|
|
Shores of Hope
|
Twilight
|
|
Attractive heroine
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Ridiculously handsome hero
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Rich hero, (comparatively) poor heroine
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Heroine makes stupid decisions based on notion that she must sacrifice herself for others in really dumb, unproductive ways
|
yes
| yes |
|
Attractive but doomed secondary suitor
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Completely implausible situation
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Take home message that finding the perfect man is not only possible but your life’s goal
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Heroine brought up by one parent
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Every loose end tied up (ie. everyone finds their perfect love or dies)
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
All men seem to throw themselves at heroine
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Men so passionately in love with heroine that they act out almost violently towards her
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Given far to much information about what heroine is thinking ALL OF THE TIME
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Pre-marital sex
|
no
|
no
|
|
Tacky, unconvincing conversion scenes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Christianising of feminine temptation to idolise romantic love
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Vampires
|
no
|
yes
|
|
Action scene
|
no
|
yes
|
|
D grade writing
|
yes
|
yes
|
As you can see, the two books have a lot in common. Shore of Hope offers us some unconvincing conversion scenes and sanctifies our lust for the perfect man who finds us just irresistible. Twilight offers us vampires and supernatural action. I'll take the vampires.
I haven't read Twilight - but isn't being bitten by a vampire and becoming a vampire for the sake of a long and happy marriage a bit of a "tacky, unconvincing conversion scene"...
ReplyDeleteYeah, but it doesn't pretend to be christian.
DeleteYep. Anything that feeds and amplifies a teenaged girl's already over-inflated sense of the importance of finding a boy to love her is not good. Romance porn. It's funny, if a Christian bookstore was selling books aimed at boys with pictures of hot Christian babes, we'd be horrified. But you can sell piles of books that feed a young girl's lust for the perfect relationship and it's fine. I am not saying it does as much damage as porn by any means. However, think of the pain that all those unrealistic expectations will cause later on down the track as she does date and get married.
ReplyDeleteBut, depending on which Christian romance (and some are way better than others), I'd still rather there be some redeeming qualities than the obsessive angst of Twilight.
See, you've put me quite off now. When I was in our local library this afternoon, I saw a lovely looking Christian fiction book but I couldn't bring myself to bring it home once I read the words, "Will she be able to trust in love again?" Why our local council library stocks Christian romance, I'm not sure. But it has a wide selection of Amish-themed Christian romance. They are a genre all their own!!!
ReplyDelete"Will she be able to trust in love again?"
ReplyDeleteMan. One in three tacky romances feature that line.
I'm guessing that she will.
Well, if she wasn't going to trust in love again, there would be no story.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the whole genre of romance books at all. But then, I've already found a good man so perhaps I don't need to be lusting after the perfect relationship anymore....
And here in lies the problem, Karen. There are a fair few married Christian women whose husbands are still labouring under the expectations arosed every time she reads a Christian romance and then finds real life doesn't fit the perfect plot line.
Delete"arosed"? aroused!
Delete:D Or how about Romeo and Juliet? Always thought that was a pretty unhelpful read for teenage girls. And you could definitely do a table with that and Twilight...
ReplyDelete