thoughts about the writing of stephenie meyer

I don't really have time to be sitting here today, blogging any ruminations whatsoever...but as you can see, I'm gonna do it anyway. What? Linear timeline constraints? Pshaw.

What I'm thinking about right now are the published works of Stephenie Meyer. If you don't know who Stephenie Meyer is, does the title "Twilight" tell you anything? If not, you probably won't care much about the rest of this blopgost. ;o)

I attended a Writers Conference last weekend (and I know I've been promising details--I will deliver ASAP, I promise!), and Meyer's name came up several times in various conversations. I noted two extreme reactions:

TwilightOMWilovethosebookshaveyoureadmidnightsunyet? and

... (insert cricket noises here, paired with skeptical lift of single eyebrow).

The Twilight series. It seems that if you've read the books, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. I've heard very few people speak of a lukewarm reaction. Many folks have read part of the first book and given up, not bothering to tackle the rest. Many more folks, it seems, have inhaled every Twilit word like an army of heavy-duty, industrial, bipedal vacuum cleaners.

From my above-it-all vantage point, I am amused at the bizarrity of these disparate reactions.

Okay, okay, I'll 'fess up. I'm not as above-it-all as I'd like to pretend, and I think many of you know that already. ;o) I myself went into bipedal-vacuum-cleaner mode when reading the series--both the first and the second time I read it. ;o) However--and I think I mentioned this in book comments at some point--I wasn't so enamored that I couldn't take a step back (okay, maybe just half a step) and identify some problems in Meyer's writing style. But I kept in mind that:

(a) the books are young adult fiction (YA) and therefore (possibly) not subject to quite as many rules as adult literary fiction (Caveat emptor, however: YA is no excuse for substandard writing!);
(b) Meyer is a new author; and
(c) Meyer shows growth as a writer over the course of the four books. Her sci-fi novel, "The Host," evinces that process of writerly maturing, as well.

But I guess, when it comes down to it, the final point is this: Whether people like Meyer's writings or not, whether she breaks "rules for good writing" or not, her writings are popular. The lady is making oodles of money because enough people love her books. The lady is making oodles of money because she has been smart enough to cross the line of printed media and branch out into movies, music, and powerful Internet presence (poke around her site and you'll see what I mean).

So what do you think? Does it matter that there are things to criticize about her writing? Or does the popularity of her works cancel out any stylistic or character problems? She has made a huge dent in the business--so does the quality of the books still signify?