This is in reponse to Shannon Hale’s blog post.

I am stating the obvious here when I say that all books say something. Whether they are giving us the definition of words of telling us how to put together a paper, MLA style, they say something. Whether they are trying to reveal something about humanity or society or just to entertain us, they say something. That cannot be denied. I mean, seriously, books are, after all, made up of words. Which do say something. Even random strings of words like “pizza lettuce ice cream” which seems to be nonsense but if you look deeper, you’ll realize that I’m hungry. Bad example. Umm…paper dictionary cell phone staples…Still bad. Those are all on my desk. I give up. But the point is, words say something. Otherwise, we’d find a new way to communicate.

So the thing is, even if an author doesn’t sit down to write messages or morals or whatever into her book, the book still has a theme. Theme is…I’m not sure what the actual definition is, but it’s what the author seems to be saying about something. It’s not a general idea. I mean, there’s no doubt that The Awakening by Kate Chopin addresses isolation. But what does Chopin seem to be saying about isolation? Maybe something like “A person may be isolated even when one is surrounded by friends and family.”

I mean, whether or not Chopin actually wanted her book to suggest that, the fact is, I found that theme in the book.

Returning to my favorite ( ) example (okay, so Shannon used it)…Stephenie Meyer says that she didn’t write messages in Breaking Dawn. And I totally believe her. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Like Shannon said, it’s a personal thing. Each reader is going to see something different and may see the same thing differently. Which is okay. It’s what makes things interesting, and seriously, if everyone saw things the same way, there’d be no English major.

So Breaking Dawn. One of the themes (sort of) is: “Sex is great.” To me, that is what Stephenie Meyer is saying in this book. Now, I really doubt that she wrote that intentionally because she’s LDS and I don’t think that the LDS church would want to encourage that thought in unmarried teenage girls, but hey, it’s what I saw in the book and as long as I can find support, I’m not wrong.

I think it’s wrong to say that Stephenie Meyer supports pedophilia, because really, I don’t think she does. But the thing is, if you want to say that Breaking Dawn contains pedophilic themes and you have support to backup that statement, you’re not wrong. 

That’s the thing about books. The book may say one thing, but the author may actually believe something else. Seriously. If I write a book in which the main character is deeply religious and readers get the impression that I’m the same way, there couldn’t be something more wrong because I am not at all deeply religious. Deeply spiritual, maybe, but definitely not religious. But you know what, if the book seems to be suggesting something religious, then fine. As long as you can support it.

About giving books negative reviews because you disagree with the themes you find…Okay…in a way, I think that’s wrong because not everyone is going to read the book in the same way as you. I mean, Breaking Dawn is just popular fiction. It doesn’t deserve to be unliked because of *INSERT BASIC SPOILERS HERE SUGGESTS THIS* but you know what? If you didn’t like the book, you have every right to say so, regardless of the reason. So post the negative review. It’s just supposed to be your opinion, and people don’t have to agree with what you said.

I don’t think authors should sit down and outright write morals into their books. It’s just wrong. I most certainly don’t want to be preached at when I read. I know what I believe, thank you very much. I don’t need you to tell me. And little kids’ books? Well, the parents reading to their children most likely care and are teaching their children good morals, so the author just has to write a good book. But the parents who aren’t teaching their kids good morals? Um…I don’t think those parents are going to be reading to their kids, so Author, just sit back and write the best damn book you can, lesson taught or not.

Because readers are going to take something from the book. Entertainment…boredom…a changed world view…something. So you don’t have to try to write a lesson into your book. (Literature, I think, doesn’t teach; it reveals something about humanity or society, either to attempt to bring people to make changes or just to bring it to light. But it’s still about writing the best story possible.)

Children are definitely influenced by what they read. But again, that’s where the parents come in. The parents see their children’s behavior and decide what is causing it and how best to deal with it.

And a lot of people find something they read intriguing and what to learn more. I mean, I wanted to learn more about Tudor England after reading Mary, Bloody Mary and witchcraft after Harry Potter. (Comments pointing out the evil ways of witches will be deleted/edited.)

But there’s this thing called common sense. Sadly, a lot of people seem to lack it. I mean, if you have common sense, you’ll know not to be so influenced by what you read because you’ll know what you think is right and what you don’t. So I really hate when people complain about Breaking Dawn putting bad ideas into teenage girls’ heads. Because it didn’t put any bad ideas in my head because I’m not so easily swayed. Of course…there are plenty of teenage girls who do think that Twilight presents the truest vision of true love ever…and that is a problem.

Hope I covered everything!

♥anilee