Crappy books are one thing, Twilight is another

I've seen a lot of people defend Twilight as just another crappy book, so what excuse do people have for picking it apart? I used to think pretty much the same thing. Obviously there is a lot of sexist criticism of Twilight out there, as in "let's rip on a woman for writing down her sexual fantasies and getting rich from them! Also, let's rip on girls for being stupid for liking a romance novel with a sparkly vampire!" That kind of stuff is at least as bad as the Twilight books themselves.

Other people say we wouldn't criticize the book if it weren't so popular. Which, yeah? What would be the point of criticizing it if it weren't a phenomenon? 

But there is a third defense that I think is not terribly valid: lots of crappy books are popular, so what's the big deal?

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