6 times shorter. | |
I don't care about the thread. I just love that in the little box, analysis is cut down to anal... Cambridge Deems Twilight Worthy of Anal... Epic. I'll add that I hate Twilight. | |
for a professor, that's pretty fucking retarded. | |
I'm curious to know how so. | |
THIS... IS... | |
You did not just lump Final Fantasy VII and that piece of shit Twilight in the same sentence... Right, up against the wall. Its firing squad time! | |
That western cultures like books which have 20 pages dedicated to how Edward looks without his shirt on? Forgive my crudeness, but even a cursory examination of this series it appears as nothing more as shower nozzle masturbation material written by a lonely woman. Oh hey, I guess I just earned a diploma from Cambridge. | |
It's trash and it should be burned, that's all. It's time we got our WAAAAGH on and get rid of Twilight once and for all. (This is just a joke, please don't hit me with a warning mods.) | |
*grabs gun and puts it in mouth* if my school gets this, I'm pulling the trigger. though, it is good that they said that video games can teach. some have deeper stories than twilight and will keep kids attentions, but we are focusing on just twilight. | |
Brilliant! It doesn't seem hard to know what the Twilight fans like... a mediocre romance plot is one of those things. | |
I can see how this turns out "Alright students, when Bella accepts her abusive boyfriend/stalker for the past murderer that he is, what does that signify" | |
This is fair enough, though. I don't envy those who have to study it, but that doesn't mean that there is no legitimate reason to do exactly that. When something is as popular yet critically pathetic as the Twilight franchise, either the writer won a lottery and managed to put their hand on the pulse of a generation's desires, or the writer cynically attempted to appeal to a gullible audience with no sense of taste in literature. (Not to mention, they got the eye of a publisher capable of giving them worldwide fame, which any writer will tell you is fantastically difficult.) If there is a cynical approach to its writing, then Twilight is worthy of analysis merely for how it appealed to that audience. Cambridge isn't stupid enough to ignore something that breaks so many records, even if it is poor from a reviewer's point of view. After all, to a degree in the world of literature, all publicity is good publicity. Nevertheless, the Harry Potter works would have been a better choice for many reasons. I suppose the main reason why that is avoided like the plague is that every person past a certain age has already read it, except the teachers. Teachers prefer to have the advantage and be ahead of their students so that classes have a meaning, and that would be impossible when every one of their students probably knows the difference between a Nargle and a Thestral. Then there's the fact that some will know it better than others, who know it backwards, straight off the bat. But Twilight has that problem as well. | |
Someone else read the Bartimaeus Trilogy? Hooray! | |
Simple: Because children are dumb! | |
Yup. They're good books, what can I say? | |
Okay, this is pretty terrible... does anyone outside of the internet realize that Twilight is a terrible book? Also, I first read the thread title as "Cambridge Deems Twilight Worthy of Anal" due to it being cut off. | |
My mom teaches 4th grade. Her kids read the Twilight books. Sorry. : / | |
It seems more likely that they're studying from a cultural perspective - why it's popular, considering its qualities (or lack thereof), and what writers should do to make a similarly powerful impact on teenagers, without being quite so shit. It's the fact of the phenomenon which is an interesting study, more than the merits of the book alone - after all, when the most well-known book of a generation holds such a reprehensible message, surely it's important to try and find why it can be so successful, in spite of its numerous flaws? | |
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Cambridge Deems Twilight Worthy of Analysis
Just when you think school can't get any worse, they add Twilight to the curriculum.
Videogames, books, television, and movies all appeal to kids in a way that school simply does not. The University of Cambridge has acknowledged this, and is going to be adding new forms of media into the material at a University center which covers the study of children's literature.
The center's current material includes fairytales, ABC books, and classics like Treasure Island or Alice in Wonderland. Added to the material will be videogames, comics, and books such as Twilight and Harry Potter.
Center director Professor Maria Nikolajeva says of the new material: "It's easy to say that these things are just kids' fashions or that they're trash, but I don't believe that's good enough. If what we regard as trash is popular with young people, we need to know why and whether, as researchers and teachers, we can offer them something that addresses the same needs but also deals with these themes in a critical and ethical way."
New teachers usually do not understand the impact that a Twilight or a Final Fantasy VII can have on a child, which makes it important to understand from both an adult's and a child's perspective. According to Nikolajeva, knowing why certain forms of media attain so much attention from so many youths can help better prepare teachers. Specific videogames that will be studied were not mentioned, but I know DragonBall Z: Burst Limit had a profound effect on me.
Source: BBC via VG247
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