Twilight Versus Harry Potter

[author_by_night]

A friend has said on her LJ that there's yet another article circulating analyzing which is better: Twilight or Harry Potter.

I am in no way, shape or form a fan of Twilight, but I have to say this in its defense: People really need to stop trying to compare the two. Harry Potter is a novel that attempts to follow the pattern of a Hero's Journey, along with themes of friendship and family that isn't blood - as well as family that is. And of course a huge magical universe. The Twilight series is supposed to be a fantasy romance. Whether or not the way the two separate book series are executed holds or loses your interest is a totally different matter - the point is, they are not meant to be similar, nor will they ever be similar.

I have a lot of reasons for disliking Twilight, but I do often wonder if it would have an entire hatedom if it weren't constantly compared to Harry Potter. Tons of book series have the sort of things that Twilight haters such as myself object to, but do they have entire sites dedicated to bashing them? Not usually. Even Earth's Children - a series I actually quite like - has things people should totally be sporking and even harshly criticizing. (Three words: The Mammoth Hunters.)

Along the same vein, it does sort of remind me of the Buffy comparisons way back when, as well as the criticisms I heard saying that JK Rowling needed to write a bit more like the Buffy writers. As it happens, I actually really like Buffy (I even liked the fourth season, go me), but... again, they're very different things, albeit with a lot of similarities. Still, I think it's unfair, for instance, to criticize how JK Rowling wrote Draco and hold him up to Spike; those are two very different characters with two very different purposes, no matter how many times fanfic writers put Draco in leather and make him like Spike. Spike knew a little kid who wished death on people in Buffy canon; he called him, IIRC, "The Annoying One." Come on. :P  Admittedly, I can see why people would compare the two, and even I've made my own comparisons as I watch Buffy (I actually can see a pinch of PS/SS Hermione in Cordelia - don't laugh!), but even though series have their different reasons for being. I don't mind Buffy/Harry Potter comparisons, but I do mind it when people criticize one or the other merely because something that happened in one didn't in the other, or because different things were done with various types of characters.

This post did have a point, but I forgot the point. :P

Comments

[edgiko.livejournal.com]

It does seem to come up quite often in twilight_sucks. It does make me mad because they are two completely different book series. I think if you were to go for the "vampire romance", I'd more compare it what happened in Buffy or another vampire series.

Even with Vampire series, you can't really do that comparison. A lot of people are involved in anime/manga and constantly bring up Hellsing. Hellsing is based more on vampire hunting and is no way a romance series. There's also Vampire Hunter D and sometimes a splash of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (well, not a lot of them read it but most people know of the internet memes "ZA WARLDO!" and "WRRRRRYYY!!"). None of those series really involve the romance angle of a vampire falling in love with a human. I mean, you can draw comparisons of how the vampire lore is compared to Twilight but you can't compare it Twilight as a whole because it's like apples and oranges.

People really did compare the writing of Buffy to Harry Potter and then criticized it? That's..wow. Same boat as the twilight shit.

[arasnaem.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the comparisons are more apt between Twilight and Buffy. IMO, Twilight (at least in the first book) reads almost like poorly written self-insert Buffy-fic, with a few of the characters changed around (ie, Bella does not kick butt the way Buffy did).

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Really? I just don't see it. Buffy seems to be about fighting evil and stuff, while, okay, fair enough, snogging some vampires. ;) Twilight's more about the relationship between two people. I definitely wouldn't be surprised if SMeyer admitted to be a disgruntled Bangel/Spuffy shipper, though. (And I do think Buffy got a bit like Bella when it came to Angel and Spike respectively, but at least she was called out on it and everything.)

[kennytrent.livejournal.com]

remember...SMeyer didn't put any prior vampire/were knowledge into her books...it was all ALL a dream. She invented vampires...that sparkle

[kennytrent.livejournal.com]

I prefer comparing Twilight to the Sookie Stackhouse series (Trueblood).

I started reading the books shortly before the show came out and really enjoy them. My wife is a bigger fan of Twilight (more the pity). However, she likes teh show Trueblood, yet didn't like teh movie Twilight that much.

Needless to say, I like teh Sookie books better, and I have a strong dislike for all things Twilight.

[vytresna.livejournal.com]

I'm not there yet with Buffy - coincidentally enough, I just started back into season two the day before yesterday; I just finished the one with the eggs - but I've never heard of any hate for season four, only seasons six and seven.

On topic, I believe the point was "apples, oranges, recognize."

[miss-sophia.livejournal.com]

I do often wonder if it would have an entire hatedom if it weren't constantly compared to Harry Potter.

THIS. YES. I think Twilight is utter dreck, but what infuriates me almost as much as the Twilight canon itself is that no one is willing to call a spade a spade -- that is, Twilight is basically a Harlequin romance for teenagers, not the next Harry Potter or piece of Great Literature.. If people would just call it what it is, it wouldn't be as much of a problem. Sure, the misogyny and bad writing and absolutely boring plot would all be issues, but then it would be just like all the other crap books out there. No one tried to call Sweet Valley High the next War and Peace, you know? It's drivel, and we enjoyed it when we were kids, and that was fine. But when you start trying to call it something that it's not, you end up really pissing people off.

In other words, WORD!