hymnia

I started to write a line-by-line response to this, but I found that it essentially amounted to me nodding and saying, "I agree" to almost everything you posted. Your views on the problems with the HDM books are very similar to mine. I especially take exception to how it portrays the Christian view of life after death as inherently more dangerous than other views. And it rankles to see Pullman throw insults at a version of Christianity that is, as you say, mostly a strawman (although I admit some of the criticism has merit), seemingly to promote reason over faith, while at the same time drawing off of mystical ideas from Buddhism and the I Ching. It's like he's saying, "Religion is bad--but only if it's Western religion."

As for Twilight, well, I think it does reveal some things about the inner life of teen girls, and sometimes of women who are past (maybe long past) their teens. Some women may find these things embarrassing or unworthy of womankind, but the reality is that these books wouldn't be as popular as they are if they didn't have a certain resonance with many girls and women. And that phenomenon is, in and of itself, worth exploring and discussing, IMO. So I think the books are worth reading. And I freely admit to enjoying them, although I accept that is not and will not be everyone's experience.