Sam Iles's Blog

The Twilight book series gets a lot criticism and the movies even more so. I’m not sure why it does, but I do disagree, so let’s explore…

Firstly, people suggest they are badly written. OK, Meyer isn’t the best writer in the world. She’s no Dickens. But then, really, who is? Her books are, in my opinion, perfectly readable.

One common complaint is the Bella is dependent on Edward or that she is silly because in the last book she says she’d rather die than abort her baby. People declare this to be anti-feminist or something and that it creates a culture of girls who… oh, something, I dunno. But the general gist is that the book promotes bad messages. But I don’t see how this is really a valid point, primarily because this is a work of fiction. You never see the same people complaining that a book shouldn’t be written about a serial killer, because killing people is wrong, and so on, because in books people make decisions which may or may not be good ones.

Still, they remain decisions in books. Books are there to tell a story, not paint a picture of a utopian world where everything is wonderful. Bella makes decisions, decisions which Meyer thought the character should make. I don’t think Meyer should have sat around contemplating how Bella’s decisions would affect some highly suggestible girl when she needs to abort her vampire baby… or something.

The fact is Bella makes plenty of her own choices. She chose to move to Forks, she chose to stick with Edward after he tried desperately to get rid of her and – crucially – she’s always pleading to become a vampire so that she can take care of herself; something which Edward doesn’t want to do because he doesn’t wasn’t to be selfish.

Of course the one most people pick up on is that Edward ‘hits’ Bella, which is, of course, entirely false. He doesn’t hit her. He may have hurt he one or two times due to being a vampire, but this is entirely accidental and clearly explained in the book. I can’t imagine anyone is thinking “gee, my boyfriend hits me but that’s OK because vampires exist”. Yeesh.

Ultimately, what really counts with Twilight is that a) it’s a work of fictitiously fictitious fiction, and b) millions of people enjoy it. Whichever way you look at it, Twilight is insanely popular. In the 21th century, there’ve been two literary phenomena: Harry Potter and Twilight. No book series before those two have been so widely read and so impressed on popular culture so very quickly. The reason Twilight is popular is because it’s a good story. People like good stories. I think the books are good.

Nigel Farrage, giving another speech to the people of the European Parliament. I do like it when this man speaks:

Well here we are, on the edge of a financial and social disaster. And in the room today we have the four men who were supposed to be responsible. And yet we’ve listened to the dullest, most technocratic speech I’ve ever heard. You are all in denial. By any objective measure, the Euro is a failure. And who is actually responsible? Who is in charge out of you lot [speaking to Rompuy and the other self declared Kings of Europe]? Well of course the answer is “none of you”. Because none of you have been elected, none of you hold any democratic legitimacy for the roles you currently hold within this crisis.

Into this vacuum, albeit reluctantly, has stepped Angela Merkel. And we are now living in a German dominated Europe – something that the European project was actually supposed to stop. Something that those that went before us actually paid a heavy price in blood to prevent. I don’t want to live in a German dominated Europe and neither do the citizens of Europe. But you guys have played a role. Because when the Greek Prime Minister got up and used the word referendum, Mr Wren, you described it as a breech of confidence and your friends here got together like a pack of hyenas around the Greek PM, removed him and replaced him with a puppet government. What an absolutely disgusting spectacle. And not satisfied with that, you decided that Berlusconi had to go. So he was removed and replaced by Mr Monte, a former European commissioner; a fellow architect of this European disaster and a man who wasn’t even a member of the parliament.

It’s getting like an Agatha Christie novel, where we’re trying to work out who’s the next person who’s going to be bumped off. The difference is, we know who the villains are.

You should all be held accountable for what you’ve done. You should all be fired. And, I have to say, Mr Van Rompuy: I was wrong about you. Eighteen months ago I called you the “quiet assassin of European democracy”. But you’re not anymore, you’re rather noisy about it. You, an unelected man, went to Italy and said “this is not the time for elections”. What in God’s name gives you the right to say that to the Italian people?

Sorry to type the whole speech out, but it really is so spot on. I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Agatha Christie line is particularly good.

When the Xbox 360 was released way back in March 2006, it was launched with a game called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It turned out to be one of the best games every made.

Last week, the fifth instalment in the Elder Scrolls series was released, ‘Skyrim’. And it’s as good as one would expect. It’s getting full star reviews across the board and is already being called game of the year by a lot of people.

But this isn’t such as much a review as a gentle suggestion that you just buy it.

If you go with the masses upon masses and buy Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3, you’re getting six, maybe seven, hours of gameplay. Of course you get the multiplayer – but that’s just mindlessly repetitive shooting of other people with not much fun, in my opinion. MW3, six hour campaign. Skyrim? Over 300 hours of gameplay.

Skyrim is a perfectly crafted, beautiful designed, wonderfully fun and exceedingly rewarding 300 adventure of combat, magic and varied monsters. You even get to pick your own character (I’m a high elf called Cthulhu) and level up how you want, taking your character wherever you want.

I could go on about Skyrim for days. I’m only 10 hours in, and it’s already the best game I’ve ever played.

Just get it.

I’ve never really had much of an opinion on gay marriage. Not because I’m homophobic or anything, but just because I never really knew if it was necessary or whether gay people would be better off spending their time working on other issues (like general acceptance into society) rather than work on something which makes a lot of people mad. I’ve always supported it and never been against it – but I’ve just never seen it as the huge issue which it seems to be.

But, a few weeks ago, I heard someone say (not related to gay marriage, but it fits) something along the lines of:

When you meet another person who doesn’t have the same rights as you, you shouldn’t be able to talk to them or even look them in the eye without running off to sort the great injustice which they face.

And this finally put the issue of gay marriage in a way I could understand it. It doesn’t matter how small or trivial the particular issue is – everyone should have the same rights. And when not everyone does, it’s a major problem.

Clint Eastwood, speaking to GQ magazine:

And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. […]

They go on and on with all this bullshit about “sanctity” — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

I love that man.