site stats WhizGidget Wonders...
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
I'm Really Quite Sad...
...and it's not just because I finally finished the Twilight Saga.

Oh yes, dear readers, I have been entranced by the Vampire/Human love story, and I don't normally enjoy vampire lore. At. All. Well, except 'Dracula', but that's a whole 'nother genre.

Vampire romance doesn't do it for me. But these are rather unique vampires. For those who have not read the series (or are still in the middle of it), I'm not going to spoil anything.

Except your appetites, maybe. The author, a rather talented (IMO) Stephenie Meyer, was writing another book for the saga called 'Midnight Sun'. It's basically the telling of 'Twilight' again from Edward's perspective (he's the vampire; Bella is the human).

I just finished 'Breaking Dawn' yesterday morning and decided to check out her website to see if there were any updates on the new book. There was, but the content of it was not pleasant. Someone leaked a partial draft of the book a few days ago and it's all over the internet. I get from her letter to the fans that she probably knows who it was based on the edits made in the copy that's out there, and I feel really sad for her. She acknowledged that it wasn't with malicious intent that it got out there, but it's still heartbreaking.

She doesn't feel like writing it anymore - she's too sad and upset apparently and this will color her writing. The book is on indefinite hold. And that makes me mad in a selfish way (because I was really looking forward to it) and mad in a non-selfish way - because they have clearly violated her copyright *and* have pissed off countless fans who were waiting to have a solid book in their hands and not some partial and incomplete draft on a computer screen.

As a result of all of this Ms. Meyer has posted her latest incomplete draft of the book so that fans don't feel compelled to go looking for that other copy; so that they don't feel dishonest.

Oh yes, I'm angry and I feel sad. No artist should have their work violated in such a way and with the proliferation of the internet these things just keep happening and happening. Music was where you say it start first, and it's been spreading into everything else. Art, cross-stitch designs, movie scripts and scenes, television shows, and books have all been effected by this "sharing" effect that the 'net is known for.

Just because this tool makes it easy doesn't make it right, however, and sharing Ms. Meyer's excellent work isn't right. I won't read the copy that's out there illegally, and I've read the first 25 pages of what she posted herself and I don't want to any longer. I don't want to spoil it. What I've read so far is excellent and an amazing insight into Edward's mind. I would never have considered it myself if she hadn't put it in front of me like this.

I'll willingly wait for an official, finished, edited and printed copy of 'Midnight Sun' - as long as it takes. Selfishly I hope it doesn't take long, but for the betterment of the work, I hope it takes as long as it takes for Ms. Meyer to decide that she's back in the frame of mind she needs to be in to write it.

Especially with so many just waiting to see how it ends in Edward's mind.