Announcing a New Series….

I hate hypocrites. People who say one thing and do another, who spit accusations without ever taking a hard look at themselves. And recently, I realized that I'd become one. I trash-talked a book (actually an entire series) that I've never read. Silver lining: I've been trying to decide on this blog's raison d'etre, the defining project that would give it a goal and focus. So, ladies and gents, I'm happy to announce that I will read and blog the entire Twilight series, chapter by chapter, start to finish.

I'm aware that this has already been done, and done brilliantly, in other corners of the interwebs. Go to Sparknotes, and read Dan Bergsten's work if you don't believe me. What makes me different? Well, I'm a huge sf/f nerd. I've read and reread GOT, WOT, Dune, the collected works of Neal Stephenson, and Alastair Reynolds more times than I care to count. I'll tell anyone who cares to listen that William Gibson is the most influential author of the last three decades (and my personal favorite). Obvioously, I'm inclined to enjoy a heavy dose of the supernatural in my literature. I also don't discriminate against books becasue they're supposedly written for a YA audience. I discovered The Hunger Games and His Dark Materials in my twenties, and loved both. All of which is to say that I think I can give Twilight a fair shake, as books and as cultural phenomena.

And that is going to be my main interest here. If I have a primary intellectual angle, its in the area of what is called "cultural criticism." Simply put, I'm fascinated by the way that books, movies, television and music reflect and shape the culture which they produce or are produced by. I can't say yet whether I love Twilight, hate it, or fall somewhere in the middle, but I do respect its cultural impact. I'm going to go in to this with as open a mind as I can, and we'll talk along the way. First post goes up tomorrow, and let the 74th annual… (sorry, couldn't resist."