After some good reading time on the plane, am now up to chapter 14 of Twilight and can see why all the year 9 girls are passing this book around!
The writing is still seriously killing me. There is a great part about half way through the book (so don’t read on if you don’t want to know anything about the book), where Edward is talking about having to read Jessica’s mind and he laments: “her mind isn’t very original, and it was annoying to have to stoop to that…it was all extremely irritating.” I wondered if this is a little joke on the writers behalf, because she knows how boring it can be, reading Bella’s thoughts…
But I have to admit I am definitely caught up in the story, and although I still suspect it is trashy, I’m loving the trashiness! Not teenage Mills and Boon after all, but perhaps teenage Jackie Collins, or Virginia Andrews…that I can live with 😉
(I also do agree with Leah’s point that one of the good things about the story is the way magic exists in the real, everyday world. This is one of the reasons that I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I am now enjoying comparing the character of Bella to Buffy in the back of my mind!)
Kelli McGraw 
#1 by MCC on October 21, 2008 - 5:29 pm
Another area of twilight:
E-language – A great article on technology and language:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/09/17/1221330909487.html
#2 by kellimcgraw on October 23, 2008 - 8:24 pm
Thanks for the link! It is a great article. Teachers should consider the following quotes:
“Texting actually improves your literacy, as it gives you more practice in reading and writing”
“I don’t see e-language as a degradation of the language but a continuing evolution. This is yet another genre of English, another string to the bow”
This term I’m going to get my students to re-write some famous poems in text-speak, and then challenge their peers to read for meaning. The they are going to write SMS-style poetry, and then re-write each others work 🙂