apocalypsos | Strangely enough, my biggest pet peeve with the Masochist's Book Club I'm apparently in.

what does she call them, again? i remember she always called her dad by his name, did she do the same to her mom too?

to me, that's just kinda disrespectful. but that's just my opinion.

How is it disrespectful if the parents think it's okay, and if she generally (not that I know, so if she doesn't be sure to correct me) listens to her parents and is polite to them and takes their advice and follows their rules?

It's not what you call people, it's how it's intended and received. If your parents think it's okay to call them by their names - or if they prefer it! - then that is a respectful way to address them.

Except that her father, at the very least, doesn't like her calling him by his first name, and it is used to demonstrate the lack of respect Bella has for him.

....not that I have ever read any of the books *eyedart*

edited because it is 12.45am here and I need sleep.

Edited 2008-10-29 13:44 (UTC)

I haven't read them either.

If her dad doesn't like being called by his name then yeah, it is disrespectful. I just get my dander up about people going on and on about respectful address - half the time, they're incredibly rude and disrespectful to people who happen to disagree. (My favorite is when they bully their supposed "friends" into being called something other than what they prefer. Because it's "disrespectful" for a kid to call an adult whatever the adult wants... or something.)

Yeah, Bella also makes this huge deal about how she shows up to live with her dad and commandeers the kitchen because her dad can't feed himself, and every time he says something like, "You know, I did manage to feed myself for the seventeen years you didn't live here," she manages to mutter some snotty comment like, "Oh, God only knows how."

But she isn't respectful to them, and she doesn't follow their rules. I mean, in the first two books she runs away TWICE. And she doesn't call them it to their face, she does it to other people behind their back and in the text. She even makes a point of saying in the first book that her father doesn't want to be called Charlie.

That does make all the difference. I haven't actually read the books.

Could just be how I was raised. My parents would never allow it.

And I can't really remember much of the first book but i seem to remember her being pretty bratty around her dad for the first few weeks she's living with him. even though it was HER idea to move in with him.

I think my favorite Bratty Bella bit was the eyerolling she did over having to share a bathroom with her dad. Oh, poor baby. And then for the rest of the book (I can't remember if she did it in New Moon) she kept carrying her toiletries to the bathroom every time she went to shower like she was living in a college dorm. Whiny twit.

Yup, she does the same thing with her mom. Not always to their faces, but to other characters and in the text, and it's incredibly damn annoying and, yeah, disrespectful.

Haha, I remember there being a phase in the media (I'm not sure if this actually existed in REAL LIFE) where it was an instant tag of "rebellious anti-authoritarian teen" to have a character who called their parents by their first names, but I'm pretty sure it's dated to an era bracketing the 80s by 5 years in either direction.

Edited 2008-10-29 14:23 (UTC)

I thought it was an instant tag of "OMG HIPPIE PARENTS ALERT!" instead.

Me, too. And that the parents owned a copy of "Free to Be, You and Me."

Okay, that may be true. Context-relevant, maybe.

Rebellious teen with hippie parents?

Because of you, I decided to try to force my way through the rest of New Moon. These people need to learn how to talk like normal people. And also STOP STARING AT EACH OTHER IT IS BORING.

Gyah! You realize what you're doing? You're giving that Stephanie-woman 2 cents more reason or however the split works out to continue writing the series.

TP can write it off as a business expense because she's using it as research, but what's your excuse?

Oh, I didn't pay for the books! I downloaded them illegally. Don't be silly :P

Personally, I think the entire book cast could use a lesson in using a thesaurus, cause if they use the word "dazzle" any more the word will actually commit suicide.

(deleted comment)

She sounds like such a snot when she does that. And then at the end of New Moon when she's all, "Oh, I'm eighteen and I'll just tell calmly him he can't stop me from seeing Edward just because I live under his roof"? And it works? HA. HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, okay. Sure.

I'm thinking about buying the books. Or at least the first.

A friend mentioned Twilight and I, knowing that she's a very sensible and smart person thought she realised that the books were total rubbish, started mocking them but it turns out she loves them and wasn't amused at all.

And ugh, I haven't actually read them except exerpts posted on the net or the summaries on the book cover but I can see why people mock them but still, I don't want to be the girl that trashes books she hasn't actually read. Or, I don't want my friend to think I'm trashing one of her new favourite books just because I'm a mean bitch. I wanna be able to proof it.

So yeah, I'll probably end up buying them. *crinkles nose*
They can't be that bad, right? Please tell me they're not that bad.

I say get them from the library if you can manage that. The first book's not THAT bad, really -- if Edward weren't a dick and Bella weren't boring as hell it might have actually been good. And once it starts getting really worse, it's almost entertaining. Oh, and it's fun to look for typos -- the editor should be fired.

They are that bad. Really. And I've only read the first, which most people say was the best. *boggles*

I will say that they did wonders for my insomnia- I'm a fast reader and it took me almost a week to get through Twilight because it put me right to sleep. I guess that's good. Kinda. Though for me, not as a recommendation...

The first one IS the best one, which is the really sad part. I'm moving onto Eclipse today, but New Moon is like a reiteration of just how boring and stupid Bella is. She's not interested in anything but Edward, she got no decisive plans for her future other than Edward, and she treats every human she knows like crap. And for added fun, Edward continues to act like a complete jackass.

On the bright side, Jacob gets more interesting. But the downside is that you can see his inevitable asshattery coming a mile away.

I thought Edward was one of the somewhat redeeming factors? Or was it just that the book written in his POV isn't as bad as the ones written in Bella's POV?

Oh, God, no. I mean, yeah, Midnight Sun is slightly better than the rest of the books, if only because he apparently spent most of the first book wanting to kill Bella and/or being painfully oblivious to the fact that he's falling in love with her. But for the most part Edward's a smug manipulative douchebag.

Well, I do tend to toss and turn awhile before falling asleep ;)

Actually, there's one thing that might buying the books worthwhile: I'll finally be able to get myself a sparkling icon. *g*

(And if it's really that bad, I hear they make good paper weights)

Why don't you just borrow them from your friend?

She only borrowed them herself, from another friend. While I know her too we don't like each other that much. We have a let's-make-polite-smalltake-when-necessary-otherwise-ignore-the-other-kind of relationship.

I'll see whether or not our library got the books in English. To tell the truth, I don't know how popular the books are over here. Until my friend mentioned them I wasn't even aware people here knew about them.

I'll send you my copy if you like. I don't want it anymore and it'll save me having to put it on ebay.

I've called my parents by their first names since I was seven.

Anyway, you've gotten farther in it than I managed to—I fail as a masochist.

As a side note, I was in Hot Topic today, and the pure number of Twilight t-shirts is really, really disturbing.

Especially the ones that, no lie, say
"Your scent is like a drug to me" (IT'S JUST A TEXT T-SHIRT. THAT'S ALL IT SAYS)

and (paraphrased)
"I knew three things about Edward Cullen.
First, that he was a vampire.
Secondly, that part of him...thirsted for my blood.
And finally, that I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

Unconditionally and irrevocably.

I'm thinking a companion shirt that says:
Borderline personality disorder is a great model for your next romance!

Strangely enough, my biggest pet peeve with the Masochist's Book Club I'm apparently in.

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