Posted on: July 6th, 2009 This Editor’s Stance on Twilight
If I begin to ramble, forgive me. I’ve been meaning to write this piece for a while now, but haven’t been sure of my approach. It’s been a relatively slow few days for Giant Killer Squid so I’m all for just unscrewing the head and letting it all fall out.
So here we go.
Twilight.
If you’re a regular reader of GKS and/or other film-blogs, you may have noticed that Twilight is absent from any and all news reports here. No reviews, no trailers, no rumors, no posters, no nothing. Granted, 75% of film-blogs are taking the piss out of the film series based on the ridiculously-well selling books, there is a reason for the lack of coverage. It’s not just pure laziness.
To be frank (you can be Shirley), as the editor of Giant Killer Squid, I like to think I know the audience that I write to and for. That’s the thing about writing for the Internet, if your readers aren’t jiving on your stuff, they’re not really your readers are they? I know this is a passive, maybe even naive way of thinking about it, but I completely stand by it. Our readers, our audience comes here for news and commentary regarding film, television, comics and video games. There is a lot of genre crossing, there’s no doubt about it, but we generally lean towards the horror-sci-fi-action-comic-book flavor. That’s not to say that we won’t cover other major news, or share our thoughts on relevant issues and topics, but as a small (starving) website, we like to think we know our target and try to hit a bulls-eye as much as possible in terms of content. To report news on Twilight, even though it is followed feverishly by many, simply doesn’t make much sense for GKS. And this isn’t just about Twilight – it’s for the same reason we don’t run stories on Sex and the City, for example.
Now, I must be completely clear about one thing, I most certainly do not begrudge any other film-sites or blogs for reporting on Twilight. Many, if not most do and I get it. Those editors and writers know their audience more than I know mine I’m sure. I’m also in no way accusing anyone of traffic-baiting, Just want to be clear on that. I get why sites report on Twilight with passive-aggressive dismissal. It’s news, it’s incredibly talked about, and more importantly, it’s incredibly surfed and clicked.
I guess that’s me making a mountain of a molehill, but I felt it should be addressed to our readers, as I’ve been asked more than a few times about the absence of Twilight. It just don’t fit.
For the record, I have seen the film. Though I wouldn’t deem it unwatchable, I would go as far to say that it is unhealthy, especially for the young teen audience that it is targeted at. The film itself is pretty adequate, the cinematography is quite nice, the locations in particular are beautiful. I’ve seen worse performances for a relatively new cast with young, handsome people. The story, however, is just ridiculous and dare I say stupidly written. There’s nothing subtle at all about anything. It plays out like a knock-off 80’s brat-pack film with subtitles that read ‘SUBTEXT ALERT: ABSTINENCE! DON’T HAVE SEX! PEER PRESSURE IS BAD!’.
We get it. You’re comparing vampirism to sexual urge.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Sending a message of abstinence, or at least practicing safe, protected, consensual sex is a noble mission. But it’s not cool when a film preaches unrealistic expectations and characters to a young, impressionable crowd. That’s what I mean by ‘unhealthy’. In the same way that reality dating shows like The Bachelor portray a superficial way to pursue a relationship. The expectations of the opposite sex are approaching laughable as it is, now we need to have fucking diamond skin to nail that girl? It really is just terribly written swill, there’s not an ounce of quality, of meat to be found.
I’ll end it here before this turns into a full-blown review and then to a nation-wide call for book burning. My point is that I mean no ill-will to fans of the book and film, nor to the sites that choose to cover this Twilight phenomenon, but you will never see a Twilight news piece on Giant Killer Squid.
Unless of course, enough of you write in asking for it. Please don’t.
One Response to “This Editor’s Stance on Twilight”
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Ben Rankel Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 10:47 pmI leave you, Ryan, with this link http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/36812123.html#cutid1 and my honest lament that the damage is already done.