i should qualify that i am talking about fiction here; the critical theorists have made several notable literary contributions to English nonfiction in the past decades ;P

i also think Twilight was a notable contribution to the English canon but that is neither here nor there

like, in my generation there was Harry Potter, right, which people loved because of its worldbuilding and the richness and mystery and magic of it all, and the plot and gradual development of the story over the course of their childhoods and there’s so MUCH to it—but the writing is mostly worthless and nobody is seriously out here like “i’m trying to copy J.K. Rowling’s Literary Style” unless they’re intentionally doing a parody (i hope)

and then there was Twilight, which is a completely garbage story built on entirely unbelievable premises which somehow manages to work anyway because the writing is actually really fucking good

i mean i think it could be better obviously and i have some notable disagreements with choices it made in story structure but it walked so that somebody else could run

as a romance author i think you will develop so much faster and better today studying Twilight and like, a handful of good anime than you will studying like 99% of contemporary popular romance literature

i don’t LIKE that this is the case, i just think that it is

if you’re a nerd, go ahead and read frankenstein and carmilla, it can’t hurt